CHINA: #1 Polluter or #1 Producer of Green Energy?
The answer to the above question is “Both”. China is the #1 emitter of the foremost greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. Why? It is the second most populated nation on earth (1.4 billion), and it depends heavily on coal, the most polluting of all fuels, as it produces only one-quarter of the oil it consumes. On the other hand, China leads the world in solar-and wind- power capacity, and supplies 60-80% of the world’s solar panels, wind turbines, electrical vehicles and lithium batteries. China gets 20% of its energy from green sources (the US figure is 24%), a target it reached 5 years before estimates.
In any case, the trend in China is in the right direction, as it is in the US, in spite of Trump’s description of climate change as a “con job” and his affection for oil and gas. But without government assistance in the form of tax credits and other stimuli, the US effort for green energy will lag.
Source: The Economist, 11/8/25