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A common talking point from the right during the withdrawal from the Paris accord is that "It's just talk, China isn't actually going to do anything". I wonder
by orf 9y ago
A common talking point from the right during the withdrawal from the Paris accord is that "It's just talk, China isn't actually going to do anything". I wonder what the new talking point going to be after this news? Something something developing country, coal power plants?
This seems like pretty good news in general though, combined with other smaller bans (like the UK+France ban on Diesel cars). But I'm not sure how I feel about China itself leading this green push.
- microcolonel 9y agoThis is an announcement of a desire to set a target, not an achievement. Automobiles are not the core of China's emissions problems, they are still installing a large number of new coal reactors, to my knowledge.
- orf 9y ago> an announcement of a desire to set a target Isn't it an announcement of a future target? Seems more that "we will set a target" than "we want to but these lobbyists are making it really hard"
- manmal 9y agoThey double their solar installations every year though, and are in need of buffer storage, which can be found in EVs' batteries.
- tertius 9y agoHere's my guess: We hit the target of the Paris accord without having to pay anyone a dime! The talking point: "it doesn't compel anyone to do anything" is probably still valid.
- philipkglass 9y agoAssuming that the ban actually happens, I can see a number of reasons China would do it apart from reducing CO2 emissions: - Many Chinese cities have terrible air quality that ICE vehicle growth would make worse. - China dominates world PV manufacturing and is pretty strong in wind equipment, but electricity storage will be critical to long term high-penetration uptake of renewables. China still lags other countries in advanced battery production. This would accelerate the development of domestic expertise and scale in battery manufacturing. - China can supply far less of its own petroleum from domestic sources than the US can. The faster it electrifies transportation, the less dependent it becomes on foreign oil. - It looks like the rest of the world wants to (eventually) electrify automobile transportation too. Chinese dreams of building globally competitive export cars could detour into more years of mastering advanced internal combustion just as every global brand is starting to develop electric models... or leapfrog straight to electric, where the global competition is less entrenched.
- baybal2 9y agoWhat you say does not bode well > China still lags other countries in advanced battery production. China makes pretty much all of world's batteries. What you call the most advanced types?
- gambiting 9y agoForeign companies make their batteries in China - that is different to China making their own batteries. For a different example - Poland has dozens of factories building cars for multiple different manufacturers, but doesn't have any domestic car manufacturers.
- twelvechairs 9y ago> (like the UK+France ban on Diesel cars) Its worth noting this is a ban on petrol as well as diesel cars. Modern diesel cars are similar in pollution to modern petrol cars (they produce less CO2 but more NOx). In any case it doesnt come in til 2040
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ianai 9y agoIf I've learned anything from recent developments, it's that the right will play contrarian to anything like this. They'll just drum up a post facto reasoning along the way.