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I don't think China needs convincing. They have likely already hit peak emissions and will start dropping, potentially rapidly, going forward. Europe is big. It

I don't think China needs convincing. They have likely already hit peak emissions and will start dropping, potentially rapidly, going forward. Europe is big. It just needs to move forward with purpose and things will happen. Getting that purpose is the hard part because world leaders have consistently said 'it will destroy our economy' and never actually tried. China, again, is showing that this isn't true. You can have both, a strong economy and a plan, backed by action, to decarbonize. Had Europe and the US had the forethought to actually invest in solar and batteries then they could be leading the energy transition and profiting, with literal profit meaning hard cash, right now by selling to the rest of the world. Instead the boogyman argument of 'it will destroy our economy' keeps rearing its head. I am absolutely done with that argument.

spwa4 5mo ago
I don't get what's with all the China fanboys here. China is increasing it's CO2 output quite a bit. And for completeness, so is India. For both countries the CO2 output is bad enough that it's not just adding to global warming, but this coal plant smoke what's causing the famous smog in Beijing and New Delhi. It's causing breathing problems, cancer, ... in their population.
- runarberg 5mo ago
  They demonstrably are not. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-emissions-have-now-been-flat-or-falling-for-21-months/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-emissions-ha... https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-indias-co2-emissions-in-2025-grew-at-slowest-rate-in-two-decades/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-indias-co2-emissions-in...
  - spwa4 5mo ago
    First: look at the CO2 graph for China. That's not falling in any reasonable definition of a word, that's called "flat", even if it is technically less than before. Second: it's normal for graphs to fall off in their last 1-5 data points because measurements are still coming in. Third: it's using Chinese data. China has, by the way, publicly declared that they're lying about all public economic data. Please don't use Sinopec data to argue your point. https://www.iea.org/countries/china/emissions https://www.iea.org/countries/china/emissions China CO2 emissions are rising fast. Second: India's CO2 emissions are growing according to the article you posted.
    - runarberg 5mo ago
      That trend stopped last year in China and will probably stop this year in India. Showing graphs which start in the year 2000 (when China had relatively low CO2 emissions) and ending in 2023 (a year before they peaked in 2024) is simply lying with statistics. The most resent data shows that China’s emissions are no longer rising. Now I know we need to do better then that and emissions need to drop extremely fast if we want to stay under catastrophic 2° C warming. But the truth is that China and India are doing exactly as bad as the rest of the world (including Europe here). And considering the economic factors (that Europe can in fact afford the changes required; but still fall way short) India is doing much better then the rest of the world.
      - spwa4 5mo ago
        > That trend stopped last year in China and will probably stop this year in India. Maybe. For now, for the major cities, it shows that "a rapidly expanding ecological catastrophe" is downgraded to "an expanding ecological catastrophe", and only China's own data is even showing that slowdown. And, by the way, the source of the catastrophe isn't even oil. It's almost exclusively coal. That's what China and India need to stop with. But I hope the slowdown's real. As for the eternal "someone else must pay, they can afford it" comment. Best of luck convincing the European parliaments. I've actually tried that once. Seriously, not like those "protests". Not going to happen. Plus, frankly, it's harder now than when I tried it and got crushed. Maybe the Iran war will accomplish what nobody could. Of course it'll probably increase coal use. And to calculate that effect, you should as a rule of thumb take the octane number, divide by 2, and that's how much worse coal is than oil. Compared to car fuel, it's about 50 times worse. So I doubt it.
        raven12345 5mo ago
        China and India need to stop with coal how about USA? CO2 emissions per capita, global ranking, 2023 9 United States 13.088 19 China 7.89 97 India 1.922 https://www.iea.org/countries/china/emissions https://www.iea.org/countries/china/emissions
        5mo ago
- raven12345 5mo ago
  You wouldn't say that if you looked at the data https://www.statista.com/statistics/690823/china-annual-pm25-particle-levels-beijing/?srsltid=AfmBOoo6_nLXEKIJM6wTB3KXkhAcbNFHvQjGEaGavfXIMRYIjJwj5pzP https://www.statista.com/statistics/690823/china-annual-pm25...
- esseph 5mo ago
  They are not..it has peaked. Coal firing plants are slowing down and renewable generation is outpacing non-renewable. Emissions are dropping as of 2024-2025. They look to have plateaued.

spwa4 5mo ago

I don't get what's with all the China fanboys here. China is increasing it's CO2 output quite a bit. And for completeness, so is India. For both countries the CO2 output is bad enough that it's not just adding to global warming, but this coal plant smoke what's causing the famous smog in Beijing and New Delhi. It's causing breathing problems, cancer, ... in their population.

runarberg 5mo ago
They demonstrably are not. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-emissions-have-now-been-flat-or-falling-for-21-months/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-emissions-ha... https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-indias-co2-emissions-in-2025-grew-at-slowest-rate-in-two-decades/ https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-indias-co2-emissions-in...
- spwa4 5mo ago
  First: look at the CO2 graph for China. That's not falling in any reasonable definition of a word, that's called "flat", even if it is technically less than before. Second: it's normal for graphs to fall off in their last 1-5 data points because measurements are still coming in. Third: it's using Chinese data. China has, by the way, publicly declared that they're lying about all public economic data. Please don't use Sinopec data to argue your point. https://www.iea.org/countries/china/emissions https://www.iea.org/countries/china/emissions China CO2 emissions are rising fast. Second: India's CO2 emissions are growing according to the article you posted.
  - runarberg 5mo ago
    That trend stopped last year in China and will probably stop this year in India. Showing graphs which start in the year 2000 (when China had relatively low CO2 emissions) and ending in 2023 (a year before they peaked in 2024) is simply lying with statistics. The most resent data shows that China’s emissions are no longer rising. Now I know we need to do better then that and emissions need to drop extremely fast if we want to stay under catastrophic 2° C warming. But the truth is that China and India are doing exactly as bad as the rest of the world (including Europe here). And considering the economic factors (that Europe can in fact afford the changes required; but still fall way short) India is doing much better then the rest of the world.
    - spwa4 5mo ago
      > That trend stopped last year in China and will probably stop this year in India. Maybe. For now, for the major cities, it shows that "a rapidly expanding ecological catastrophe" is downgraded to "an expanding ecological catastrophe", and only China's own data is even showing that slowdown. And, by the way, the source of the catastrophe isn't even oil. It's almost exclusively coal. That's what China and India need to stop with. But I hope the slowdown's real. As for the eternal "someone else must pay, they can afford it" comment. Best of luck convincing the European parliaments. I've actually tried that once. Seriously, not like those "protests". Not going to happen. Plus, frankly, it's harder now than when I tried it and got crushed. Maybe the Iran war will accomplish what nobody could. Of course it'll probably increase coal use. And to calculate that effect, you should as a rule of thumb take the octane number, divide by 2, and that's how much worse coal is than oil. Compared to car fuel, it's about 50 times worse. So I doubt it.
      - raven12345 5mo ago
        China and India need to stop with coal how about USA? CO2 emissions per capita, global ranking, 2023 9 United States 13.088 19 China 7.89 97 India 1.922 https://www.iea.org/countries/china/emissions https://www.iea.org/countries/china/emissions
      - 5mo ago
raven12345 5mo ago
You wouldn't say that if you looked at the data https://www.statista.com/statistics/690823/china-annual-pm25-particle-levels-beijing/?srsltid=AfmBOoo6_nLXEKIJM6wTB3KXkhAcbNFHvQjGEaGavfXIMRYIjJwj5pzP https://www.statista.com/statistics/690823/china-annual-pm25...
esseph 5mo ago
They are not..it has peaked. Coal firing plants are slowing down and renewable generation is outpacing non-renewable. Emissions are dropping as of 2024-2025. They look to have plateaued.