THE Earth just experienced its warmest January in recorded history. That on top of the fact that 2023 was the warmest year since measurements began in 1850.

It was also the first time that temperatures averaged 1.5°C (2.7°F) above the average before the onset of industrialisation.

In the words of climatologist Richard Betts, “1.5°C is now regarded as the level at which climate change risks really start to become potentially unacceptably severe.”

There have been significant agreements among the international community to tackle the issues brought about by climate change –  these include the Kyoto Protocols, the Paris Agreement, and recently at the 2023 UN Climate Summit in Dubai.

Yet people still point fingers at certain countries and blame them for supposedly not doing enough to solve the problem. No country is on the receiving end of such accusations more often than China.

Critics allude to the fact that China produces 12.7 billion metric tonnes of emissions per year, while the US produces 5.9 billion.

The US-based Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) claims: “China’s carbon emissions threaten global efforts to fight climate change” and that its “broader environmental degradation endangers economic growth, public health, and government legitimacy.”

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley chimed in: “If you want to go and really change the environment, then we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions. That’s what our problem is.”

However, many critics point out: “Since China has four times the population of the United States, per capita consumption of energy in China is 10.1 tonnes annually, compared to 17.6 in the US;” and “since 1850, the United States has emitted 509 billion tonnes of pollutants to China’s 284.”

Lost, for the most part, in all these reports and statements are the efforts of China to address its carbon problems.

In recent weeks, Carbon Briefs, a British website, has published two articles on China’s transition to clean energy. What these articles describe is a government making important strides in the production and use of alternative energy: the “clean-energy industry drives China growth in 2023,” the articles declare.

Most notably, this growth was driven by what is called the “new three:” solar power, EVs (electrical vehicles), and batteries. The £685 billion investment in these fields was 40 per cent higher than in 2022 and nearly equalled the worldwide investment in fossil fuels.

In 2023, the clean-energy sectors accounted for 40 per cent of the growth of China’s GDP. Without these industries, it is estimated that the country’s GDP growth would have been only 3 per cent instead of the 5.2 per cent it achieved. “This means clean energy accounted for 9 per cent of China’s GDP in 2023, up from 7.2 per cent in 2022.”

China leads the world in the production of these three areas, as well as in wind power:

Solar — “China’s solar prowess is staggering,” according to one analysis. In 2023, the country had a capacity of 430 gigawatts (GW) of solar power, more than three times that of the US (142 GW) and more than the next four countries combined.

Electric vehicles — In 2023, China produced 9.6 million vehicles, while the number in the US was around 1.4 million.

Batteries — China produces more than half of the world’s electric batteries. In the words of one writer, “China is rapidly scaling up electricity storage capacity. This has the potential to significantly reduce China’s reliance on coal- and gas-fired power plants to meet peaks in electricity demand and to facilitate the integration of larger amounts of variable wind and solar power into the grid.”

Wind — China produced nearly twice the amount of wind-driven energy as the US. Or put another way, China’s output was greater than that of the next five countries added together.

China is committed to transitioning to a clean-energy economy in a way unequalled by any other country. This commitment was clearly stated on December 27, 2023 in a document, “Beautiful China,” prepared by the State Council and the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

In it, President Xi Jinping wrote: “Building a Beautiful China is an important goal for building a modern socialist country.” The country expects to reach peak carbon emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.

So why does China have so many coal-fired production facilities and continue to build new ones? It must be remembered that when the People’s Republic of China undertook its massive industrialisation programme in 1949 and then instituted its economic reforms in 1978, the most established forms of energy production on the planet were based on fossil fuels. It is not possible to completely switch gears in only a few years.

The transition to a clean energy economy is a problem that affects people everywhere. The only way the nations of the world can make this change is through strong unified action and a commitment to a new way to power the world of tomorrow.

It is clear that China is doing its part. It is imperative that every country — together and wholeheartedly — do all in its power to complete the job.

This article first appeared in The Peoples World https://peoplesworld.org/