In 2005, Xi Jinping, then secretary of Zhejiang Province, wrote an article in the Zhejiang Daily newspaper called “Green Mountains and Clear Waters are also Gold and Silver Mountains.” The article argued in favour of Hu Jintao’s concept of the scientific outlook of development, which emphasized the harmony between humanity and nature and underlined that while economic development was vitally important, this could not come at the expense of the environment.
This is wonderful and a whole lot better than the 'West'. However, though solar and wind may not emit co2 while they're working, they do while they're being built, transported and disposed of. They produce toxic waste and use lots of land that's lost to sequestration. Though they are far better than fossil fuels, renewables are also limited by both resources and their impact on all aspects of the environment, of which co2 emissions are just one part of. We must transition to renewables, of course, but economies that are based on constant growth, even using totally 'renewable' energy to make goods are not sustainable. There must also be efforts to make less things and base economies on degrowth ie on quality of life and service rather than on increased consumption.
Another problem is that, yes, peak emissions may have been reached in China, that's still a huge amount of emissions. 2060 is a long way off. We are already experiencing temperatures that will disrupt both industry and agriculture (intensive farming affecting soils and oceans and animal ag that uses much more energy and land that could be reforested are not helping either). Temperatures and weather events are only going to increase (even more so with loss of aerosols from decreasing emissions) which must also be factored into assessments of what is going to be possible.
This is wonderful and a whole lot better than the 'West'. However, though solar and wind may not emit co2 while they're working, they do while they're being built, transported and disposed of. They produce toxic waste and use lots of land that's lost to sequestration. Though they are far better than fossil fuels, renewables are also limited by both resources and their impact on all aspects of the environment, of which co2 emissions are just one part of. We must transition to renewables, of course, but economies that are based on constant growth, even using totally 'renewable' energy to make goods are not sustainable. There must also be efforts to make less things and base economies on degrowth ie on quality of life and service rather than on increased consumption.
Another problem is that, yes, peak emissions may have been reached in China, that's still a huge amount of emissions. 2060 is a long way off. We are already experiencing temperatures that will disrupt both industry and agriculture (intensive farming affecting soils and oceans and animal ag that uses much more energy and land that could be reforested are not helping either). Temperatures and weather events are only going to increase (even more so with loss of aerosols from decreasing emissions) which must also be factored into assessments of what is going to be possible.