I am far more hopeful of China than I am of the US. I would like to agree with you that China is engaging in long term thinking only because it is a counter balance to the epic short-sightedness that the US displays.
You bring up a good point of China’s population and the concept of them increasing the quality of life of so many people. It does make you wonder about the sustainability of large human populations.
I think you got your numbers crossed as it was a 1% reduction of coal usage not coal only making up 1% of their power grid. That would be extremely impressive. Here is an article that talks about their actual percentage of coal usage for power.
I have found several conflicting articles on this and this one is the most generous for China. It sets total energy produced by coal at just barely less than 50%. Coal is expected to continue to increase until 2030 according to Chinese planners although the total percentage may shrink if it continues to be outpaced by solar/wind/hydro.
I am far more hopeful of China than I am of the US. I would like to agree with you that China is engaging in long term thinking only because it is a counter balance to the epic short-sightedness that the US displays.
You bring up a good point of China’s population and the concept of them increasing the quality of life of so many people. It does make you wonder about the sustainability of large human populations.
I think you got your numbers crossed as it was a 1% reduction of coal usage not coal only making up 1% of their power grid. That would be extremely impressive. Here is an article that talks about their actual percentage of coal usage for power.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/china-generates-less-than-half-its-electricity-coal-first-time-2026-07-30/
I have found several conflicting articles on this and this one is the most generous for China. It sets total energy produced by coal at just barely less than 50%. Coal is expected to continue to increase until 2030 according to Chinese planners although the total percentage may shrink if it continues to be outpaced by solar/wind/hydro.
Whoops that was a dumb mistake by me. Thanks for the correction and the discussion!