Despite recent promises by President Xi Jinping that China has embraced firm CO2 targets, analysts are concerned that China still appears to be investing a lot of capital into expanding fossil fuel capacity.

Is China’s post-pandemic recovery off the green track?

Recent data and local government moves have raised concerns that China’s post-pandemic recovery will not be green enough, but one high-level policy maker emphasises China’s policy continuity.

Shi Yi 
December 18, 2020

In September, the Chinese province of Hubei – where the first outbreak of Covid-19 occurred – announced 90 billion yuan (about US$14 billion) of investment in the coal, electricity, oil and gas sectors over the next three years. Provincial bosses described the move as intended to “promote the post-pandemic recovery and high-quality development”. In October, work started in Guizhou on a 5.6-billion-yuan coal power plant, which planning documents say will create about 5,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Because of Covid-19 China’s carbon emissions dropped 11% in the first quarter of 2020, compared to the same period last year. But emissions grew in the second quarter, up 5.4% year-on-year in May as the economy recovered. That trend continued after June. An earlier analysis by China Dialogue found that investment in traditional infrastructure was driving second quarter GDP growth – and creating emissions concerns.

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Jorrit Gosens and Frank Jotzo of the Australian National University have said China’s recovery plan is no “Green New Deal”. Although this is the first year China has not set a target for economic growth – indicating it will not, as it has in the past, pursue growth at any environmental cost – funding is still flowing to fossil fuels, while there is little support for renewable energy to report.

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Lauri Myllyvirta, chief analyst with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, has said that eight major energy-producing and consuming provinces in East China are planning to invest trillions in fossil fuels – three times as much as in low-carbon energy. “The ‘major project lists’ continue the policies and investment patterns of previous years,” Myllyvirta told China Dialogue. “These patterns are far from green – energy sector investment is still dominated by fossil fuel projects.”

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Read more: https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/is-chinas-post-pandemic-recovery-off-the-green-track/

Its almost like most politicians in China don’t care about CO2.

No doubt Xi Jinping will soon set things straight, by ensuring regional Chinese governments re-align their spending priorities with the climate plans Xi Jinping recently announced.

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