I’m at the Melbourne Economic Forum today with the hoi poloi and the following presentation by Professor Peter Sheehan on the radical Chinese response to its pollution shock has just been presented. It’s conclusions are pretty obvious: sell bulk commodities!
Faced with serious air pollution, China is aggressively reshaping its energy system, building on recent progress with renewables and on available supplies of gas. This should help contain global warming and vprovide new impetus to climate change negotiations.
Over the past decade China accounted for over two-thirds of the growth in global CO2 emissions from energy use. In 2012, its emissions far surpassed those of other major countries and regions1 (Fig. 1). This reflects rapid economic growth in a massive country whose energy system remains largely based on fossil fuels, despite strong progress in renewable energy. This emissions growth has long spelt danger for the global climate.
