Thread by @70sBachchan

"Achieving carbon neutrality requires eliminating most fossil fuel use in power generation, heating, industry & transport...IF it is made the guiding vision for invstmt, innovation & policymaking in China"-@laurimyllyvirta

Litmus test: Canceling new Coal energyandcleanair.org/china-2060-car…

Climate is Natl Security policy is Industrial policy is Econ policy #GeopoliticsOfGHGs

Its a Market mover, a Oil & Gas importer vulnerable to blockades, an "Electrostate", a Green Power Politics move, a ecologically fragile state all rolled into one economist.com/briefing/2020/…

"Chinese companies have invested in mines from DRC to Chile..securing access to minerals needed for solar panels,electric vehicles...
Unable to be a Petrostate, it is becoming an Electrostate, investing strategically all along the chain from mine to meter" economist.com/briefing/2020/…

"China also has 356GW of hydropower capacity, more than the next four countries combined. It has been building nuclear power plants faster than any other country—the average age of the 48 reactors in its fleet is less than a decade" economist.com/briefing/2020/…

We know Oil & Coal made hierarchical world order. But do we get China's "monumental historical paradox of demonstrating its political power by embarking on a program of fossil disarmament?"
@picharbonnier on why envmntlsts must learn to speak Geopolitics legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2020/09/30/…

To finance the Green Revolution, China is adopting topdown credit allocation policies much as the Coal boom was financed. Western Central banks—Bank of Japan, Bundesbank— used to do the same in heavy industry era, but are behind PBoC on all Greening counts
omfif.org/tacklingclimat…

China's climate neutrality goal requires scaling-up existing tech that then makes costs plunge globally. That,in 2010s (wind+solar+batteries),allowed low-CO2 electricity in India, Europe, Afr, Americas.

With this announcement, looks like Nuclear is next.

https://twitter.com/JMGlachant/status/1311399442843684864

#GeopoliticsOfGHGs=Climate IS Natl Security IS Industrial policy IS a forging of social forces to carry out long-term projects.

For West, industrialization was anchored on social democracy & its world ordering effect has been long forgotten @picharbonnier translate.google.com/translate?hl=&…

China's climate neutrality depends on Transport not just electricity. Justified hoopla around electric (EV,bus,bikes) but its the trains/subway expansion that is extraordinary. Hard to conceive how bad CO2 emissions & airQ would be without public invstmt

https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/978374102128902146

Xi's "Climate Neutrality by 2060" commitment at UN, with its implicit msg of marginalising the US, is now being challenged by US State Dept. One way to know a message has been heard...ht @adam_tooze foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/25/xi-…

https://twitter.com/StateDept/status/1312401672417800192

You can't "see it to believe it" for #systemchange. It first has to be believed before it can be seen. As enormity of China's neutrality target sets in, ppl shift in thinking -"we better get started now, & fast".

Thread on 2020's most impt presentation!

https://twitter.com/laurimyllyvirta/status/1315508494171287557

"Strategic framework to pull off the long term low carbon transition".
No biggie, just trying to undo the world's last 150 years of fossil-fuel powered economic growth model and charting a path to green modernity...
mp.weixin.qq.com/s/S_8ajdq963YL…

https://twitter.com/YanQinyq/status/1318171243137409029

For #CarbonNeutral, Chinese wind industry proposes to build 50-60 GW each year! Its about each country added up right now. Do that year on year for forty years and you get 3000 GW i.e 3 times China's current coal power & plummeting costs globally. Its on. windpowermonthly.com/article/169773…

In emissions, US is #1. Its carbon pollution almost TWICE China's. In climate negotiations, it's always been America first. President Bush Sr. told the Rio summit in 1992 that "the American way of life is not up for negotiations. Period" #GeopoliticsOfGHGs

https://twitter.com/AkshatRathi/status/1308520760458317838

You effed the environment first. No! YOU do it more. Stop eating sharks. No, you stop selling shark fins.

After Xi's climate speech, US State dept & PRC embassy fight a "Environmental abuses fact-sheet" war😂#GeopoliticsOfGHGs
🇨🇳qa.china-embassy.org/eng/zxxx/t1825…
🇺🇸state.gov/chinas-environ…

Following EU & China,Japan to go carbon neutral by 2050.
> Stop insuring & selling coal equipment
> Promote offshore wind & batteries
> Use hydrogen & ammonia as alternatives to coal & LNG, converting Australia to renewables base. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

https://twitter.com/Reuters/status/1320614642536861696

"President Xi Jinping’s vow last month that China will be carbon neutral by 2060 and expectations that the US election could reshape America’s energy sector have fuelled a rally in global solar & wind producers” ht @hjesanderson
ft.com/content/0a20c5…

Asia owns the Anthropocene problem @natterjee:
Fist China vows carbon zero by 2060;
Japan promises carbon zero by 2050;
now S Korea vows carbon zero by 2050, launches $38B #GreenNewDeal!

All huge coal & gas importers & exporters of fossil machines... ft.com/content/185e50…

China to phase out Internal Combustion engine from 2035! Japanese automakers Toyota/Nissan to sell only electric & hybrids after 2025 (currently just 1 in 50)

The Asian green industrial revolution in late 2020 is a juggernaut. asia.nikkei.com/Business/Autom…

China has never been a big exporter of autos. It hopes to change that with electric vehicles. Guaranteed a vast internal market by Xi's Carbon neutrality & 2035 ICE phaseout, Tesla, BMW, Toyota begin using China as an export hub to sell EVs to Europe & US. wsj.com/articles/china…

“They’re investing significantly,& they’ve gone right to the highest levels of technology capability from day 1. There’s no comparison anywhere else in the world. It’s like we’re all still pedaling our bicycles, while the Formula 1 race car goes flying by” spectrum.ieee.org/energy/the-sma…

It's Mutually Assured Destruction for China & US to remain🌎 largest producers of Coal & Oil&Gas. Both suffer Billion$+ disasters. Collective damage done by Atlantic hurricanes in 2017 was more than half the Pentagon's budget! Thread on Green Realpolitik

https://twitter.com/70sBachchan/status/1199035812064555014

Over past decade, Chinese cities have built three times as many miles of rail as US cities have *ever* built. 7 of world's 12 largest metro networks are now in China. It invested >$500 billion in metros. US invests ~$2.3 billion per year in *all* transit. thetransportpolitic.com/2018/01/17/in-…

Entrenched Fossil power in China more formidable than US' Kochs. But Xie Zhenua points to big difference:🇨🇳 fears climate catastrophe more than US where disasters seen as temporary or things that happens to ppl far away in time (2100!)& space (Bangladesh!)

https://twitter.com/bylijing/status/1330804022958194688

Cost of Solar/batteries is ⬇️ not "on their own" but coz big govts in 2010s (China, EU) went all-in on green indstrl policy. "Solar PV became big business; with bulk manufacturing in big plants came rapid cost declines" - J Trancik news.mit.edu/2018/explainin…

https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1332032360619991040

28/ Nuclear is costly despite govt largesse. But just as w dramatic solar/battery/wind/EV ⬇cost, don't count it out yet as China commits to nuclear for 2060 climate neutrality & likely to export it. 13 plants under construction;Hualong One just powered on channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/chin…

29/Will we look back on 2020 as a turning point, when the Centre didn't hold & Carbon fell apart?The big pieces have fallen into place,& the final battle for Climate begins @adam_tooze #CoronavirusImposesCarbonTax #GeopoliticsOfGHGs
foreignpolicy.com/2020/10/17/gre…

https://twitter.com/Tagliapietra_S/status/1318918003715657728

30/ "Climate leadership has crossed the geopolitical Rubicon in Beijing’s eyes. In other words, it has become a central priority for China irrespective of the steps taken by other countries, including the US."

Fmr Australian PM Rudd on #GeopoliticsOfGHGs chinadialogue.net/en/climate/the…

Xi Jinping announces -65% emissions cuts per unit GDP by 2030. Reiterates China's commitment of carbon neutrality before 2060. China will triple wind/ solar & install 1200 GW. #ClimateAction #ClimateAmbitionSummit bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

https://twitter.com/laurimyllyvirta/status/1337779083401457665

32/“Without pressure from customers & investors, the solar market's ties to Xinjiang have been overlooked or ignored by an industry that is laser-focused on cutting costs". @DustinMulvaney on global Solar boom's human rights problem platform.mi.spglobal.com/web/client?aut…

https://twitter.com/DustinMulvaney/status/1318922381092548610

33/ China's climate neutrality is dependent on BOTH domestic & intl factors: "powerful & provincial industrial push back, rock bottom US-China relations, lack of ambition from non-EU major emitters" #GeopoliticsOfGHGs
Imagine 100s of Koch brothers inside

https://twitter.com/LiShuo_GP/status/1337946695179460608

34/ Of 425,000 electric buses in the world, 421,000 are in China. There were 0 in China before 2008 Crash. Would be brilliant if the US & EU can repeat the feat after Corona Crash. The major manufacturer's name?
BYD, Build Your Dreams. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

35/ Asia is turning its back on coal. 85% of planned coal expansion projects cancelled
- Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh:
125GW planned five years ago vs 25 gigawatts now

-India:238 GW 5 yrs ago vs 30GW now
ft.com/content/da7cf7…
#PoliticsOfCoal #GeopoliticsOfGHGs