Climate and China

With Climate Announcement, Obama Gets a Win -- and Maybe A Second-Term Legacy This was the headline on many of the news sites today. The agreement states that [China] must add 800 to 1,000 gigawatts of nuclear, wind, solar and other zero-emission generation capacity by 2030 — more than all the coal-fired power plants that exist in China today and close to the total electricity generation capacity in the United States What is not emphasized in this report is that this agreement is non-binding and has no enforcement mechanism. Pollution will continue to increase over the next 16 years in China while they implement these new energy systems. Meanwhile the United States will immediately reduce pollution. The US will meet its goals by moving from coal to oil to natural gas and if China makes any progress it will be because it follows the same path, not because of solar and wind. Many coal fired power plants are 50 years old and very inefficient and the price of natural gas keeps coming down so there is a natural transition from coal to gas that has very little to do with agreements or laws. If and when the government opens up lands to drilling this transition will accelerate and the earth will be cleaner and the Chinese people will benefit the most.