THE QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CHINA-U.S. CLIMATE DEAL

China’s Climate Change Plan Raises Questions

Edward Wong, Nov. 12, 2014 (NY Times)

“…[The presidents of China and the United States] sent an important signal: that the world’s largest economies were willing to work together on climate change…Still, many questions surround China’s plans…Mr. Xi said China would brake the rapid rise in its carbon dioxide emissions, so that they peak ‘around 2030’ and then remain steady or begin to decline. And by then…20 percent of China’s energy will be renewable…Many scientists have said that 2030 may be too long to wait for China’s greenhouse gas emissions to stop growing…[I]f the world is to keep the average global temperature from rising more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius)...China is crucial…So is the United States, which promised…to emit 26 percent to 28 percent less carbon dioxide in 2025 than it did in 2005…

"...[Chinese scientists and officials and foreign scientists and policy makers are] trying to judge whether Mr. Xi’s 2030 pledge represents a genuine campaign by the Chinese government to fight climate change, or just a business-as-usual date…[Conclusions differ]…As for renewable energy…[China] would need to add 800 to 1,000 gigawatts of power generation capacity from renewable sources over the next 15 years to meet the goal — a remarkable figure, given that the country now has a total of just 1,250 gigawatts of capacity from all sources, most of it coal-fueled…” click here for more

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