By Peter Burrows 5/19/21 - elburropete@gmail.com

One of the featured speakers at last month's "Leaders Summit on Climate" was China's president Xi Jinping. Since the ostensible purpose of the "Summit" was to reduce the world's carbon dioxide emissions to prevent catastrophic climate change, Xi's presence was only fitting. After all, China is by far the world's largest emitter of CO2, responsible for some 30% of the world's total, and China emits about twice the CO2 as does the U.S., the world's number two CO2 producer.

China is also a world leader, along with India, in adding CO2 to the atmosphere. China's CO2 emissions increased last year by 1.5%; and Chinese leaders have publicly stated that the nation's CO2 emissions will continue to increase until 2030, nine years from now. I would guess by 2030 China's CO2 emissions will be at least three times that of the U.S.

If you think China will then honor its pledge and begin to reduce CO2 emissions, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. China will still be able to claim its CO2 per capita emissions are much lower than in the U.S. and, besides, on a CUMULATIVE basis, China has a long way to go before their CO2 matches that of the U.S. or the EU.

In short, China gets a CO2 pass. They can – and will – continue to modernize their economy and add huge amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere in the process. They make no pretense about their intentions, and if the world doesn't like it, the world -- those racist gweilo bastards -- can kiss their ass.

At the Leaders Summit, President Xi played his part with admirable chutzpah. One would have thought it was HIS summit. He praised the Biden administration for returning the U.S. "to the multicultural climate governance process," by which he meant the Biden reversal of Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, a 2015 climate agreement signed by virtually every other nation in the world.

Xi mouthed all sorts of pious platitudes as if he really believed in them, e.g., the need for "harmony between man and nature," "a people-oriented approach" and "green development." He said China looks forward to working with the U.S. and the international community to "advance environmental governance."

I would bet that bridge in Brooklyn that Xi would love to see the U.N., or the U.S. or the EU, or somebody, figure out a way to "advance environmental governance" and enforce the Paris Agreement, requiring all those developed nations to reduce their CO2 emissions. Have to stop killing the planet, don't cha know. That wouldn't include China, of course, because China is still a "developing" nation. Right.

China would then be assured that it would be an unrivaled manufacturing powerhouse, with the lowest-cost, most efficient economy in the world. Their biggest rival might be India, maybe Japan, but certainly not the U.S. or the EU, which will be burdened by high-cost and unreliable renewable energy, e.g., solar and wind. China will be burning coal and transitioning to the electricity of the future: nuclear power.

China will do everything it can to promote wind and solar power --- for the rest of the world. They are the world's largest producer of solar panels and it wouldn't surprise me if they started to give the damn things away. In a twist on what Lenin once said, "The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them," China will sell us the solar panels with which we will hang ourselves.

China, you see, doesn't believe that increasing levels of CO2 will cause catastrophic global warming. Ask yourself: Why are the Chinese constructing naval bases and airfields on coral reefs, of all places, in the South China Sea? Why are they spending millions (billions?) building those reefs up with massive amounts of landfill? Don't you think those military bases might be a touch endangered by rising sea levels?

The next question is: WHY doesn't China believe that CO2 Is a threat? In the next article, I'll explore why, and if I'm correct, the answer has some ominous implications.

Sources:
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17336/china-pollution-climate
https://www.newsweek.com/china-welcomes-us-return-working-together-climate-change-1585728
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/29/climate-china-has-no-other-choice-but-to-rely-on-coal-power-for-now.html
https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/military/south-china-sea-satellite-images-show-china-building-fullblown-military-bases-on-artificial-islands/news-story/0efce6d99607d3c5be7563b985e1fab3