China’s CO2 emissions will continue to rise until 2030

The saying goes that things have got to get worse before they’ll get better. Apparently, that applies to greenhouse gasses in China, since China Daily‘s just informed us that the country’s emissions will peak at 2030.
That’s right, according to the 2050 China Energy and CO2 Emissions Report released by the NDRC, every year from now on to 2030, China will see an increase in carbon emissions. And that’s good news!

The panel has advised China to invest significantly in low-carbon technology research and development, saying the strategy of developing such technology is “a stone killing two birds”.
“Only by using advanced low-carbon technologies can China’s greenhouse gas emissions peak around 2030; otherwise, the peak will be delayed and we don’t want to see the latter scenario,” said Jiang Kejun, a leading economist of the panel.
If the peak happens around 2030, the huge investment in low-carbon technologies could keep China’s economy growing at a fast pace and make China a global leader in cutting-edge technologies.

Er… great. Except that 2030 is quite a bit away and while we understand the difference between CO2 and other types of emissions, in China the sources of both usually go hand-in-hand and have you looked at how crappy the air quality is here already?
Not to mention, it already took first place as the world’s biggest carbon polluter last year. If it doubles its carbon pollution in 11 years (a feat we’re sure China is completely capable of), it’ll be responsible for half the world’s CO2 emissions. Of course, that’s assuming everybody else stays around the same level, which they most likely won’t. We guess we can say goodbye to the polar ice caps.
Well, let’s look at the silver lining (of this very gigantic, noxious cloud) – at least the paper didn’t reflect the musings of China’s top climate change policy maker, who determined that the country’s carbon emissions would only start falling by 2050.
Photo by monkeyking