Wait, I'm confused. So the history of the Ryukyu Islands is that they were claimed by China until the First Sino-Japanese War, at which point they fell to the Japanese. Then, after WW2, the US takes over jurisdiction of the islands as war reparations under the Treaty of San Francisco (which China, naturally, wasn't invited to and received basically nothing from).
So, today, the Americans have a bunch of military bases there, China claims a few small islands there, Japan claims the entire chain, and the people of the island themselves want independence.
What's unmentioned is that the top 1%, the top 2%, the top 5%, even the top 10% has a disproportionate impact on emissions. That group is made up mostly by the West, but also the rich elite in China, India, Russia, Brazil, Indonesia, etc.
Emissions standards were enforced on coal power plants, cars were tightly regulated, and home energy was pushed towards gas (which burns with less particulate emissions) or electricity.
China doesn't have much domestic O&G supply and nuclear reactors are so expensive they might as well use them for base load. You play the hand you're dealt.
China building out future coal capacity is more or less independent from expected future coal consumption.
That sounds like a crazy claim, so let me clarify: China is actively shrinking coal power plant utilization. The only reason, then, to build more capacity is to better manage peak loads. If you were following the rolling blackouts, you'd know that these are a huge problem in China in the summers.
So... Yeah, the first-order data itself isn't great, but the second-order data tells us that coal isn't a first class citizen anymore.
And even though many plants were producing more last year to compensate for the decline in hydropower output, the average utilisation rate inched down to 52.4%
This past year, China couldn't run their hydro at peak capacity because of a drought. That's why fossil fuel consumption went up. It's not exactly rocket science. China will deploy more solar capacity this year than the entire US has done... Ever. Because of that (and the massive EV transition), China is expected to hit peak oil this year and peak coal next year.
Wait, I'm confused. So the history of the Ryukyu Islands is that they were claimed by China until the First Sino-Japanese War, at which point they fell to the Japanese. Then, after WW2, the US takes over jurisdiction of the islands as war reparations under the Treaty of San Francisco (which China, naturally, wasn't invited to and received basically nothing from).
So, today, the Americans have a bunch of military bases there, China claims a few small islands there, Japan claims the entire chain, and the people of the island themselves want independence.
Fuck, eh?