, Columnist
The World’s Biggest Polluter Is Cleaning Up Its Act
Almost all the increase in China’s energy capacity is now in clean power.
China is finally cleaning up its act.
Source: AFP/Getty Images
Start steering around an oil tanker, and you’ll find it slow, almost imperceptible work. When such a vast vessel begins to shift, however, the momentum is almost unstoppable.
It’s the same situation with the most important destination for the world’s LNG carriers, coal ships and oil tankers over the past few decades: China. The biggest consumer of carbon, and the source of a third of annual greenhouse emissions, is finally turning a corner to a cleaner future. China’s size is so overwhelming that when its fossil fuel consumption peaks, as it’s doing now, it will shift the direction of the whole planet.