China’s carbon emissions set new record highs

China’s increased carbon emissions are a headache at the head of global climate plans and carbon neutrality targets, whose success depends on the rapid response of the world’s largest emitters.

China is the world’s largest emitter, exceeding a quarter of total emissions, followed by the United States and India; Periodic data on their domestic emission levels make the world’s focus, as the Energy Research Unit periodically monitors.

Recent analytical data showed that China’s carbon emissions increased by 10% year-on-year, during the second quarter of 2023, exceeding 3 billion metric tons of carbon. 1% more than its 2021 record levels.

The report attributed the reasons for the return of China’s carbon emissions to such standard levels to non-recurrent factors that are not expected to meet again.

The first is due to the computational comparison between the second quarter of 2023 and the same quarter of 2022, when emissions were lower due to continued precautionary lockdowns in Shanghai and large parts of the country.

The second reason; It returns to the persistent drought, which has hit the production of China’s large hydropower fleet; This has increased electricity generation from heavily emitted fossil fuels, particularly coal.

Weather conditions and high temperatures over the past months have contributed to the collapse of hydropower generation capacity as rainfall falls, from the third quarter of 2022 until the first half of 2023; What contributed to increased coal generation to compensate for the shortfall.