Has China reached peak emissions?
It hopes to de-link its carbon emissions from economic growth
IN LATE 2022 the Chinese government dropped its strict controls over the spread of covid-19. That was good for the economy. Factories started humming again and more cars returned to the roads. For the same reasons, it was bad for the climate. In 2023 China’s carbon-dioxide emissions surged by 4.7%, to a record 12.6bn tonnes. China accounted for over a third of the world’s emissions last year.
Explore more
This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Signs of decline”
From the June 1st 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from China
Which Olympic sports is China good at?
The country’s athletes seem to prefer competing indoors and as individuals
To revive the economy, China wants consumers to buy better stuff
It is offering them money to do so
When China hides disasters in a memory hole
A revealing attempt to forget a terrible plane crash
China is itching to mine the ocean floor
It wants to dominate critical-mineral supply chains
China unveils its new economic vision
It promises many reforms, but remains ambivalent about the role of the market
The nationalism of ideas
Xi Jinping wants Chinese systems of knowledge, free of Western values