More on China's decline in emissions

 From EV Curve Futurist

More from China's NEA reports. Coal power fell 4.0% in July, 4.6% in August & 1.9% in September despite rising electricity demand. Coal's share hit 49.1% by end-September; clean energy supplied over 80% of generation growth. The key point: demand met while coal falls. www.nea.gov.cn/20261030/60b...

I’ve followed this closely for five years. China’s CO₂ emissions fell 3.1% in Q3, strengthening the evidence of a structural shift following 2025’s annual decline. Clean energy is displacing coal, #EVs are cutting oil demand, & the transition is increasingly showing up in the emissions data.

Reminder:

• China is the world's largest emitter — ~30% of global emissions
• Its rise in emissions as the economy grew (fast) was the key driver of rising emissions for the world as a whole.  Europe's and the USA's emissions have been falling (slowly) for a couple of decades now.
• A fall of 3% per year compound will cut emissions by 50% by 2050.  This is still too slow (I think), but it's a huge improvement.  
• If other countries can match this, we won't see temperature rises of 2.7 to 3 degrees C by 2100.
• The excuse everyone else has been making, that it's pointless cutting emissions because China's emissions are still rising, is now null and void.  If fast-growing China can do it, we can too.
• China is still building coal power stations, which is insane, but emissions are falling anyway.  Capacity utilisation in coal is now below 50%, whereas in the rest of the world, it's more like 70 or 80%.