China now leads the world in both wind power and emissions — so what?

Wind turbines at the Da Bancheng Wind Farm in Xinjiang, China. Pic: AP.

by Graham Land-19th February 2016

THE People’s Republic of China (population circa 1.38 billion) is the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases, followed by the United States (322 million), the entire European Union (508 million), India (1.28 billion) and Russia (1.44 million).

By comparison, China’s per capita CO2 emissions are 6.19 tons, compared to 17.5 in the United States, 1.64 in India and 12.18 in Russia (source: COTAP). And this doesn’t even take into account how the exporting industry from developed Western countries effectively exports emissions to China.

The point is that it is only natural that China, which has the largest amount of people, should also lead in … well, everything — at least on an aggregate basis.

All things being fair and equal (which of course they aren’t), shouldn’t countries be either stigmatized or praised, punished or rewarded due to their per capita emissions, pollution, waste, etc.?

China: Wind power leader

As the “natural leader”, China has already had the largest wind capacity of any single country. It has now even surpassed the European Union, which at last count was made up of 28 member states.

Numbers from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) show that from the end of 2014 to the end of 2015, China increased its wind power capacity from 114.6GW (gigawatts) to 145.1GW. The EU also increased its capacity from 129.1GW to 141.6. By comparison, the U.S., which is the third largest single territory in terms of wind power, went up from 65.9GW to 74.5.

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