China has been the world’s biggest investor in renewable energy sources, but it has also spent heavily on coal and nuclear power. Any reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are merely a by-product of these processes; in fact, China has been party to global climate agreements mainly for reasons of prestige. Coal, the cornerstone of China’s energy security, has been the main counterweight to the country’s growing dependence on foreign supplies of raw materials. Despite years of efforts to diversify domestic sources of energy production, coal still accounts for around 60% of China’s primary energy consumption. Unlike oil and gas, domestic […]
