Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

China has not had a 3rd party verified emission report published in over 3 years. You can only go based on their word and very low quality articles reporting all this success. Every year I hear their emission are peaking and every time the emission report comes out it turns out they've increased. People say "oh China reduced emissions by 1% this year" but it turns out they only reduced the rate of emission growth by 1%. So I'll believe they are reducing emissions when I see it.

Also its fair to bring them up, they are responsible for 36% of the worlds pollution and hold the lowest environmental standards in the 1st world. Without them working to combat this issue its pointless for anyone else to try.



China: per capita about 1.8x the global average CO2

United States: per capita about 3x the global average CO2

Projections for China is that these numbers will go down massively over the next 10 years. How is that going for the US for "lowest environmental standards in the 1st world"? Please get over your 20 year old views of china. They get their act together while the US shits the bed.

We can talk about 50% new car registrations are EVs in china and how the US is doing?

Or how ~60% of all renewable capacity added globally by 2030 will be in China? Or how it is already at 50%?


Per captia emissions are meaningless and only used because they obscure the damage china is doing. Projections *from China say this year is the peak and it will start going down. They've been saying that every year for the past 5 years by the way. It always gets revised. As for the solar thats maximum capacity and actual figures for electricity generation are significantly lower. Coal is higher in terms of actual energy generation added to the grid.

if the US doubled its output but added another 500m to its population would you consider that to be a reduction in emissions or a positive trend? No it wouldnt because emissions are still rising. Climate change doesnt care that you have 1.8b people it just looks at the Co2 output.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: