China’s carbon emissions grow at the fastest rate in more than a decade

Despite pledges to be carbon neutral by 2060, a new analysis from Carbon Brief shows China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have grown at their fastest pace in more than a decade, increasing by 15 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, shown in the red bar in the chart below.

The increase is being driven by heavy industrial energy use. The graph below shows energy use in the communist country has been increasing substantially every year. Steam coal, which is mostly used to generate electricity, is growing sharply.

China’s industry is also ramping up. Carbon Brief reports that electricity demand was driven by industry, where demand grew 18 percent, accounting for 80 percent of growth and increasing its share, as reported by China Electricity Council.

Conservatives have warned that China would continue to emit to grow its industrial output at the expense of companies in the United States for several years. Despite these warnings, President Obama signed the United States up to the Paris Climate Agreement.

As a result, the United States has been shutting down our affordable, reliable coal plants only to import solar panels from China that were made using slave labor and coal-fired electricity.

This is madness, and by rejoining the Paris Agreement, the Biden administration will continue to adopt the types of policies that have resulted in the hollowing out of American manufacturing and the surrender of American jobs to foreign competitors.