This is hilarious because the sentiment (look at me trying not to use provocative language) regarding China has meant there’s been an outwardly view that they only care about polluting and yet, not only are they producing the bulk of the world’s solar panels, they’re actually implementing green energy policies at a rapid rate. Funny thing is, this isn’t even a pro-China thing, it’s a pro-planet thing. We absolutely need our biggest nations to lead the way in replacing coal and the likes with renewables. I will happily celebrate the small wins along the way.
A lot of countries are ahead in their targets for solar because solar has gotten so much cheaper so rapidly. In general renewable technologies have gotten cheaper faster than even the most ambitious predictions foresaw. So it might very well not be a low-balling thing.
Well, they certainly might have thought let’s better not commit to uncertain goals, but the consistent low-balling of climate targets compared to pretty much everyone else with similar economies was the main critizism about China in climate summits a few years back. So I guess this proves the critics right, but still good that China didn’t become complacent on this despite their own low-balled targets.