In its warning that humanity could lose control of global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change did not name a single country.

But when the United Nations finds that the earth is in mortal danger without an end to coal energy, it means above all China: The nation, which emits 40 percent fewer greenhouse gases per capita than the USA, blows through its sheer size of 1.4 billion people and the rapid growth of their economies, more CO2 is released into the atmosphere than all developed industrial countries combined.

Hendrik Ankenbrand

Business correspondent for China based in Shanghai.

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Without a radical energy transition in China, the pace of climate change will not slow down.

The country was responsible for 27 percent of global emissions in 2019 - mainly because it produces over half of the world's coal electricity.

Even in the pandemic year of 2020, when emissions fell almost everywhere in the world, they rose 1.7 percent in China compared to the previous year without a lockdown.

The question therefore arises as to what conclusions the leadership in Beijing draws from the fact that the global community has declared the "red alert".

Coal lobbyists on the rise

The fact that the warning from the Climate Council is barely reported in China's state media does not have to mean much. The Communist Party prefers to express its thoughts to the public when it suits the rulers. President Xi Jinping found the time ten days before the report's publication time to be appropriate to set the course for the world's largest emitter's climate policy. It is not going in the direction the world is hoping for.

After Xi vowed last September that China would cut carbon emissions to zero by 2060, he received much applause.

In China itself, a debate about the urgently needed energy transition flourished.

Since the beginning of the year, however, the coal energy lobbyists have been setting the tone again.

In view of the most dramatic energy shortage in ten years and the uncertain future that China's economy is headed against, a swift move away from cheap coal-fired electricity will be tantamount to suicide, it is now said.

In the Politburo on July 30, Xi Jinping gave in to resistance from the energy-hungry state corporations and the provincial governments concerned about growth.

The head of state declared that before abandoning coal energy, a sufficient supply of non-fossil fuels should be built up, not the other way around.

As recently as December, Xi had promised that China would do more to protect the climate than announced, as it is high time according to the report by the Climate Council.

Now the president sounds completely different: There is a "campaign" against coal going on in the country, which needs to be "corrected" through an energy reform in a "coordinated and orderly manner".

Greenpeace activist Li Shuo fears that these words could act like a free ticket for the construction of new coal-fired power plants.

The output of 250 gigawatts that would be generated by the plants under construction and planning exceeds the total installed capacity in the USA.

Jobs before climate protection

In authoritarian China, climate protection is a question of power politics. In fighting corruption or subjugating the private sector, Xi Jinping has shown that he is not only able to instigate revolutions, but also willing to take risks if he expects something from it. That is anything but certain in the event of a screeching halt in energy policy. If China tightened its climate targets, the population could interpret it as a bow to the American archenemy, who, according to propaganda, wants to prevent the country from rising to the top of the world.

The flood disaster in Henan Province, with officially hundreds of deaths, made many Chinese realize that the increasing number of extreme weather events threaten life and prosperity in their country too.

Therefore, after the climate council, China should immediately start shutting down coal-fired power plants.

It is true that the People's Republic is expanding renewables and nuclear energy faster than any other country.

But China's Marxists also know that being determines climate awareness.

In case of doubt, the party believes that people would not take to the streets to protect the climate, but to keep their jobs.

At the 100th anniversary of the party, Xi Jinping conjured the "great resurgence of the Chinese nation".

This is "unstoppable".

There was no mention of climate change in the world conquest plan.