A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President-elect Trump is signaling his new administration will reverse many of the climate investments pushed by President Biden. One country is going in a different direction, with big implications for the world. Here's NPR's Julia Simon.
JULIA SIMON, BYLINE: Walk into an electric vehicle showroom in Bogota, Colombia...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
SIMON: ...or Nairobi, Kenya...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Swahili).
SIMON: ...And in many cases, the EVs on sale were made by Chinese companies.
ALEX WANG: China is just a manufacturing powerhouse.
SIMON: This is Alex Wang, law professor and China expert at UCLA.
WANG: They dominate solar wind batteries, electric vehicles. They've sort of set up a situation where it's good for them to sell clean energy technologies to the world.
SIMON: Says China's investments in climate solutions at home and around the world are strategic. For one, these technology sales help China build key relationships with countries in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and climate solutions are a big moneymaker for China. They're one of the few drivers of growth in the troubled Chinese economy. In recent decades, the Chinese government made big investments in batteries, wind and solar manufacturing. While the U.S. is building about 7% of global wind and solar projects, China is building about 64%. Here's Ye Huang of the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor.
YE HUANG: It's basically 20 wind and solar farms per week, and it's growing.
SIMON: Still, she says, China gets more than half its power from coal, and it continues to build coal plants. But Jeremy Wallace at Johns Hopkins notes those coal plants are increasingly used as backup power, particularly when hydropower is unavailable because of droughts.
JEREMY WALLACE: The average Chinese coal plant - half the time, it is not operating, and so it's not actually burning coal. Having a coal plant just sit around does not produce emissions.
SIMON: In fact, Wallace says the growth of renewable energy means it's likely China's emissions will peak soon - maybe this year or next. Right now, global leaders are in Azerbaijan at the annual U.N. climate summit. The U.S. is at the summit, but they don't have as much standing, says Li Shuo of the Asia Society. He says countries know Trump plans to roll back climate diplomacy. As for China, he says...
LI SHUO: I think China is willing to step in and to play a larger role.
SIMON: In the next few months, countries will submit targets for cutting climate pollution as part of the Paris climate agreement. Wallace thinks it's likely China will set an ambitious target for cutting emissions. It's still unclear if the U.S. will submit a target. China's investments to reduce climate pollution are good for its economy, Li says. And, he adds, if the U.S. cuts federal support for climate technologies, it will be harder for the U.S. to compete with China in the future. Julia Simon, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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