Why China’s Reputation as The Clean Energy King is Overblown
From Global Post
By Benjamin Carlson
Despite the pictures of Beijing wreathed in soupy smog, China still enjoys the reputation of a country committed to leading the world into a clean-energy future.
Recall New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s 2010 pronouncement that “when historians look back at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, they will say that the most important thing to happen was not the Great Recession, but China’s Green Leap Forward.”
While Americans merely “intend to fix Afghanistan,” he wrote, China is “determined” to satisfy surging energy demand “with cleaner, homegrown sources.”
Reading this, it would be reasonable to assume that China must be cleaning America’s clock when it comes to using renewables.