[Repost] China CO2 emission has decreased because / thanks to the COVID-19, but there is more to it!

An original article from CarbonBrief: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-coronavirus-has-temporarily-reduced-chinas-co2-emissions-by-a-quarter

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the electricity demand and industrial output in China have dropped far below their usual levels. All the measures to contain COVID-19 have resulted in reductions of 15% to 40% in output across key industrial sectors. This is likely to have wiped out a quarter or more of the country’s CO2 emissions over the past 2 months.

The main indicators are the following:

• Coal consumption from power plants dropped by 36%
• Operating rates for main steel products were down by more than 15%, while crude steel production was almost unchanged
• Coal throughput at the largest coal port fell by 29%
• Coking plant utilization fell by 23%
• Satellite-based NO2 levels were 37% lower
• Utilization of oil refining capacity was lowered by 34%

But except for CO2 emissions reductions from the current crisis during 2019, China has continuously put efforts to reduce Green House Gas Emissions. Indeed, slowing growth for CO2 emissions was aided by the continued shift towards non-fossil sources of energy, as well as a mix of energy-efficiency improvements and economic restructuring away from heavy industry.

After fighting this worldwide disease, it will be important to reconsider our effort to slow down GHG emissions through diverse solutions, not only through a virus crisis.

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TERAO is pushing the way to control and reduce the GHG emission of assets through technical solutions. If you want to better understand your environmental impact and implement impactful solutions to reduce it, feel free to contact us at nieong@teraochina.cn for further information. We would be pleased to assist you.