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Comment by rdtsc | Hacker News Reader

> “However, demand from the two largest consumers, China and India, grew by over 5% during the first half, more than offsetting declines elsewhere,” it added.

What can be done, not buying goods made in China, economic sanctions? They used to claim they were not an advanced economy and still a developing nation so they should be allowed to do it. Just like the West burned coal to industrialize. Is that still the official story?

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Then you should also not buy goods made in Germany, because it massively ramped up coal excavation and burning last year, and not just any coal, but lignite, the nastiest, dirties, most lifespan-reducing type of coal possible.

They even leveled an entire village(Lützerath) to mine coal and the German police had to clash with climate protestors while getting stuck in mud and attacked by a wizard.[1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUOir-SAKDs

No, they haven't. Please take a few minutes to Google for the figures before making such an incorrect statement.

Read for yourself:

"Coal remained the main energy source in electricity production in Germany in 2022: 8.4% more coal-generated electricity fed into the grid than in 2021" - German Mistry of Statistics[1]

I don't have numbers for 2023 yet, and while things might look better in 2023 for coal use compared to 2022, that's because Germany is now burning more imported gas instead since the LNG terminals came online, so it's still relying on burning fossil fuels for energy.

[1] https://www.destatis.de/EN/Press/2023/03/PE23_090_43312.html

[2] https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/energy-crisis-fu...

[3] https://www.dw.com/en/germany-coal-imports-increase-in-2022-...

That's just cherry picking individual data points. Have a look at the time series:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_German...

Sure, Russia's attack on Ukraine lead to an increase in 2022. But massively ramped up, seriously?

Environmental activist wizards get resistance to environmental hazards. Mud won’t bother them.

Isn’t this the result of an energy shortage due to the war in Ukraine? Germany didn’t want to do this, I assume.

Perspective is key: Germany's electricity generation from coal increased by 8% or 16 TWh while Germany's electricity exports increased by 50% to 26 TWh net. Europe was in a difficult situation for various reasons.

> They used to claim they were not an advanced economy and still a developing nation so they should be allowed to do it. Just like the West burned coal to industrialize. Is that still the official story?

I guess so, their median income is still lower than that of the US and western European countries

You don't really need to do anything specific to China or India, but Carbon Tariffs for countries without carbon taxes would be a good idea generally.

China and India of course already have carbon taxes, but some big polluters like the USA don't.

> What can be done, [...]?

We can keep working on making the alternative cheaper. So that India and China etc will find it in their own economic self interest to move to the alternatives.

Also in general adopt policies, like free trade and free immigration, that help who currently live in India and China grow richer faster. Historically, richer people care more about the environment. (Probably because they can afford to.)

> Also in general adopt policies, like free trade and free immigration

I’ve never heard of this. How would free immigration help climate change?

See https://www.econlib.org/open-borders-and-the-environment/

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