Yes, China has embraced renewables - but don't call it a transition, expert says - Harvard Gazette

"China's embrace of electric vehicles and renewable energy technology has less to do with a clean energy transition than a hunger for energy of all kinds, analysts on a Kennedy School panel said Monday. The nation, which has dominated the global trade in solar panels and has the world's largest wind power industry, nonetheless generates 60 percent of its power from coal and has not hit the brakes on fossil fuel plants even as it aggressively pursues renewable energy initiatives."

""We see addition, not transition," said Yasheng Huang, a professor of global economics and management at the MIT Sloan School. "China is building alternative sources of energy as well as fossil energy sources, simultaneously. In terms of the global footprint on CO 2, China is emitting twice as much as Europe and the United States. I don't think there's a transition going on." Huang spoke at a seminar sponsored by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government."

China has rapidly adopted electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies primarily to satisfy growing energy demand rather than to replace fossil fuels. The country leads global solar panel trade and has the world's largest wind industry, yet about 60 percent of its electricity comes from coal and new fossil-fuel plants continue to be built. Renewable additions occur alongside expanded fossil capacity, resulting in rising CO2 emissions—about double the combined emissions of Europe and the United States. China relies entirely on oil imports, imports coal from Australia despite large domestic coal mining, and favors coal while the United States favors domestically produced natural gas and oil.

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