U.S. Political Rhetoric Is All About Jobs, But We’re Ceding 13 Million To China
Here’s a wonderful article that combines what are perhaps the two most important vectors in the world of energy today, at least as far as the U.S. is concerned:
A) 13 million jobs are being created in China because of their enormous commitment to renewable energy. From the article:
Beijing’s newest 5-year energy development plan invests a stunning 2.5 trillion yuan ($360 billion) in renewable generation by 2020. Of that, $144 billion will go to solar, about $100 billion to wind, $70 billion to hydropower, and the rest to sources like tidal and geothermal power.
The Chinese National Energy Administration said in a statement Thursday the resulting “employment will be more than 13 million people.”
China is already doing way better than the U.S. in this regard, and President-elect Trump’s commitment to opposing clean energy will not make things any better. As the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) reported last year, China already has over 40 percent of all jobs in renewables, globally, while the U.S. has under 10 percent.
B) Our president-elect supposedly saved 700 jobs (though some dispute that he saved a single one), and gloated about it for a week, but has absolutely no interest in leading the U.S. into this industry that is destined to dominate the 21st Century.
It appears China installed 34 GW of solar in 2016! When Germany installed 7GW in 2010 and again in 2011, it was considered an enormous amount – way in excess of the rate of any other country. Now China installs more than 4 times as much!Imagine what India might install annually in 5 years, or 10 years time accompanied by increasingly affordable energy storage!
As stated in numerous other Posts – the RE ships have sailed and are Steaming the trains are running full and the Legions of workers is growing – gaining strong Momentum in the market place.
The Carbon creators are now concerned and realize the Tides are changing; thus they have deployed a massive political Blow back to these forces here in America. They will press the issue very hard and will try to derail things to the degree that they can with the political tools they have which are still potent.
Global Market forces though and not just China but in America also will be strong enough to weather this I believe – we may take some casualties and have a few setbacks but they will be speed bumps as there are over 300,000 solar jobs and over 100,000 wind jobs now in the US and growing. 10 5 of all construction jobs are in energy related projects including traditional power plants or smart grid enhancements. so the RE sector is a Bright Star performer in a under performing economic ERA.
The DOE Energy Information Administration and SEPA solar Energy Power Association sources of job stats from late 2016.
Political leaders are taking note of these realities and common sense says they will restrain themselves.
Those RE workers vote and their supply chain votes so the carbon players will have a hard time dividing and conquering the growing economic and political power behind R E. We are no longer a boutique niche or two bit player on the Energy Frontier.
Gary’s stats on China Tell the Tale but it also is Global in scope.
Craig,
Like most Sinophiles you seem to be eager to accept any propaganda issued by the organs of the PRC’s state controlled media as true and accurate.
In reality, neither the Central Politburo of the Communist Party of China , or the State Council of the People’s Republic of China (government) care as much about Climate Change, the environment, alternate energy, as the do about human rights.
What the PRC does care about is issuing optimistic propaganda for the consumption of their own people and especially gullible Westerners. (especially, Western media).
These pronouncements are very effective at detracting from the PRC’s appalling on-going environmental record, human rights abuses, occupation by force and genocide of neighboring countries, rampant industrial espionage and nationalistic expansion.
But hey, when you hear what you want to hear, it’s difficult to be even a little analytical, isn’t it ? (especially when the Dragon has such a persuasive manner) .
So are you saying China is not actually doing this?
Brian,
What I’m saying is PRC’s official (and unofficial) announcements are not to be accepted on face value. The announcements are often tailored (even when true) for consumption by the gullible and very difficult, mostly impossible, to verify.
Sometimes it’s simply a cultural difference. Western media often eagerly reads into PRC statements a distorted context, or accepts stated aims as accepted facts.
The PRC regime has very little interest in environmental issues. PRC citizens are very compliant, and the nation is solely concern with economic prosperity.
Energy independence is of concern, but what must be remembered is the PRC’s fossil fuel industry is owned by the PRC,(and CCP) This provided much of the wealth and power for the elite.
If the PRC announces a program it doesn’t mean the program will bear any resemblance to the announcements. Nor can any independent source verify the efficiency or result of any program.
Organizations like the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) just accept PRC information at face value, and by including such information into published reports and analysis, creating completely inaccurate and distorted data which is then disseminated by the media for public consumption in the West.
While we can’t verify with absolute certainty how much solar they are installing in their country, one thing that can be verified is the fact that they are making the majority of the worlds solar panels and that means jobs and they are not likely to slow down unlike the US which it seems may slow down.
Same goes for wind turbine production where they are the 2nd largest exporting country with 3 companies in the top 10 compared to the US which produces less than 1/3 of what China does and has only one company in the top 10.
And while they may not care about climate change at all they do have a very large basic pollution problem caused by their use of fossil fuels which is making their population sick if not killing them and a sick/dead workforce doesn’t produce as much as a healthy workforce. Regardless of propaganda put forth to the world they know they have to fix the pollution problem if they want to keep producing products to export.
The bottom line is they are going to keep if not increase the amount of jobs they have while it is looking like the US is likely to decrease the amount of jobs in renewable energy. I believe that was the point of the article.
Brian,
When it comes to Solar panel production, the PRC did move very quickly to exploit the Solar market by flooding the world with cheap (often inferior) solar panels.
The PRC government heavily subsidizes price dumping to gain dominance export markets while simultaneously buying up raw material supplies (often by barter in developing nations) driving up prices and further discouraging competition.
this doesn’t indicate a commitment to the environment, or a belief in alternate energy (the point of the article) but simply a ruthless and effective means of waging a trade war with the West.
the PRC government doesn’t really give a damn about it’s aging workforce, regarding them as an impediment to expanding into higher quality more automated production methods.