"at a time when the world is becoming less reliant on coal"
No, we aren't becoming less reliant on coal. We should be but we aren't. Look at [1]. We actually consume more coal, oil and gas each and every year.
No, we aren't becoming less reliant on coal. We should be but we aren't. Look at [1]. We actually consume more coal, oil and gas each and every year.
If you mean America, then coal consumption is down by nearly 50% since 2000[1]. If you mean the EU, then you'll be pleased to know we've also reduced our coal consumption substantially.
The principle increase in coal use is China. They've almost 4x their use of coal in the last 20 years. They also are leading the world in construction of new coal consuming power plants -- both in China and elsewhere[2].
[1]https://www.iea.org/reports/coal-2020/demand [2]https://www.wired.com/story/china-is-still-building-an-insan...
Similarly, we didn't actually abolish slavery. We in the west are still benefiting from literal chattel slavery. It's just not happening in our backyard, so we don't have to see it, even if we're still benefiting from it.
It's not JUST that we've moved (okay, some percentage) of pollution over there, it's that we've decided to turn a blind eye to ANYTHING you couldn't get away with in America (think overtime, OSHA controls, EPA restrictions, intellectual property theft, money movement)...that does not absolve China from taking care of it's own ecology, which it 'appears' to be doing at a faster rate than us...because they don't have the shackles a pesky democracy or rights or any of those other things that go counter to their desire to control absolutely everything within and without its borders.
https://www.chinaghostcities.com/ https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-10-17/China-steps-up-expandi... https://chinaenv.colgate.edu/airpollution/air-pollution-in-c...
I used to think it'd be a wave that followed cheap labor...I hope it doesn't as I don't think the planet has enough runway to support it.
because it builds products for US and EU?
Climate change is a global problem, so the only 'we' that really matters is the whole planet.
The western world decarbonizing after spending well over a century spewing carbon to build out their modern infrastructure is nothing to be deeply proud about, nor sufficient to give the moral high ground to start pointing fingers at the developing world that still wants to get closer to western lifestyles.
Of course we need to cut coal usage as far as possible, if not completely.