In an interview published on Friday, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm praised China’s approach to green energy and expressed optimism that the United States might learn from China’s example.
Granholm said this in an interview with Wajahat Ali at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. She also called China’s investments in green energy “encouraging,” and she expressed hope that the United States may reach “net zero” by the year 2050.
Ali addressed the subject by arguing that countries like the United States and China should be held “accountable” for the “harm to the planet” they had caused.
To what extent can China and the rest of the international community be held accountable for their actions? When Ali didn’t know, he turned to Granholm.
To prevent “climate — global warming” of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, she said, the United States is encouraging other nations to embrace “strong” climate policies.
Granholm stated that while some nations were lukewarm to green energy initiatives, China was spending extensively on such initiatives. “However, I think China has done — has been extremely attentive and has invested a lot in their solutions, to reach their aims,” she remarked.
We hope that the rest of the world can take note of China’s efforts and emulate them,” she said. “It is heartening to see how much money they are putting into renewable energy.”
In its efforts to collaborate with China on green energy, the Biden administration has been called “gullible” by critics.
“I find it incredibly surprising that Chairman Xi [Jinping] of China and the Chinese Communist Party gives a tinker’s damn about the planet’s temperature or climate change,” Texas Public Policy officer Frank DeVore said to Fox News last month. “It’s just a ploy to trick credulous Westerners into thinking we can work together on something,” he said.
Notwithstanding the geopolitical and economic threats that come from a lack of reliable and cheap power sources, authorities in the United States have continued to focus under Biden on making a transition to renewable energy.
In contrast to the United States’ efforts to reduce reliance on coal and natural gas for electricity generation, China has approved more projects to build coal-fired power plants than all other countries put together. Meanwhile, Europe has reluctantly resumed operations at mothballed coal-fired plants due to a drop in fuel imports from Russia.