Five years ago, China’s longtime leader Xi Jinping shocked and delighted the world by declaring in a video presentation to the United Nations that his country would peak its carbon emissions this decade and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. He tried to rekindle that magic late last month in another virtual address to the UN,…
China’s Xiluodu Dam, among the world’s largest hydropower plants, has reportedly switched entirely from foreign control chips to domestically developed technology. The transition addresses national security and supply chain concerns, according to Loongson Technology, a leading Chinese chip supplier. The dam, on the Jinsha River at the Yunnan-Sichuan border, previously used programmable logic controllers, or…
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing. China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here. New EU-China climate statement CLIMATE STATEMENT: European Council president António Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen signed an EU-China agreement on climate with Chinese premier…
China has begun construction on what will be the world’s largest hydropower dam, a facility with a projected annual generation capacity of 300 billion kWh of electricity—nearly three times the production of the Three Gorges Dam, the record holder since 2006. First announced in 2020, the dam—to be called the Motuo Hydropower Station—will be located…
Chinese construction crews have completed encircling the Tarim Basin – one of the most forbidding places on Earth – with an extra-high voltage “energy ring”. The project, which has taken 15 years to build, transforms the vast inland basin – home to China’s largest desert – into a massive new-energy transmission hub. The 4,197km (2,608-mile)…
China is ready to install a large impulse turbine at the Datang Zala Hydropower Station in Tibet autonomous region, according to the official Science and Technology Daily. The home-grown turbine, with a maximum capacity of 500 megawatts, has the world’s largest single-unit capacity, according to the report on Wednesday. Two turbines will be installed at…
China has tried to reassure India over its plans for a mega dam in the Tibetan Plateau, which has prompted fears it will cause water shortages and damage the environment, by saying it will not try to benefit at the “expense of its neighbours”. The dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River is expected to be…
Beijing’s approval of a controversial mega dam in the lower reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, which flows from Tibet autonomous region into India, has sparked concerns about the environmental impact of the project, as well as the effect it could have on China-India ties amid signs of a thaw between the two neighbours. The…
China has approved the construction of a huge hydroelectric dam in Tibet, which would be the world’s largest hydropower plant with triple the capacity of the current biggest operational project, the Three Gorges Dam, which is also in China. The Chinese government has now approved the construction of the new project in the lower reaches…
China has approved the construction of a colossal hydropower project on Tibet’s longest river that could generate three times more energy than the Three Gorges Dam, state news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday. Total investment in the dam could exceed 1 trillion yuan (US$137 billion), which would dwarf any other single infrastructure project on the…