Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Friday that everyone could “learn from” China when it came to climate policy while speaking at the South by Southwest festival.
“What we have been trying to do, what Secretary Kerry has been trying to do as the president’s climate envoy, is to get all of these countries to agree to very aggressive targets to be able to make sure that we don’t get climate — global warming happening over, you know, 1.5 degrees. And we — we have — you know, we’ve raised our hand, we said, we want to get to net zero by 2050,” Granholm said. “We are really pushing other countries to do the same.”
Biden's Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that everyone could “learn from” China when it comes to climate policy.
China is the biggest polluter on earth. pic.twitter.com/kTkhayqCf0
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“And no matter what country you’re a member of, the countries all are susceptible to pressure, to peer pressure, they don’t want to be the outlier — I mean, there’s a couple of countries that we know are outliers and don’t care — but — but, I think China has done — has been very sensitive, and has actually invested a lot in their solutions, to achieve their goals,” Granholm continued. “So we’re — we’re hopeful that, you know, we can all learn from what China is doing, but the amount of money that they’re investing in clean energy is actually you know, encouraging.”
According to the BBC, China was responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other country in 2019. China has approved 168 new power plants fueled by coal in 2022, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM).
President Joe Biden’s climate change envoy John Kerry has said that talks with China on climate issues have stalled since the spy balloon incident in February. Kerry has long pushed for more climate talks with China, despite its heavy pollution emissions.
The Biden administration has pushed to phase out fossil fuels and subsidize more electric vehicles, whose batteries use rare earth minerals sourced mainly from China.
The Inflation Reduction Act included a tax credit for electric battery production. However, the Environmental Protection Agency made a rule that would block the mining of 1.4 billion tons of copper, gold, molybdenum, silver and rhenium in Alaska allegedly to protect salmon.
No wonder the majority of Americans believe their president is compromised by Communist China.
Follow Kyle Becker on Twitter @kylenabecker.