Extinction Rebellions against climate change have swept much of the western world in recent weeks, stirring public emotion and political debate. In one moment of pique, UK politician Boris Johnson declared that protesters would do better to go to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square because pollution levels in China have been rising “vertiginously”.
In a narrow sense, Mr Johnson has a point. China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and has pumped more carbon into the atmosphere than the US and EU combined since 2012. But to leave the discussion there is to miss potentially planet-saving changes under way.
The nuanced — and for some inconvenient — truth is that China is both the world’s biggest climate villain and the leader in manufacturing and deploying clean technologies. After more than a decade of Beijing lavishing state subsidies on the solar power, wind power and electric vehicle (EV) industries, they are now coming of age.