Tech
China Is Leading the World in the Clean Energy Transition. Here’s What That Looks Like
Speaking by video at the UN Climate Summit in New York last week, China’s president Xi Jinping laid out his country’s climate ambitions. While the stated goals may not have been aggressive as some environmentalists would like, Xi at least reaffirmed China’s green commitment.
“Despite some countries going against the trend, the international community should stay on the right track, maintain unwavering confidence, unwavering action, and undiminished efforts,” he said. Any reference to Donald Trump and the United States was surely intended (though not explicit).
The march of the energy transition is a long one, but it has to start somewhere. And with this approach, China has already taken quite a few steps.
Beijing Stands (Mostly) Alone
Today, there is no race to be a climate leader. The world is a far fry from the COP26 conference in November 2021, when tackling the threat of climate change seemed like a global priority. A few months later, Russia invaded Ukraine; the ensuing energy crisis and inflation kicked climate off of many political agendas.
While Joe Biden and the United States responded to soaring prices with the Inflation Reduction Act, which prioritized investment in renewable energy, Donald Trump subsequently withdrew the US from the Paris Agreement—an international accord to limit global warming—for the second time. The European Union has also stuttered: Too internally divided, it did not go beyond a drab declaration of intent at the UN Climate Summit. There hasn’t been much movement from India, a country of nearly 1.5 billion people. And other nations’ emissions are simply too small to matter.
Given this background, it becomes easy to understand how, in this scenario, China has become a global leader in the clean energy transition. Xi’s speech did not go into much detail, but it did mention all the main points of China’s strategy.
Cut Emissions Between 7 Percent and 10 Percent by 2035
In New York, Xi acknowledged the importance of the transition, and for the first time, agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions rather than simply promise to slow them down. China’s stated goal is between 7 percent and 10 percent reduction by 2035.
How do you evaluate these pledges? While the commitment is vague, it’s still significant; previously the regime had merely promised to reach peak emissions by 2030, tying the cuts to economic growth. In Xi’s speech you can seen China transition from a developing country approach to a role more akin to that of industrialized countries, whose emissions have been declining for decades.
Slow Going?
It should be pointed out that reducing emissions at the pace promised by Beijing means a decline of about 1 percent a year. According to an analysis by William Lamb of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, this is a slower pace than that held by most industrialized nations. Italy, for example, has reduced them by an average of 3.2 percent every 12 months since their peak in 2006; the United Kingdom by an average of 2.8 percent since 2004; France by 2.3 percent.
“China has often promised little and achieved much,” notes Andreas Sieber, associate director for policy and campaigns for the global climate nonprofit 350.org, suggesting that China might overdeliver. The country’s lack of democracy also means its policies are not at risk of reversal every election cycle.
On Renewables
Xi Jinping’s speech included a commitment to reach 3,600 gigawatts (GW) of installed wind and solar capacity by 2035, six times the country’s 2020 figures. This is already the leading country in terms of installed renewable power, and a giant on the technology front as well, with universities churning out environmental and climate tech research at full speed, and attracting scientists from abroad across numerous fields. He also announced a commitment to an energy mix with more than 30 percent renewables.
On Electric Vehicles
Mobility has long been an issue for China, which has moved from bicycles, ubiquitous until the 1990s, to the mass automobile. The images of the 2008 Beijing Olympics are unforgettable: A blanket of smog buried the city. The government has in recent years given a strong boost to electric mobility: At the Climate Summit it announced plans to make EVs “mainstream,” that is, prevalent in sales. It helps that it has ready access to rare earth minerals that are essential for building batteries. And for that matter, the country hosts giant automotive companies like BYD and Catl, which supplies batteries to some 50 global brands including Tesla and Volkswagen.
On the carbon market
Xi has declared his intention to expand the national carbon emission trading market to more emission-intensive sectors than today.
On forests
China made additional commitments on forests, which it says will reach an extent of 34 billion cubic meters.
China has reshaped the market for green technologies.
To skeptics expecting broader measures and the mantle of true global leadership from China, well, that’s not a particularly coveted title these days—especially if the US continues to reverse course on climate science. As senior advisor Bernice Lee of the think tank Chatham House notes, China invested $625 billion in the clean energy transition last year alone; that’s nearly a third of the gobal total.
Not only that: Research and massive adoption of renewable technologies have led to the dramatic drop in prices, and China’s very large domestic market is a formidable driver in this regard. “The rise of Chinese renewables is reshaping the global economy and replacing coal in the domestic market,” Lee says.
The hope is that other countries, reassured by that commitment, will follow China’s example rather than America’s.
Tech
New Proposed Legislation Would Let Self-Driving Cars Operate in New York State
As self-driving car services from Alphabet’s Waymo, Amazon’s Zoox, and Tesla have slowly, quietly expanded across the US, one big, important state has mostly stayed mum: New York.
The union’s fourth most populous state has some of the tightest laws governing autonomous vehicles, requiring companies approved to test in the state to only do so with a driver behind the wheel. There’s no current path for companies to operate the sort of commercial robotaxi services like the sort seen in San Francisco or Las Vegas.
But that could be about to change. On Tuesday, as part of her annual State of State address, Governor Kathy Hochul is set to announce that she is proposing legislation that would expand New York’s current regulations to allow companies to operate limited commercial self-driving car services in cities around the state, her office confirmed Monday. Pilot robotaxi programs would be approved only if the companies submit applications that “demonstrate local support” for their tech’s deployment, as well as robust safety records. The program would exclude New York City.
“This program will make our roads safer and will improve mobility options for communities outside of New York City,” Governor Hochul said in a statement. She said that state agencies would “ensure that these pilots are done in accordance with the highest safety standards.”
If it passes, the legislation would leave one thing unclear: how self-driving-tech developers might jump from providing limited services in New York cities to operating full-scale commercial operations, like the sort Waymo runs in the San Francisco Bay Area. More information about how commercial robotaxi services might fully launch in the state would come “in the future,” Hochul’s office said.
New York City—the nation’s largest metropolis—operates its own autonomous vehicle testing permit program but doesn’t have a path to allow the vehicles to operate without drivers on its busy streets. Waymo holds a permit to test eight vehicles in parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn; that permit will expire at the end of March. The eight vehicles are also not allowed to operate without a safety driver behind the wheel, or to pick up passengers.
If it passes, Hochul’s legislation would mark a serious win for self-driving-car developers, who have viewed large, urbanized states including Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington, and New York as the juiciest targets for legislation allowing the operation of commercial robotaxi services. Other states, including California, Texas, and Arizona, have laws on the books clearly outlining how the technology companies might move from testing to limited pilot programs and then full-blown commercial services.
State records show that Waymo spent more than $370,000 lobbying New York State officials and lawmakers on transportation and telecommunications issues last year. The company currently operates driverless services in five cities—Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta—and plans to launch services in some dozen more, including London, this year.
Tech
Minnesota Sues to Stop ICE ‘Invasion’
The State of Minnesota and the cites of Minneapolis and St. Paul on Monday filed a sweeping federal lawsuit to halt what they call an unprecedented and unlawful surge of US federal agents in the Twin Cities, arguing the deployment amounts to a constitutional violation and a direct threat to public safety.
The 80-page complaint, filed in US district court in Minnesota, targets the US Department of Homeland Security and senior federal officials, including DHS secretary Kristi Noem. It asks a judge to immediately block what the federal government calls “Operation Metro Surge,” a large-scale immigration operation that plaintiffs say has sent thousands of armed, masked federal agents into Minnesota communities far from the border, overwhelming local infrastructure and law enforcement.
At a press conference Monday afternoon, Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison said the lawsuit is intended to stop what he described as an unlawful federal escalation. “This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities and Minnesota, and it must stop.” He accused DHS agents of sowing “chaos and terror” across the metro area through warrantless arrests, excessive force, and enforcement actions at schools, churches, hospitals, and other sensitive locations.
Ellison said the surge has forced school closures and lockdowns, hurt local businesses, and diverted police resources away from routine public safety work. He cited more than 20 ICE-related incidents, including reports of people being pulled into unmarked vehicles by masked agents and vehicles left abandoned in the streets, calling it an “unlawful commandeering of police resources.”
The lawsuit also points to the recent fatal shooting of Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent as a turning point that intensified fear and unrest. Ellison said that the killing, along with subsequent federal rhetoric, left families and entire communities feeling unsafe in public spaces.
Good, 37, was a wife and mother of three. She was fatally shot by an ICE officer during a Minneapolis enforcement operation on January 7. The FBI has assumed sole jurisdiction over the investigation, effectively barring Minnesota authorities from accessing evidence or taking part in the probe, a move state officials say undermines transparency and the integrity of law enforcement in the public eye.
Plaintiffs argue the federal operation violates the Tenth Amendment, federal administrative law, and long-standing limits on immigration enforcement. They also accuse the Trump administration of “retaliatory conduct based on Minnesota’s lawful exercise of its sovereign authority.”
Asked by a reporter from PBS Frontline who said his crew had been pepper-sprayed by federal agents earlier in the day whether the litigation sought to curb the use of crowd-control weapons, Ellison urged journalists to file complaints. “Part of what our case is about is First Amendment protection,” he said. “The press is protected by the First Amendment, and it’s vitally important in this moment.”
In a separate lawsuit Monday, the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago sued DHS and senior federal officials, accusing the Trump administration of unleashing a militarized immigration operation that has “rampaged for months through Chicago and surrounding areas, lawlessly stopping, interrogating, and arresting residents, and attacking them with chemical weapons.”
Tech
Snag a Feature-Packed Gaming Headset for Under $100
Looking for a wallet-friendly gaming headset with big feature support? The Corsair Void Wireless V2 is currently marked down to just $80 at both Best Buy and Amazon, a healthy $50 discount from its usual retail price. This lightweight yet capable gaming headset was already a great buy before the discount, with wide compatibility and a comfortable design built for long grinds.
It’s one of the more comfortable gaming headsets I’ve had the opportunity to review, thanks to a combination of its super lightweight build and breathable mesh ear cups, and it even fits my oversized noggin. Because there’s no active noise canceling, it has a much more open and natural sound profile, which is nice for anyone who needs to remain aware of their surroundings while deep in a round of Arc Raiders.
One of the big selling points is Dolby Atmos, a spatial audio implementation that’s fairly uncommon at this price point, and basically unheard of at the marked down price. It’s only supported in a handful of games, but even without it the headset has great spatial audio support that I found particularly good for games like Satisfactory, where it’s more of an immersive addition than a mechanical benefit.
Where a lot of headsets will lock you down to one or two consoles, the Corsair Void Wireless V2 is happy to work with a wide variety of systems, thanks to both Bluetooth and low-latency 2.4 GHz via the USB dongle. That means you can game on PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and even iOS/Android for mobile gaming. With a claimed battery life of up to 70 hours in ideal conditions, you won’t need to worry about charging often, although I’m not sure the mesh ear cups would be great for a long flight.
While the Corsair Void Wireless V2 is featured in our best gaming headsets roundup, other headsets undercut it at the same price point. With the discount, I’m very happy to recommend the Corsair over some of the other picks, particularly if you have a bigger head or prefer a less isolating experience than what some of the other headsets provide.
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