False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet

by Bjørn Lomborg

Opposition to Trump has colored coverage of climate policy all over the world. In the wake of Trump’s election, for instance, a number of high-profile media outlets began to publish stories claiming that China was stepping up as a “leader” on climate change. A leader on climate change? China has tripled its carbon emissions since 2000 to become the world’s largest carbon emitter, and has seen its renewable energy use halve from almost 20 percent in 2000 to about 10 percent in 2020 (although it was even lower at 7.5 percent in 2011). According to official estimates, even if China implements all of its green promises, renewables will reach only 18 percent in 2040, with 76 percent of its energy use still coming from fossil fuels. Holding China up as a green leader is a false narrative that tells us more about the storytellers (and often their opposition to Trump) than it does about China.