Authoritarian governments have even greater problems than democracies in meeting "net zero" targets

January 30, 2024

Dear Editor,

Ralph Evans must have somehow missed this fact when composing his paean to authoritarian governance….

“In 2022 China commissioned 50GW of coal fired power and de-commissioned 4.1 GW.”

And:

“China has the greatest number of coal-fired power stations of any country or territory in the world. As of July 2023, there were 1,142 operational coal power plants on the Chinese Mainland. This was more than four times the number of such power stations in India, which ranked second. China accounts for over 50 percent of total global coal electricity generation.”

Whatever the reasons for it, it doesn’t appear to be the path to net zero by 2030 or 2060 or anytime.

I suspect authoritarian governments have even greater problems than democracies in meeting “net zero” targets.

If they can’t keep living standards rising they lose their legitimacy.