I’ll give China props for not being beholden to oil companies
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2026
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It pains me to say it, this century is indeed China's century. Unless World War 3 happens if Thucydides' trap is indeed the law of nature/ jungle.
Unfortunately, depending on the jetstream, we still get a lot of their pollution blowing over here to Korea. I think it is mostly from coal power plants on the coast. Anecdotally, the effect of EVs on the air there does feel like it has lessened the amount of smog that blows over to Korea, in the spring especially. Glad to hear they are making progress. Last time I was in Beijing the air was unbearably smoky (2011).
Unfortunately despite leading on EVs, renewables and nuclear power deployment, China is also expanding coal. So their greenhouse gas emissions are still rising.
I was under the impression that they reached peak CO2 emissions and have been flat or falling for the past year or so
It’s great news regardless but I don’t know why they feel the need to over-attribute this to EVs. It’s not like the majority of the population in Beijing ever drove cars. Regulations on heavy industry are briefly glossed over 10 paragraphs down so they can go back to glowing about EVs. But my impression after visiting Beijing was that a lot of the smog came from people relying on coal cakes for everyday cooking and heating.
Clearer than ever, but still (currently) >4x WHO recommended pollution levels
https://www.iqair.com/us/china/beijing/beijing
China in general has improved drastically but it still has pretty big issues in the winter due in large part to the increased heating demand.
No mention of the Subway expansion during that time?
I had trouble finding numbers, so please correct me if I’m wrong, but the subway went from around 200km to 900km and from a handful of lines to 30 lines since 2008.
yeah they have done alot things to improve not just ev's
Yeah but EVs means we can use the same profit making capitalist system. Trains and subways don't turn as much profit. And it's a socialist mode of transportation. /s
Ya, the article mentions shutting down factories and coal plants, etc., but it didn’t say anything about the massive subway expansion, which must be getting a lot of cars off of the road.
"Thanks to EV" → annoying oversimplification. As even this biased article states "The change has been a result of government policy focusing on smog reductions, including restrictions on heavy industry". One should also add expansion of public transit services to the mix of factors.
They also moved shitload of industry outside of Beijing around 2008, so the pollution moves to more rural cities.
EV and transport in Beijing is great, impressive, and I enjoy them greatly when I was there, but it is also important to set realistic expectations. Switching to EV and transport improves people's lives a lot and probably can be a golden bullets in many western cities. But for a city as dense and big as Beijing, there needs to be other sacrifices.
It's always nice to see some good news in the shitshow that is modern day life, makes me hopeful that a better future is still possible. I hope that one day Beijing (and the rest of the world) can go back to clean air 365 days a year.
Interesting. I'm not sure "clearer than ever" is a good descriptor for one of the regions with the worst air quality in the world. It gets much worse in the summer. It's certainly better at the moment than some other cities in China.
great thing that PM2.5's been vanquished. don't the visibility issues mostly come from inner-mongolian winds of the north, though?