Kaare Sandholt

Q&A: How China’s ‘two new’ policy aims to help cut emissions - Carbon Brief China listed “boosting consumption… stimulating domestic demand” as its first “major task” for 2025, at the “two sessions” – Carbon Brief explains.

Q&A: How China’s ‘two new’ policy aims to help cut emissions | @wanyuansong.bsky.social #CBarchive

Read here: bit.ly/4bFT5Wd

Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop - Carbon Brief Four common talking points surrounding China’s ongoing coal-power expansion and how and why the current wave of new projects might end.

NEW – Guest post: Why China is still building new coal – and when it might stop | Qi Qin @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social

Read here: buff.ly/0KFqDho

China Briefing 7 August 2025: Deadly floods; ‘Industrial Cthulhu’; Higher solar forecast  - Carbon Brief Deadly rainfall and flooding struck across China and the government issued policies on clean-energy “price wars”.

Extreme rainfall, 300GW of solar and Industrial Cthulhu 🦑

That's a snapshot of China's climate developments over the past fortnight. Plus, new research on 2035 power sector targets in China's upcoming NDC

Read my new @carbonbrief.org China Briefing for more ⬇️

www.carbonbrief.org/china-briefi...

China Briefing 10 July 2025: New sector targets; Overcapacity dressing-down; Adaptation scorecard    - Carbon Brief Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing. China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate...

NEW: As 🇨🇳 faces extreme floods and drought, I unpack its new climate adaptation progress report for today's @carbonbrief.org China Briefing

Plus:
🎯 Clean-power targets set for new sectors
🪭 Air-con drives record high power load
❌ Solar firms get overcapacity telling-off

Read more ⬇️

Spain’s blackout blamed on poor voltage control 19 June 2025 Spain’s massive blackout was caused by overvoltage on the transmission system and the failure of the country’s generators to compensate by absorbing more reactive power, according to t…

Really good summary of the Spain blackouts report here from @jkempenergy.bsky.social – the clearest I've seen

jkempenergy.com/2025/06/19/s...

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China Briefing | Solar exports; Carbon market expansion; Leaders’ climate commitments

✍️ @anikanpatel.carbonbrief.org

Read here ➡️ buff.ly/nsqY4h9

Trump has announced tariffs on 213 countries but left out Russia "because U.S. sanctions already preclude any meaningful trade". Yet there are only 61 countries in the world that export more to the U.S. than Russia. Not really a shocker but the math isn't mathing.

China Energy Transformation Outlook - Kaare Sandholt Environment China · Episode

Recommended listen: Kaare @sandholt.bsky.social of top Chinese thinktank the Energy Research Institute talked about the country’s energy transformation outlook – recently covered by Carbon Brief – on the Environment China podcast.

Great overview. You could add “dual circulation” to the list 😊

🇨🇳 emphasised the “two new” (两新) at “two sessions” for boosting consumption.

The policy was first announced in 2023, but was heavily promoted in 2024 and updated in 2025. It covers 4 aspects:
- Equipment updates
- Trade-in
- Recycling
- Improving standards for product efficiency and emissions.
🧵

Plus smart meters allowing for charging when the electricity prices are low, and a quick build up of charging infrastructure.

Nucléaire : l’arrêt de l’EPR de Flamanville à nouveau prolongé L’EPR de Flamanville (Manche) n’aura pas fonctionné très longtemps. Son arrêt a été prolongé jusqu’au 30 mars à cause « d’aléas techniques », a indiqué EDF vendredi 7 mars.

EDF's flagship new nuclear power station in Flamanville - whose opening was delayed by 12 years - has been down for 76 of its first 100 days. I sincerely hope it eventually becomes a workhorse of Europe's power system - but don't let anyone tell you nuclear is easy.
reporterre.net/Nucleaire-l-...

Experts: What to expect from China on energy and climate action in 2025? | @anikanpatel.carbonbrief.org w/comment from @kyleichan.bsky.social @ilariamazzocco.bsky.social Angel Hsu, Christoph Nedopil, Muyi Yang, Shuang Liu, Lin Boqiang, Chen Zhibin, Yao Zhe

Read here: buff.ly/4gL5EkF

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun’s Regular Press Conference on January 21, 2025

🇨🇳 said it was "concerned over the US’s announcement of withdrawal from the Paris Agreement...China will work with all parties to actively address the climate challenge and promote a global green and low-carbon transition for the shared future of humanity".
www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/xw/fyrbt...

Just out: Solar power additions in China in 2024 exceeded expectations, again, with a whopping 277 GW installed in just one year! This was up 28% on the already towering 217 GW added in 2023.

Wind power made a new record as well, with 79 GW added to the grid, up 5% on year.

HOT OFF THE PRESS: Denmark is the world's district heating leader. By 2035 district heating is expected to cover 65% of all buildings.

Our new @regassistproj.bsky.social report led by @soxenaar.bsky.social on what the world can learn from the Danish experience.👇

www.raponline.org/knowledge-ce...

Ingen tvivl om det men nok sværere at gøre noget ved med hans yndlingsvåben tariffer.

Hvor stor var bileksporten fra Kina til USA i 2024?

Kia bliver det første mærke i Danmark til at stoppe benzinsalg 🚗🔌

Volvo er på en lignende kurs, men sælger stadig to plugin-hybrider i Danmark.
“Det handler om at levere det, kunderne gerne vil have, og langt, langt de fleste efterspørger elbiler” siger Kia-direktøren.

Det er jo interessant. Hvilken periode dækker oversigten?

China issued a guideline for building a “national unified market”. Chapter 5 details "building a unified national energy market system".
In general, local govs'll lose powers on implementing preferential investment policies for finance, tax, prices, land, resources.
news.bjx.com.cn/html/2025010...

Nå så er det jo lige før vi er enige. Du ser volatilitet som et problem her og nu, jeg ser volatilitet som en del af løsningen på etableringen af fremtidens energisystem. På sigt bliver volatiliteten mindre dog nok aldrig fuldstændig jævn. Fokuser på markedskontrol og incitamenter til fleksibilitet

Og er du med på, at investeringerne i lagring skal drives af prisforskelle på elprisen, eller har du andre forslag til at gøre investeringen rentabel?

Nej. Vilde priser er skadelige, markedsmagt er skadeligt, men at elprisen afspejler forholdet mellem udbud og efterspørgsel time for time er ikke skadeligt. Og det er ikke et spørgsmål om teknologiudvikling, men om incitamenter. Teknologierne til at håndtere fleksibilitet findes allerede.

Lad os blive konkrete her: elektricitet fra sol og vind er notorisk de billigeste former for elproduktion, og de bliver kun billigere i fremtiden. Men de giver i udgangspunktet mere volatile elpriser. Derfor er der en sammenhæng mellem prisniveau og volatilitet.

Det er uomtvisteligt. Det er heller ikke det vi diskuterer. Vi diskutere om volatilitet som sådant er skadeligt, eller om det er nødvendigt for at fremme fleksible løsninger. Hvis du ikke har prisforskelle som afspejler udbud og efterspørgsel på el, hvordan vil du fremme investeringer i batterier?

Så du mener at høje stabile priser er bedre end lave priser med en vis volatilitet? Jeg vil hellere have en lav årlig elregning end en høj. Igen, alt andet lige vil højere volatilitet give dyrere fastprisaftaler. Men alt andet er ikke lige når vi ser på fremtidens elsystem.

Du overser at prisforskelle driver udviklingen af løsninger som modvirker vilde prisudsving. Det skal kunne betale sig at investere i lagring eller varmepumper men når de er installeret i systemet medvirker de til prisstabilitet. Du kan blot ikke forvent det sker fra den ene dag til den anden.

Som jeg skriver, det gælder ved en alt andet lige betragtning. Men hvis et system der giver volatile elpriser er væsentligt billigere end et system med stabile priser, så er det da bedre med volatile priser som kan håndteres i et marked med feks fastprisaftaler.