Has China passed peak emissions?

China’s greenhouse gas emissions show something important. The rolling 12-mointh totals for March 2024 were higher than for any subsequent month. By October 2025 emissions had fallen 1.2%. According Carbon Brief, 11/11/2025, to this is due to a combination of factors:

·         Reduction of oil use in the transport sector due to the increase in electric vehicles. Emissions fell 5% in one year.

·         Installation of lots more wind and solar capacity 240 gigawatts (GW) of solar and 61GW of wind in the first nine months of 2025 alone.

·         Big increases in the generation of electricity from wind and solar kept total power sector emissions flat despite an increase in electricity demand. Here, at least, decoupling is real.

·         Offsetting this, emissions from the production of plastics and chemicals rose.

It’s too soon to say that China’s emissions peaked in March 2024. The drop from then to November 2025 was small beer by China’s standards. The economy might do something unexpected or a change in, say, regulation of the power sector might reverse recent gains.

But it is a big deal that we must consider whether the emissions of the world’s fastest growing economy has passed peak emissions.

What’s clear is that the accelerating growth in renewable generation and electric traction on the roads will outrun demand growth soon, even if not this year. Four conclusions:

·         Growth in China’s green sectors, and thus in global numbers, will continue to accelerate.

·         Decoupling of emissions from the economy is real, at least in China.

·         By modelling success, reducing prices and aggressive selling China will drive the green transition in many other countries.

·         This will advance China’s claim to be a more useful and consistent trade partner and technology supplier than the USA. Trump’s erratic and absurd behaviour contributes strongly to this as well.

 

 

Saving money on charging

Last year I moved house and this year I replaced my Nissan Leaf with a VW ID.3. A good choice, newer – even though second-hand – and 200% more range. But it needed a different home charger – one with a type 2 connector. I’d been using an untidy lash-up so now I needed a real home charger.

There are lots of home chargers. They charge at up to 7kW and promise lots of advantages such as access to money-saving dynamic tariffs. But they cost £300 to £700. And then there’s installation cost. One electrician quoted £1,150 to install a new consumer unit, mine has no spare circuits, run a thick cable on a safe and inconspicuous route, tricky in my house, and connect the charger. Would it be worth it?

Some chargers do give access to EV-friendly tariffs that allow you to charge at low rates. But I estimated that EV charging would only be 10% of my power use and the tariffs I looked at would charge more than my current rate on the other 90%. So the total cost would be higher. Bad idea.

Which just leaves charging speed. At 7kW I could charge the ID.3 from 20% to 80% in about 6 hours. That’s nice but I rarely need to charge it that much as I generally keep it charged above 40%. When I do I can usually put it on charge the previous afternoon. So If I start charging at 6 pm and plan to leave next morning at 8 am I’ll have 14 hours to charge it. That’s more than enough to charge it from 20% to 80% or, more likely, from 40% to 100%.

So I just didn’t need an expensive charger but I did need something tidy. I employed an electrician to install an external three-pin socket on a spur from an existing ring main. He did a good job and charged £276. I bought a charging cable, cost £106, which is permanently plugged in and attached to the wall. Also a plastic holder for the connector on the cable, £14. Total cost £401. Saving £750.

So far it’s been easy to use, has charged at 3kW and has had zero faults. Why pay more?