China has decided to become carbon neutral by 2060. It is not unusual that in the planned Chinese market economy, many things will then run differently than in the West. Instead of arguing at length about what such a thing might look like, the Asians are creating facts.

Stainless Espresso: China creates facts on the way to CO2 neutrality
Stainless Espresso: China creates facts on the way to CO2 neutrality

China simply shut down steel mills

As nikkei.com reports, in the key steel province of Tangshan, the country’s second-largest steelmaker was simply forced to shut down production back in December due to a lack of measures to limit pollution. And this is what is happening to other provinces besides Tangshan, such as Hebei and Inner Mongolia.

A modern plant with high environmental standards for Tangshan is already being planned, nikkei.com writes further.

Europe just can’t get off the ground

While Europe is just managing to achieve preliminary successes on the road to carbon neutrality and domestic steelmakers are not willing to do a handshake without a euro in subsidies, grants or carbon border taxes, China is creating facts.

Thousands of jobs in Europe at risk?

Of course, there are downsides to this. In China, thousands of jobs are lost. But let’s be honest: If we want to become CO2 neutral in Europe, this will not be possible without drastic changes and a shift in jobs. And if steel prices are to rise by up to 100% in Europe to pay for the green steel transformation, thousands of domestic jobs will also be lost in the steel processing downstream industry.

Source: nikkei.com

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