‘But what about China?’ is a fair question. China is simultaneously the world’s largest emitter and the world’s leading ‘electrostate’ ⚡️🔋
China sits at the centre of the climate and energy story because it embodies two eras.
It’s by far the world’s largest source of annual CO2 emissions, with an economy still deeply anchored in coal-fired power, heavy industry and cement production.
Yet China is also reconfiguring the global energy system faster than any country in history.
It’s the world’s largest investor in clean energy and the dominant manufacturer of the ‘new three’: solar panels, batteries and EVs. China is becoming both the factory and the laboratory of the energy transition.
China embodies the central contradiction of this transition: clean energy is scaling at extraordinary speed even as its fossil-fuelled system remains stubbornly vast.
How fast China moves from coal to clean electricity and from fossil-fuelled industry to electrification will dictate the speed of the global transition.
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No country is too small to matter when it comes to global climate action. But how does the picture change if we measure emissions based on where they’re consumed, rather than where they’re produced?
After Climate Trunk’s infographic last week focussing on production-based emissions, this was the number 1 question from readers.
The picture shifts, but less dramatically than you might expect.
China's share of global consumption-based emissions increases slightly in this version, along with the US and the EU. India moves down a fraction.
Production-based accounting tells us where emissions physically occur. Consumption-based accounting tells us where the demand comes from. Both perspectives are important.
Taken together, production-based and consumption-based accounting reinforce the point that human-caused climate change is a global collective action problem, with no truly negligible emitters.
“But we’re less than 1%".
Why should a country with comparatively low CO2 emissions need to take action on climate change?
No country is too small to matter.
Nations that each emit around 1% of global CO2 may look insignificant on their own, but together they produce about 30% of the total – roughly as much as China.
If they sit it out, the maths doesn’t stack up.
Tackling climate change is a global coordination challenge, with the logic of a prisoner’s dilemma: everyone benefits if all countries take action, but each is tempted to wait and see if others move first.
That’s why international cooperation still matters. As more countries move, costs fall, deployment rises, and inaction becomes harder to justify on economic and political grounds.
The atmosphere doesn’t care about borders, population or geopolitics. It responds only to cumulative emissions. Every tonne counts, wherever it comes from.
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The old energy model is cracking.
Clean energy is no longer just climate policy. It’s a strategy for security, jobs, sovereignty and economic resilience.
For years, energy policy was framed as a ‘trilemma’: balancing security, affordability and decarbonisation.
Now, geopolitical volatility and the accelerating clean energy transition have expanded the calculus.
Gone are the days when clean energy was just a nice-to-have. Today, it offers a pathway towards energy sovereignty and economic development.
Climate Trunk is your visual guide to climate and energy. Sign up at the link in bio for one infographic a week, direct to your inbox 📥
It’s fixable ⚡️
Net zero is not a political slogan, it’s the physics of how we stop heating.
Turn down the emissions tap as far as possible, then remove what’s left – bringing inflows and outflows into balance so temperatures stabilise.
Climate Trunk is your visual guide to climate and energy, helping you understand what really matters. The Big Picture series - the first four Climate Trunk infographics - is now live 🚀
Check out the Big Picture series and sign up to Climate Trunk for one infographic a week at the link in bio.
Climate change is bad news for societies built on stability.
But the future is not pre-written.
Within a single lifetime, the extent of heating – and the risks that come with it – depends on the choices societies make over the next decade or so.
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It’s us 👥
Human activity is driving today’s heating. Greenhouse gases create strong warming, partly offset by cooling from air pollution. Natural factors play a minimal role in the long-term trend.
Check out the Big Picture series - the first four Climate Trunk infographics - at the link in our bio, and sign up to Climate Trunk for one infographic a week, direct to your inbox 📥
It’s real 🌡️
Global temperatures are rising fast. The long-term trend is unequivocal: Earth has heated by around 1.3°C since the late 19th century — with most of that increase coming recently.
The Big Picture series - the first four Climate Trunk infographics - is now live. Check them out at the link in the bio, and sign up to Climate Trunk for one infographic a week, direct to your inbox 📮
Climate Trunk is your visual guide to climate and energy, helping you understand what really matters.
Climate Trunk is live 🚀🌳 🙌
The first Big Picture series starts with:
🔎 It’s real.
👥 It’s us.
📈 It’s bad.
✅ But — it’s fixable: Net zero isn’t a political slogan – it’s physics and chemistry. And it’s the only way to stop global heating.
Climate Trunk is your visual guide to climate and energy. 100+ infographics, delivered over two years. It’s designed to help you filter what really matters.
Check out the Big Picture series - the first four infographics - on the link in the bio, and sign up to Climate Trunk for one infographic a week.
⚡️ Climate change and the energy transition are two of this century’s biggest stories – so why are they so hard to get your head around?
Introducing Climate Trunk, a visual guide to climate and energy. 100+ infographics delivered over two years, one a week.
It’s designed to hold the big picture together, from science and history to impacts and justice, from solutions and false solutions to net zero and you. Each ring of the Trunk will add context and coherence, helping you build a clearer picture.
The Trunk grew out of years of trying to cut through the noise – reading the science, the politics, the arguments, the spin, and realising how easily new information slips away without the right frame.
The answer was obvious: start with an image and build everything else around it.
Keep up with what really matters, and let us filter out the rest.
📝 Sign up to Climate Trunk at the link in our bio, in time for our launch on April 22
