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World leaders have gathered in Brazil for the U.N. Climate Conference. The U.S. is not there, but China is. When it comes to energy transition, the U.S. and China couldn't be on more different paths. China is moving away from fossil fuels while the U.S. is doubling down. Experts say this will have consequences for the climate and these countries' economies. NPR sent two correspondents to opposite sides of the Pacific to learn more. We begin with NPR's Julia Simon in Eureka, California.
JULIA SIMON, BYLINE: In far northern California, Chris Mikkelsen drives an old police cruiser past little wooden houses.
Pine trees with moss just, like, hanging off of them.
CHRIS MIKKELSEN: It's just an old seaside town.
SIMON: Mikkelsen is the executive director of the Humboldt Bay Harbor District, which plans to assemble wind turbines for a massive new offshore wind project. About 20 miles off this misty coast, two companies - American Vineyard Offshore and German RWE - plan to build turbines to power more than 2 million homes. Mikkelsen says the project aims to make about 270 long-term local jobs.
MIKKELSEN: It's going to, you know, change the economic viability of our community. And I get a little - my voice gets a little shaky 'cause it's going to make a better opportunity for our kids.
SIMON: Yeah.
MIKKELSEN: That's pretty important.
SIMON: The new terminal was supposed to be shovel-ready as soon as 2026, Mikkelsen says. That's no longer realistic, in part because the Trump administration recently canceled more than $426 million in federal grants for the project. Mikkelsen says it's been pencils down since then as they try to find new sources of money. This is one of dozens of actions this administration has taken to starve the renewable energy industry of federal support from canceling tax credits years early to issuing stop-work orders.
Amanda Levin at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council says the U.S. renewable industry had been growing.
AMANDA LEVIN: For the first time last year, wind and solar produced more electricity than coal. Things were headed in the right direction, but this really just takes the wind out of their sails.
SIMON: The Trump administration is reversing support for renewables, which it incorrectly labels as risky and unreliable. But across the Pacific Ocean, America's biggest competitor - China - thinks otherwise. Let's throw the mic 5,000 miles to NPR's Anthony Kuhn, who's there.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: You are right, Julia. Here in China, renewable isn't a dirty word. China's leadership has made strategic choices to include renewables in its energy mix. We're in China's Zhangbei region, which is in between the capital Beijing and the edge of the Mongolian Plateau. The area is rich in wind resources, and it's where a lot of China's wind and solar capacity is being installed.
(SOUNDBITE OF TURBINE BLADES SPINNING)
KUHN: Turbine blades swoosh past in huge circles. The electricity goes from here to a grid outside Beijing and on to the rest of China. China now dominates the global renewable sector. In the first half of this year, China built more solar than the rest of the world combined. Seventy-four percent of all large-scale wind and solar projects are being built in China. Compare that to the U.S. that's building 6%. China now has more installed generation capacity from solar and wind than from gas and coal.
It wasn't always this way. Until recently, China's economic growth came at the cost of air pollution from burning fossil fuels. But in the last few decades, authorities in Beijing began to consider a sustainable economic growth model, and renewables have been a key part of that, according to Qin Haiyan, director of the parent company of the wind farm we visited and vice president of the World Wind Energy Association.
QIN HAIYAN: (Through interpreter) Developing the economy and reducing carbon emissions to address climate change are now no longer contradictory.
KUHN: And this, according to the Asia Society's Li Shuo, is the biggest difference between the U.S. and China in climate policy today.
LI SHUO: It couldn't be a stronger contrast between the two countries.
KUHN: In China, solar and wind are now cheaper than coal and gas. Li Shuo says one of the most dramatic aspects of China's climate story is not just that they seem to be cutting their climate emissions...
LI: But also, to what extent other parts of the world can also benefit from China's low-carbon products.
SIMON: So China is now exporting turbines and solar panels and batteries around the world, from Brazil to Nigeria to Pakistan.
KUHN: That's right, Julia. All the renewables growth, both local and exports, is a bright spot amid China's slowing economy, especially its slumping real estate sector. David Fishman is a principal at the Lantau Group in Shanghai.
DAVID FISHMAN: People who used to be swinging hammers building commercial real estate are now swinging hammers installing solar panels. And that - well, yes, of course. You double - triple down on that.
(SOUNDBITE OF WIND BLOWING)
SIMON: Back in Eureka, Mikkelsen walks along a creaky dock, an abandoned pulp mill looming behind us. He says he doesn't understand why the Trump administration would cancel the grants for the terminal supporting the wind project. He says this community has been suffering since 2008 when the pulp mill closed.
MIKKELSEN: Our administration that was recently elected, not only at the presidential level but even some of our Congress and senators, really ran on a platform that we're going to build back America, that we're going to create jobs in rural America - good, skilled, trained, you know, high-paying jobs. And there's no better place. You're looking around, you're seeing the remnants of what once was.
SIMON: It is still unclear what the nationwide cuts to renewable energy mean for U.S. climate emissions.
KUHN: But in China, the climate story is more clear, and it's a rare, encouraging indicator in the global warming story. The growth of renewable energy means that China's emissions seem to be on track to peak or are nearing their peak, Li Shuo says. And China's renewable exports mean the country is helping other countries reduce their emissions too.
SIMON: Jeremy Wallace, professor at Johns Hopkins University, says now, at the end of the day...
JEREMY WALLACE: What America does is part of a story, and it is not the main part of the story. It's a cute side character.
KUHN: China, he says, is now the main character in the story of fighting climate change. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Zhangbei County, Hebei Province, China.
SIMON: Julia Simon, NPR News, Eureka, California.
MART脥NEZ: The Natural Resources Defense Council is one of NPR's sponsors, and we cover it as we would any other organization.
(SOUNDBITE OF MODEST MOUSE SONG, "BANKRUPT ON SELLING") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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