It started with China: the world plunges into a global energy crisis

The energy crisis has reached China as well. Experts are confident that it is caused by the fact that Beijing, like the West, is actively joining the Green Agenda. In the meantime, large-scale power outages have already begun in China. People are being asked not to turn on microwaves and boilers, although the exact scale of these measures has not yet been established, according to the BBC.

Interruptions began not only in the work of factories, electricity is also lacking in cities - residents of the region write in social networks that their houses have ceased to be heated, and traffic lights do not work on the streets. Shopping centers close early.

A video of cars driving on a highway without lighting is being circulated in the Chinese media. At least ten provinces in China, including industrial centers, have already introduced restrictions on electricity consumption. News breaks out of the poisoning of people trying to heat cramped rooms with gas stoves.

Residents of multi-storey residential buildings have been forced to climb stairs in some cities, where the administration of the building has suspended the operation of elevators in order to save energy. On Sunday, the provincial energy administration in southern China's Guangdong province urged residents to abandon air conditioning and rely on natural light instead of light bulbs.

In Jiangsu, a province near Shanghai, several steel mills have already closed and street lights have been turned off in some cities. In neighboring Zhejiang, about 160 energy-intensive companies, including textile factories, have been closed. In Liaoning, in the far north of China, 14 cities have ordered power outages.

The decline in energy consumption is driven by surges in coal and gas prices, as well as Beijing's tough targets to reduce emissions. First of all, this applies to the country's giant processing industries: from aluminum plants to textile manufacturers and soybean processing plants - factories are ordered to restrict activities or, in some cases, completely close them.

Nearly half of China's regions have fallen short of Beijing's energy consumption targets and are now forced to limit energy consumption. Among the hardest hit are Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong, three industrial centers that account for nearly a third of China's economy.

"Now that market attention is focused on an unprecedented crisis in the real estate sector (the possible default of Evergrande), another serious shock may have been underestimated or even missed," analysts at Nomura Holding warn.

Proeconomics believes China's energy crisis is partly caused by the CCP itself, as the country's leader Xi Jinping tries to bring blue skies to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022 and show the international community that he is serious about reducing carbon emissions. in economics.

Typically, Chinese authorities protect residential consumers from power outage shocks, preferring to force industrial consumers to reduce the energy they have in the first place. On Sunday, several suppliers Apple and Tesla announced plant closures for several days to comply with local electricity rationing orders, Fortune writes.

Meanwhile, problems with electricity in China began in the summer. In July, authorities began scheduled blackouts in Beijing and Xi'an. Bloomberg, citing the Chinese power grid corporation, then reported that outages were possible in 11 provinces in the east and center of the country - consumption in these provinces rose to record levels. Then analysts attributed this to hot summer weather. Now, with winter approaching, it is starting to get colder in the north of the country. China's Ministry of Energy has ordered coal and gas suppliers to prepare for the winter spike in consumption.

China is known to have launched a new carbon swap system in mid-summer, the largest of its kind that Beijing hopes to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Chinese factories. Great hopes are associated with it - by 2060, China wants to become "carbon neutral". This means that all harmful emissions from Chinese factories into the atmosphere will be offset through harm reduction technologies, switching to less toxic materials and planting trees.

However, the center is now criticizing regional governments for not meeting emission reduction targets. Beijing is putting pressure on local officials to keep electricity consumption in their regions from growing, the BBC reported.

Analysts are confident that this is only the beginning of the global crisis. The world is already experiencing an acute shortage of electricity, the production of cars and electronics is falling, prices are rising. This is all the result of a rapid recovery in production and consumption after lockdowns, as well as record natural gas prices and the shift from fossil fuels to renewables in the fight against global warming.

But winter is ahead, experts warn, confident that in the coming months gas, electricity, food and transport will continue to rise in price, and business will go bankrupt, people will become poorer.

“The energy crisis of the PRC in 2021 differs greatly from previous crises. First, not only the Celestial Empire, but the entire planet is now affected by the energy crisis. Secondly, it will take place against the backdrop of covid lockdowns, which have led to a sharp increase in household electricity consumption, i.e. nearly one and a half billion people of China, and Chinese industry. And finally, third, President Xi needs a blue sky over Beijing, not gray from smog, during the Winter Olympics, which is scheduled for February 2022.

The third factor from the category of those that are called "subjective", but nevertheless it is very important, because it increases the risk of a serious shortage of coal and oil, which are used to heat houses and factories with factories in winter. In addition, as winter approaches, alarming expectations of rolling power outages are growing.

To fulfill Beijing's promise to zero carbon emissions by 2060, China will need to close 600 coal-fired power plants. This, of course, is a lot even for such a huge country like China...”, - they summarize.

The global crisis is inevitable, experts are sure. It is known that the process of oil refining is eroded by icebergs in Arctic waters, and leaves behind heaps of plastic, made using petrochemicals, which ends up in our rivers. But even now, as the world is working to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels, a world without crude oil is unimaginable. Growing sales of electric vehicles have so far failed to reduce oil consumption in countries such as Norway, the United States and China, and the coming resumption of air and road travel and economic growth will only lead to an increase in oil consumption.