[adventured]

In fact it's a starter. Replacing Chinese or German coal use with natural gas imports, would be a massive improvement. If you could instantly swap all global coal use for natural gas, global CO2 emissions would drop considerably.

That's why US energy-related CO2 levels have been falling for a decade. It's due to natural gas. The decline began perfectly timed to the latest natural gas boom, which has played the lead role in wiping out 1/3 of US coal consumption.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/images/2017.04.10/chart2.p...

[nickik]

I have been trying to explain this to people so many times, but they just don't want it. Germany is the worst, at the same time they shut down nuclear, they also refuse gas. Now they just use nuclear from France and dirty coal.

Overall this great energy plan is gone create fare more CO2 for the foreseeable future.

[adventured]

They definitely deserve immense credit for the renewables build-out the last decade. Having more than doubled their energy production from renewables from ~15% to over ~35% in that time. Accounting for 2-4% more per year, hopefully it's near a tipping point where it begins to hammer down coal consumption there. Throw in some natural gas on top, maybe Germany chops coal use down by 1/2 in the next 10 years.