A groundbreaking Chinese innovation is turning one of climate policy’s oldest assumptions on its head: that cutting emissions inevitably hurts the economy.
Critics including US President Donald Trump have long dismissed green regulations as a drag on industry, claiming they raise costs and cut production. Even the European Union is now reconsidering its phase-out targets for fossil fuel vehicles, using the negative economic impact as justification.
But new research from a team led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University shows that slashing carbon emissions does not have to come at a dear price. In fact, it can dramatically boost productivity.
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The team has developed a simple yet revolutionary modification to a major coal-based chemical process, reducing carbon dioxide emissions to near zero – while more than tripling the yield of high-value chemicals known as olefins, essential for plastics, pharmaceuticals and advanced materials.
“This is like installing a ‘molecular switch’ on a complex chemical reaction, which can precisely shut off the side reaction pathways that generate carbon dioxide,” study author Ma Ding, a professor at Peking University, told Science and Technology Daily on December 24.
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This is no isolated case. In recent years, China has significantly boosted productivity by pursuing decarbonisation, enhancing the competitiveness of its products in global markets, and taking the lead in key technologies such as electric vehicles, new materials and renewable energy.
