This archive gathers solutions-journalism stories and milestones from China — covering advances in clean energy, public health, technology, conservation, and more. Each entry highlights progress worth knowing about.
In 2021, China set a goal for renewable capacity — including wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear power — to exceed fossil fuel capacity by 2025, a target that it has hit two years ahead of schedule.
The first of many solar and wind projects in China’s deserts is now online, and it’s capable of powering a staggering 1.5 million households.
“The launch of condensed batteries will usher in an era of universal electrification of sea, land and air transportation…,” according to Chinese battery manufacturer CATL.
Hong Kong’s highest court has ruled that gender-affirming surgery should not be required before someone can legally change their gender on identity cards.
Electric vehicles crossed a quiet but enormous threshold in 2022, making up one in every ten new cars sold worldwide for the first time. Roughly 7.8 million fully electric vehicles found buyers that year, even as overall car sales slipped. China led the charge, with EVs accounting for nearly a fifth of new cars sold there, while Europe wasn’t far behind at 11%. Behind the numbers is a deeper shift: battery prices have fallen dramatically over the past decade, and major automakers are doubling their EV output even as their broader sales decline. Ten percent is the moment a technology stops being niche and starts reshaping an industry — a hopeful signal for the global push toward cleaner transport.
Clean energy storage just took a major leap forward, and it happened without a single fossil fuel involved. China’s new compressed air facility in Zhangjiakou runs entirely on thermodynamic processes, storing up to 400 MWh and operating at 70.4% efficiency — well above the 40–52% typical of existing systems. That’s enough to supply more than 132 GWh to the local grid annually, while avoiding roughly 109,000 tons of CO₂ each year. Proving that utility-scale, non-lithium storage can work commercially gives the global clean energy transition a powerful new tool to build on.
Compared to traditional petroleum-based aviation kerosene, bio jet fuel can reduce carbon emissions by up to 50% throughout the entire lifecycle.
Longi Green Energy Technology Co., the world’s biggest solar technology manufacturer, will send panels into space as the first step in plans to test the feasibility of harnessing the sun’s power in orbit and transmitting it back to Earth.
China’s emissions have now fallen year-on-year for four consecutive quarters, extending what was already the longest sustained decline in recent history.
China now has 26 GW of offshore wind power installed, the most of any nation and nearly half of the world’s cumulative capacity.
