A single greenhouse gas from China's power grid is doing outsized damage to the climate
China accounts for more than half of global emissions of sulfur hexafluoride, a gas 24,300 times more potent than carbon dioxide, and fixing the leak would cost a tiny fraction of the country's annual grid spending.
According to a piece published Sunday by Phil McKenna on Inside Climate News, China is responsible for more than half of the world's emissions of sulfur hexafluoride, or SF6, a gas used as an insulator in electrical equipment that is 24,300 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet and persists in the atmosphere for 1,000 years. China released 5,100 metric tons of the gas in 2021, the most recent year with available data, equivalent to the annual emissions of 29 million gasoline-powered cars, with emissions nearly doubling between 2011 and 2021.
China's grid operator claims a 90% recycling capability for the gas, but Inside Climate News estimates the actual recycling rate at closer to 30%. Raising that rate toward 90% by recycling an additional 1,400 metric tons annually would cost an estimated $6 million a year, according to the analysis.
That figure represents less than 0.01% of China's roughly $70 billion in annual grid investment, and works out to about 18 cents per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent avoided, far cheaper than reducing emissions through wind power, estimated at $11 per ton, or solar, at $31 per ton.
Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20092026/china-grid-sf6-emissions/
This article was produced with the assistance of AI tools and reviewed by an editor before publication.
