Natalia Welzenbach-Marcu  | April 10th, 2018

China has slowly made its way to the top in its quest to push the use of renewable energy. Solar power saw a huge increase in use during 2017, making up roughly a third of new energy added globally.

Last year, China invested roughly $126.6 billion in renewable energy, cementing them as one of the leaders in clean sources. Four years prior, in 2014, the global superpower effectively declared war on pollution, setting goals for its major cities to reduce the output of fine particles from factories and construction sites. In 2018, China is very clearly winning this battle: the country has reduced its overall urban pollution by an average of 32%.

Lots of methods were employed to meet this goal. Cars were restricted by license number; every citizen with a car has, by now, a ritual of figuring out which day of the week their vehicle is prohibited and using public transport to travel on that particular day. new coal-burning plants were prohibited in the most polluted areas and existing ones had to reduce their emissions. Although China’s overall pollution still far exceeds that of other nations, its overall pollution reduction is incredibly promising.