Asian Games: Chinese netizens criticize dazzling energy consumption, take carbon neutrality claims with a pinch of salt

Chinese netizens have responded to the ubiquitous carbon neutral and zero carbon branding at the 19th Asian Games, held on Sept. 23 to Oct. 8 in Hangzhou, China, with a mix of skepticism, criticism and humor on domestic social media platforms.

The comments indicate growing climate awareness among ordinary citizens but more importantly they mean that companies and governments will have to work harder to convince a public that can no longer be easily swayed.

One of the major claims at the Asian Games had been the use of green energy.

State-media Xinhua reported Sept. 1 that China will power the event with renewable energy for the first time in the history of the Asian Games, with green electricity supplied to all competition venues.

Electricity generated from windmills in Hami in northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and solar panels in Jiayuguan in Gansu Province will be transmitted on ultra-high-voltage lines to the Hangzhou in the east, the report said.

It added Hangzhou had traded green power on Zhejiang Power Exchange Center's digital platform with Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai, and its home province of Zhejiang, and completed 16 transactions totaling 621 million kWh of green power, equivalent to saving 76,000 mt of standard coal.

This was followed by an extravagant Asian Games themed light show that coincided with the mid-autumn festival celebrations and the start of China' Golden Week national holidays. But discourse on Chinese social media was directed towards electricity wastage and light pollution.

"The Jade Emperor [a Chinese deity] in Heaven needs two layers of blindfolds to fall asleep tonight," said a commentator on social media platform Weibo.

"Thanks to the show, now even Trisolarans [aliens in Chinese sci-fi trilogy the Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin] know that Hangzhou is hosting the Asian Games," another netizen said.

"So, electricity was sent to heaven while they shut down power supplies to factories," another Weibo commentator said, complaining about power rationing that disrupted industrial production to save electricity for the Asian Games.

To safeguard the stable operation and ensure undisrupted power supply during the games, the State Grid of China coordinated 3,000 employees from subsidiaries across the country to closely monitor 269 substations and 288 venues on a 24/7 basis, state media China Energy News reported on Sept. 29. Each staff member walked at least 21,000 steps per day to conduct inspections on routes and equipment to secure power supply, according to another report by Xinhua on the same day.

The Asian Games torch and cauldron at the opening ceremony was fueled by green methanol, a low-carbon fuel that's being explored as an alternative to petroleum fuels in decarbonizing transportation.

The fuel was developed by Geely Automobile, one of China's largest car manufacturers, which used the games to promote its methanol-fueled vehicles and fuel supply chain, at a time when global carmakers are still experimenting with alternative fuels.

According to Geely, 1 mt of zero-carbon methanol saves 1.375 mt of CO2, and its synthetic methanol has fueled over 27,000 vehicles so far, which prevented the use of 158,000 mt of gasoline per year translating into 19,400 mtCO2e of emission reductions.

State-media China Daily said China produced 80.23 million mt of methanol in 2022 as the largest methanol producer and consumer in the world, citing China Nitrogen Fertilizer Industry Association data.

It is not unusual for fuel suppliers to use such events to promote clean fuels.

China had used the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics to promote hydrogen fuel(opens in a new tab), with more than 700 hydrogen-powered vehicles put into operation in Zhangjiakou. The 2020 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lausanne, Switzerland, used Swiss wood pellets in its cauldron, and in 2021 the Olympic cauldron at the Tokyo Games' opening ceremony was fueled by propane or LPG(opens in a new tab), provided by Japanese LPG supplier ENEOS Globe Corp., supplemented by green hydrogen generated from solar power.

Some skeptical netizens, however, questioned Geely's zero-carbon claims, the carbon and energy intensity of the methanol manufacturing process, and the use of "zero-carbon" labeling under international standards for methanol produced from industrial byproducts.

1 kg for everyone

China's technology giant Alibaba, headquartered in Hangzhou, provided the platform to measure carbon footprint at the games.

Alibaba's AI-based emission accounting model assessed the carbon footprint for every souvenir plushy of the games mascots by factoring in solar-energy used in manufacturing, eco-friendly materials and packaging.

Hangzhou-headquartered Wahaha Group, one of the most well-known food and beverage companies in China, utilized Alibaba's platform to measure the carbon footprint for bottled water supplied for the games, offset with credits from a forest carbon project in Qingyuan county near Hangzhou.

To make the Asian Games 'carbon neutral,' 1.068 million mtCO2e of offsets were donated by 45 companies, and included allowances from the compliance market, domestic and international voluntary carbon credits, similar to the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, Xinhua said.

For the Asian Games, some offsets also came from Tanpuhui or Carbon Inclusion, a carbon crediting program used by Alibaba's subsidiary Ant Group to motivate emission reductions by individuals. The most popular Tanpuhui platform is called Ant Forest, that allows each user of Alibaba's online payment platform Alipay to create a virtual forest. The "green energy" credits accumulated through the purchase of low-carbon products and services are converted by Alibaba into a real tree planted on behalf of the user, with nearly half a billion trees planted so far.

As an extension of Ant Forest, Alibaba initiated a campaign called "1 kg carbon reduction everyone, for a carbon-neutral Asian Games," which allowed users to donate these credits to make the games carbon neutral. For every 1 kg contributed, Ant Group purchased an equal amount of "carbon credits" from the market and donated them to the Games organizer, state media reported.

This campaign exceeded 100 million participants and was certified by Guinness World Records for the most participants in an environmental campaign in a one-year period, People's Daily said Oct. 4.

Alibaba publicized this concept among Asian Games athletes, who could "earn carbon credits" through low-carbon activities like recycling waste or climbing stairs instead of using elevators. Athletes can use the credits earned to redeem souvenirs, and many of them have happily done so, according to a video posted on the official Tiktok account of the Asian Games organizing committee.

Netizens claimed that the offsetting process for Tanpuhui programs did not really follow any globally accepted standards to reduce emissions.

Guangdong province's government and carbon exchange has been working with Verra and Gold Standard, the biggest voluntary carbon credit issuers, to bridge the gap between Tanpuhui and mainstream standards through credits called Puhui Certified Emission Reductions.

China's e-commerce and social media platforms are rife with such schemes to lower individual carbon footprints, but most are not rigorously verified. Using them risks tarnishing credible decarbonization efforts at the Games.