China’s ‘Carbon Neutral’ Olympics Was ‘Theater,’ Distraction From Nation’s Much Bigger Environmental Problems: Analysts

General view of the Olympic Cauldron during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony on Day 16 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics at Beijing National Stadium on Feb. 20, 2022 in Beijing, China. Maja Hitij/Getty Images

The Chinese regime may have used the Winter Olympics to signal an interest in clean energy, but critics suggest the event’s purported “carbon neutrality” is mere theater amid a record of sizeable fossil fuel consumption.

“It’s a bunch of theater really,” said Riley Walters, an expert on East Asia at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank. “To say that the Winter Olympics was a net zero or green … and then … to announce a $4 billion investment in three new coal mines. It’s theater. It’s like saying my fridge is 100% net-zero on emissions but I’ve got a diesel washing machine.”