Clark, I am not sure why you have taken that dismissive tone with me. I have been following this for a decade, I think I understand, quite a bit.
They just said on Radio Four that China will not be coming to Glasgow. China is deploying renewables, such as the dams but the Chinese Communist Party has issued orders for all coal producers in China to quickly ramp up coal production. China is the most prolific user of coal. The most important idea for the Chinese Communist Party is to stay in power, in control of China. For them, this means as close as possible to full employment, for while the peasants toil, they have much less time to think. If they are layed off, they will have time to think and may come to understand they are part of an experiment, like Brave New World, their individualism does not matter to the Party, only their compliance.
I fully understand the dilema that Mr. Putin finds himself in, Russia is, these days, mostly a producer of basic materials but that is largely because Russia has thirty percent of raw materials.
Russia is keen to supply Natural Gas to Europe and also China but Natural Gas has to be moved, only two real options gas pipelines or LNG.
When the gas is removed from the ground it has to be sold and shifted, it is quite difficult to store, so Mr. Putin has made no bones, he wants people to sign up for long term contracts, then he can finance and build the infrastructure, what he does not want, is what happened in the U.S.A. with Fracking, a yoyo effect with idle plant and the laying off of workers, in short, he wants continuity of business.