Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not replacing fossil fuels, merely freeing them for other uses. In fact it's even common now to build wind turbines around coal mines to produce power to extract coal... We must reduce our fossil fuel consumption in absolute numbers. So far we're merely adding more energy resources; that way political and corporate PR representative can make triumphal announces about how we're reducing the part of fossil in our…
If I go on a diet and lose weight, is that also a trick because the average weight of the population goes up? Just because someone else does something else to negate the net effect of something doesn't mean you haven't done the thing. If we hadn't done anything emissions would be even higher. It isn't as if we have to burn a certain quota of coal and gas. This isn't an argument for doing less, it's an argument for do…
The keyword here is "imported emissions". When you reduce your consumption because you're closing a factory to import the same stuff made in worse (environmental, social) conditions elsewhere, the gain is only apparent.
So following your analogy, if what you're after is the global population health, if you lose weight but everyone else gains more than what you lost, than the result is indeed a net loss overall.