February 14, 2025
China going big on coal guarantees the world won’t meet its carbon-cutting goals
As of July, China had 4,436 operating coal plants, with 487 under construction and many more in the permitting pipeline. Contrast that with 1,291 operating US coal plants, with only closings planned.
As of July, China had 4,436 operating coal plants, with 487 under construction and many more in the permitting pipeline. Contrast that with 1,291 operating US coal plants, with only closings planned.

Pretty much everything the rest of the world is doing to reduce carbon emissions is being neutralized by a single big, bad actor — and it’s not the United States under President Trump, but the People’s Republic of China.

Many countries are falling short of the decarbonization goals hammered out at the 2016 Paris climate convention. But Beijing — already the world’s No. 1 carbon emitter, producing more than a quarter of global CO2 exhausts — stands out. With its economy slowed to a rate not seen since the early ’90s, it’s re-embracing the dirtiest fossil fuel.

The International Energy Agency notes that coal accounts for 46% of global carbon emissions. To meet the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change target of keeping global warming below 1.5°C through 2100, the world much achieve, as Global Energy Monitor puts it, a “58[%] to 70% reduction in global coal power generation by 2030.”

GEM, a not-for-profit that tracks global coal use, reports that China’s coal plants under construction, plus shuttered ones recently reopened and new ones planned, put it on track to make that impossible. Says GEM’s Christine Shearer: “China’s proposed coal expansion is so far out of alignment with the Paris Agreement that it would put the necessary reductions in coal power out of reach, even if every other country were to completely eliminate its coal fleet.”

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See Also:

(1) Chinese cities report dipping air quality in October

(2) Desperate Beijing motorists marrying people just so they can secure a licence plate for their car

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BTDT
BTDT
November 26, 2019 2:19 pm

From Forbes magazine. China actually now accounts for 45% of the coal-based electricity generated in the world, compared to 37% back in 2010. Responsible for 46% of global production and 51% of global demand, China’s coal reliance is not falling nearly as fast as some like to claim. China approved nearly $6.7 billion worth of new coal mining projects in 2018, and production increased 5.2% to 3.55 billion tonnes. 

Compare. Canada’s contribution to the truly still controversial danger of global carbon emissions is about 1.6% yet we mindlessly commit economic suicide over that inconsequential figure. So you see, China doesn’t have to secretly damage or destroy our economies. Our own government’s are doing that job for them, in admirable fashion. We are shutting down our oil and clean natural gas industries. Driving businesses out of the country. Depriving our economies of untold billions of dollars. Money that is sorely needed to repair/replaced our crumbling infrastructure, fund the ravenous appetite of our public health care system. Yet we still continue to send them boatloads of foreign funding.

Know this. If China interfered in our economy and caused the level of damage to our economy that our own politicians are it would be considered an act of war.