Study: China Building Three Times More Coal Plants Than Other Countries
China put 38.4 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity into operation in 2020, according to new international research, more than three times the amount built elsewhere around the world and potentially undermining its short-term climate goals. The country won praise last year after President Xi Jinping pledged to make the country “carbon neutral” by 2060.
But regulators have since come under fire for failing to properly control the coal power sector, a major source of climate-warming greenhouse gas.
Including decommissions, China’s coal-fired fleet capacity rose by a net 29.8 GW in 2020, even as the rest of the world made cuts of 17.2 GW, according to research released on Wednesday by Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a U.S. think tank, and the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
“The runaway expansion of coal-fired power is driven by electricity companies’ and local governments’ interest in maximizing investment spending, more than a real need for new capacity,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, CREA lead analyst.
The country’s National Energy Administration (NEA) didn’t immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
China approved the construction of a further 36.9 GW of coal-fired capacity last year, three times more than a year earlier, bringing the total under construction to 88.1 GW. It now has 247 GW of coal power under development, enough to supply the whole of Germany.
A team of central government environmental inspectors delivered a scathing assessment of China’s energy regulator last Friday, accusing officials of planning failures and focusing too much on guaranteeing energy supply.
The NEA had allowed plants to be built in already polluted regions, while projects in less sensitive “coal-power bases” had not gone ahead, they said.
China has been criticized for pursuing an energy-intensive post-COVID recovery based on heavy industry and construction, and experts say new coal plants could end up becoming heavily-indebted “stranded assets.”
Read rest at Reuters
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very old white guy
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Dare I suggest that China’s climate goals are quite simple. They want and need electricity and don’t care what any western country thinks.
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Ken Irwin
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President Xi will tell gullible world leaders fanciful tales of China’s drive to carbon neutrality – while disarming and charming them with his Winnie The Poo smile.
He must absolutely laugh his head off afterwards.
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Barry
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They don’t seem to believe that co2 is a problem but then I don’t think the IPCC does either as this whole climate scam was never about the climate. The original idea was to simply convince the western world to pay a carbon tax to be redistributed to poor countries. Sadly the tree huggers took over this movement and turned it into their next effort to sabotage capitalism. With the Paris accord the IPCC kind of got a start at what they wanted but I don’t think they really have any interest in actually reducing plant food in the atmosphere as it is beneficial to man kind.
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MattH
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China and India’s Emissions Growth is an article written by Jack Dini and published by Principia Scientific International on January 28, 2021.
The article is so important I have printed off hard copies to inform sheep masquerading as politicians.
For those able to join the dots it clearly shows the Paris Accord agreed China and India could increase their coal fired energy systems which negates any claimed concerns for CO2’s connection to global warming and claims of immediate crisis.
For those who can join the dots of logic it also amplifies why Donald Trump took the USA out of the Paris Accord without acknowledging the climate science corruption.
Thank you Jack Dini and John O’Sullivan for printing the article.
Later. Matt
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Binra
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They may well achieve carbon neutral if they lock down much of the rest of the world to compensate.
I may add that I have no respect for any of the ‘carbon’ disinformation, but if hydrocarbon fuels are used they can be extracted and used much more cleanly than currently, and the culture of use could be much more intelligently organised that to serve a negative Economy – which is in process of huge contraction as a result of deep systemic corruptions.
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