China is promoting coal-fired power as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) tries to revive a sluggish economy, prompting warnings that Beijing is setting back efforts to cut climate-changing carbon emissions from the biggest global source.
Official plans call for boosting coal production capacity by 300 million tonnes this year, news reports have said.
That is equal to 7 percent of last year’s output of 4.1 billion tonnes, which was an increase of 5.7 percent from 2020.
Photo: AP
China is one of the biggest investors in wind and solar, but jittery leaders called for more coal-fired power after economic growth plunged last year and shortages caused blackouts and factory shutdowns. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine added to anxiety that foreign oil and coal supplies might be disrupted.
“This mentality of ensuring energy security has become dominant, trumping carbon neutrality,” said Li Shuo (李碩), a senior global policy adviser for Greenpeace. “We are moving into a relatively unfavorable time period for climate action in China.”
Officials are facing political pressure to ensure stability as Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is preparing to try to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as CCP leader in the autumn.
Coal is important for “energy security,” Cabinet officials said at a meeting on Wednesday, where they approved plans to expand production capacity, business news magazine Caixin reported.
The CCP is also building power plants to inject money into the economy and revive growth that sank to 4 percent in the final quarter of last year, down from the full year’s 8.1 percent expansion.
The CCP has rejected binding emissions commitments, citing its economic development needs, and Beijing has avoided joining governments that promised to phase out use of coal-fired power.
In a 2020 speech to the UN, Xi said China’s carbon emissions would peak by 2030, but he announced no target for the amount.
China aims for carbon neutrality by 2060, Xi said.
China accounts for 26.1 percent of global emissions, more than double the US’ share of 12.8 percent, the World Resources Institute has said.
China emits more than all developed economies combined, research firm Rhodium Group has said.
China’s goal of carbon neutrality by 2060 appears to be on track, but using more coal “could jeopardize this, or at least slow it down and make it more costly,” Clare Perry, ocean and climate campaign leader at the Environmental Investigations Agency said in an e-mail.
Promoting coal would make emissions “much higher than they need to be” by the 2030 peak year, Perry said. “This move runs entirely counter to the science.”
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
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