China promotes coal in setback for efforts to cut emissions

China is promoting coal-fired power as the ruling Communist Party tries to revive a sluggish economy, prompting warnings 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, according to news reports. That is equal to 7 per cent of last year's output of 4.1 billion tons, which was an increase of 5.7 per cent over 2020.

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 attack on Ukraine added to the 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, a senior global policy adviser for Greenpeace. “We are moving into a relatively unfavourable time period for climate action in China.”

Officials face political pressure to ensure stability as President Xi Jinping prepares to try to break with tradition and award himself a third five-year term as ruling party leader in the autumn.

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Coal is important for “energy security,” Cabinet officials said at an April 20 meeting that approved plans to expand production capacity, according to Caixin, a business news magazine.

The ruling party also is building power plants to inject money into the economy and revive growth that sank to 4 per cent over a year earlier in the final quarter of 2021, down from the full year's 8.1 per cent expansion.

Governments have pledged to try to limit warming of the atmosphere to 2 degrees Celsius above the level of pre-industrial times. Leaders say what they really want is a limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Scientists say even if the world hits the 2-degree goal of the 2015 Paris climate pact and the 2021 Glasgow follow-up agreement, it still will lead to higher seas, stronger storms, extinction of plants and animals and more people dying from heat, smog and infectious diseases.

China is the top producer and consumer of coal. Global trends hinge on what Beijing does. The Communist Party has rejected binding emissions commitments, citing its economic development needs. Beijing has avoided joining governments that promised to phase out the use of coal-fired power.

In a 2020 speech to the United Nations, Xi said carbon emissions will peak by 2030, but he announced no target for the amount. Xi said China aims for carbon neutrality, or removing as much from the atmosphere by planting trees and other tactics as is emitted by industry and households, by 2060.

China accounts for 26.1 per cent of global emissions, more than double the US's share of 12.8 per cent, according to the World Resources Institute. Rhodium Group, a research firm, says China emits more than all developed economies combined.

Per person, China's 1.4 billion people on average emit the equivalent of 8.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, according to WRI. That is less than half the US average of 17.7 tonnes but more than the European Union's 7.5 tonnes.

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China has abundant supplies of coal and produced more than 90 per cent of the 4.4 billion tons it burned last year. More than half of its oil and gas is imported and leaders see that as a strategic risk.

China's goal of carbon neutrality by 2060 appears to be on track, but using more coal “could jeopardise this, or at least slow it down and make it more costly,” Clare Perry of the Environmental Investigations Agency said in an email.

Promoting coal will make emissions “much higher than they need to be” by the 2030 peak year, said Perry. “This move runs entirely counter to the science,” she said.

Beijing has spent tens of billions of dollars on building solar and wind farms to reduce reliance on imported oil and gas and clean up its smog-choked cities. China accounted for about half of global investment in wind and solar in 2020.

Still, coal is expected to supply 60 per cent of its power in the near future.

Beijing is cutting millions of jobs to shrink its bloated, state-owned coal mining industry, but output and consumption still are rising. Authorities say they are shrinking carbon emissions per unit of economic output.

The government reported a reduction of 3.8 per cent last year, better than 2020's 1 per cent, but down from a 5.1 per cent cut in 2017. Last year's total energy use increased 5.2 per cent over 2020 after a revival of global demand for Chinese exports propelled a manufacturing boom, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Stimulus spending also might raise carbon output if it pays for building more bridges, train stations and other public works. That would encourage carbon-intensive steel and cement production.

China's coal-fired power plants operate at about half their capacity on average, but building more creates jobs and economic activity, said Greenpeace's Li. He said even if the power isn't needed now, local leaders face pressure to make them pay for themselves. “That locks China into a more high-carbon path,” Li said. “It's very difficult to fix.”

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