Despite emissions pledge, China gives green signal to a surge in coal-based power generation: Greenpeace

Greenpeace said Monday that China has agreed to a significant increase in coal capacity so far this year, prioritizing energy supplies over its pledge to cut emissions from fossil fuels.

The world’s second largest economy is also the largest emitter of greenhouse gases that drive climate change, such as carbon dioxide (CO).2), and China’s emissions pledges are seen as necessary to keep the global temperature rise below 2°C.

However, the jump in approvals for coal-fired power plants has raised fears that China will backtrack on its targets to peak emissions between 2026 and 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060.

Greenpeace said local governments in energy-hungry Chinese provinces have approved at least 20.45 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity in the first three months of 2023.

This is more than double the 8.63 GW reported by Greenpeace for the same period last year, and greater than the 18.55 GW that was green-lighted for the whole of 2021.

China relied on coal for nearly 60 percent of its electricity last year.

Xie Wenwen, an activist with Greenpeace, said the push for more coal plants “threatens climate catastrophe…and locks us on a high-carbon path.”

It is clear that the 2022 coal boom has continued into this year.

A study released in February by Global Energy Monitor (GEM) said China last year approved the largest expansion of coal-fired power plants since 2015.

The vicious circle

Most of the new coal projects approved from January to March this year were in provinces that suffered severe power shortages due to record heatwaves in the past two years, Greenpeace said.

Several more were in southwest China, where a record drought last year cut hydroelectric power output and forced factories to close.

It was not clear how many coal-fired power plants approved this year would begin construction.

Greenpeace analysts have warned that investing in more fossil fuel plants to prepare for a surge in air conditioning will create a vicious cycle: Increasing greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants will accelerate climate change, leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme weather such as heat waves.

“China’s energy sector could still peak by 2025,” said Greenpeace’s Xie, but added that emissions from today will linger in the atmosphere for decades.

China is also the largest and fastest growing producer of renewable energy in the world.

Wind, solar, hydro and nuclear sources are expected to provide a third of electricity demand by 2025, up from 28.8 percent in 2020, according to estimates from the National Energy Administration.

But Greenpeace said the increase in approvals for coal power projects shows how the need for short-term economic growth is shifting investment away from renewable energy projects such as grid upgrades that could provide surplus wind and solar power to regions that need it.

With an average life of around 40 to 50 years, Chinese coal plants will operate at minimal capacity and at a loss if the country sticks to its emissions pledges, according to the report.

The China Electricity Council said more than half of the country’s large coal-fired power companies incurred losses in the first half of 2022.

© 2023 AFP