China & Coal

 China has an answer to the heat waves now affecting much of the Northern Hemisphere: burn more coal to maintain a stable electricity supply for air-conditioning. Even before this year, China was emitting almost a third of all energy-related greenhouse gases — more than the United States, Europe and Japan combined.

NYTimes Jul 20, 2033

China permitted more coal power plants last year than any time in the last seven years, according to a new report released this week. It's the equivalent of about two new coal power plants per week. The report by energy data organizations Global Energy Monitor and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air finds the country quadrupled the amount of new coal power approvals in 2022 compared to 2021.

That's despite the fact that much of the world is getting off coal, says Flora Champenois, coal research analyst at Global Energy Monitor and one of the co-authors of the report.  Everybody else is moving away from coal and China seems to be stepping on the gas," she says. "We saw that China has six times as much plants starting construction as the rest of the world.

The report authors found the growth of new coal plant permitting appears to be a response to ongoing drought and last summer's historic heat wave, which scientists say was made more likely because of climate change. The heat wave increased demand for air conditioning and led to problems with the grid. The heat and drought led rivers to dry up, including some parts of the Yangtze, and meant less hydropower.  "We're seeing sort of this knee-jerk response of building a lot more coal plants to address that," says Champenois.

High prices for liquified natural gas due to the war in Ukraine also led at least one province to turn to coal, says Aiqun Yu, co-author of the report and senior researcher at Global Energy Monitor.  NPR Mar 2, 2023