Chinese Communist Party President Xi Jinping has announced his intention to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, but China remains a major coal-burning country for now.
In recent years, the Chinese government has been actively touting its role as a climate protection leader, and has also ambitiously announced its intention to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2060. However, China’s coal production, imports and consumption remain high.
Deutsche Welle China reports that the country’s coal production in 2020 remains higher than in 2019, despite the fact that China’s economic gains have been dragged down by the New Crown (a Chinese Communist Party virus) Epidemic. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, China produces a total of 3.8 billion tons of coal in 2020, again approaching the 2013 peak. And just a few months ago, President Xi Jinping announced that China is striving to peak its carbon emissions by 2030 and working toward carbon neutrality by 2060.
But the response of local governments to the central government’s environmental policies has not been positive. During these months, China’s state-owned power companies have also been approved to build several new coal-fired power plants to meet growing demand for electricity while also boosting the post-epidemic economic recovery. In Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region alone, the Chinese government approved nine new coal-fired power plants with a total installed capacity of 10 million kilowatts. According to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a non-governmental organization, these plants would make Inner Mongolia, with a population of 25 million, consume as much coal as Germany, with a population of 82 million, when completed.
Environmentalists are concerned that China may not be able to meet the promises made by Xi Jinping given the current state of the coal industry.
Recent Comments