March 13, 2023

Despite green pledges, China increases coal plant constructions

topic:	Air Pollution
located:	China
editor:	Amy Liu

Chinese officials have touted China’s advancements in its green-energy transition. "Renewable energy accounted for 47.3% of China's total installed capacity last year, which is historically over that of coal power," exclaimed the state-owned company, China Energy Engineering Corporation in February. However, the improvement may not continue as hundreds of coal power plants will be constructed in the coming years.

Hit by the strongest heatwave since 1961, the Southwest regions of China, including Sichuan and Chongqing, suffered droughts and hydroelectric power shortages last summer, forcing factories to shut down production lines for over a week. According to the country's Ministry of Emergency Management, 783,000 people along the Yangtze River required assistance. Citizens in Chengdu, a city in Sichuan, were not able to use electricity for 10 hours of the day - a situation exacerbated by the government’s decision to give priority in energy use to vegetable cultivation.

To support grid stability, the construction of 50 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity were permitted in China in 2022, which is more than a 50 percent increase compared to the previous year, and also six times as large as the rest of the world combined. The new plants are mostly located in provinces with high electricity demand such as Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Although the increase in new developments does not necessarily mean that carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector will increase, it raises the global concerns that China’s coal power plants will slow down the declining dependence on fossil fuels. The new plants worry environmental institutions that China will fail to meet its goal to start decreasing its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2060.

As coal combustion accounts for 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions from energy use, causing an increase in extreme weather and raising average global temperatures, the world continues to fight against climate change and global warming by reducing coal use. Unfortunately these were offset by the growth from China, India and other Asian countries in 2020.

As more coal burns, more toxic pollution is released, leading to health hazards for Chinese citizens. According to a study published by the Institute of Physics, if China reduces its carbon dioxide intensity by 4 percent by 2030, it could prevent 95,200 premature deaths.

While China has made strides in its development of renewable energy sources, coal remains an integral and growing component of its electricity supply. Stricter regulation on power capacity for coal projects, as well as decreased funding for unnecessary projects when renewable sources are available, will all contribute to decreasing the world’s largest polluter’s toxic emissions.

Image by Daniel Moqvist