Page 9 - AsiaElec Week 05 2021

AsiaElec POLICY AsiaElec

CHINA CHINA’S environmental watchdog has crit- reports to Han Zheng, a powerful member of
icised the National Energy Administration the Politburo and President Xi’s right-hand man
(NEA) for pursuing coal expansion while ignor- on environmental issues.
ing environmental standards. Dimitri De Boer, who heads ClientEarth’s
A report from the Central Environmental China office, said: “This is a highly encourag-
Inspection Team (CEIT), part of the Ministry ing development – environmental disciplinary
of Ecology and Environment (MEE), said that inspections are a very powerful tool, so it’s great
the NEA was failing to take into account envi- that they are being deployed to accelerate the cli-
ronmental protection and the need to promote mate transition.”
low-carbon energy. Zhang Jianyu, founder of the Environmen-
CEIT said that the NEA’s activities were a tal Defence Fund’s (EDF) China programme,
“deviation in ideological understanding”. told Climate Home News the report was
The watchdog found that the NEA, which “ground-breaking” and Greenpeace East Asia’s
implements government energy policy, had Li Shuo said it showed that “weak ambition
failed to curtail the expansion of coal generation would not be tolerated”.
in 12 key provinces and cities where cutting air Inspectors have demanded the NEA draw up
pollution had been identified as a priority. a “rectification plan”. The document is due to be
An investigation into coal mining in three submitted to the State Council within 30 work-
provinces also found 121 mines were producing ing days and will be made public.
30% more coal than permitted. China built 38,400 MW of new coal plants in
The report is seen as boosting the role of the 2020, over three times the 11,900 MW commis-
MEE compared to the previously dominant sioned in all other countries, according to data
NEA. from Global Coal Plant Tracker.
The NEA has been given 30 days to report Plans for a further 73,000 MW of new coal
measures to address the breaches identified and power projects were initiated in China in 2020,
outline future plans to the State Council, the five times as much as in all other countries.
equivalent of Cabinet, and the Communist Par- Excluding China, in 2020 the global coal fleet
ty’s Central Committee. declined by 17,200 MW, led by retirements in the
The MEE’s newly found power comes after US, European Union and UK.
the Chinese government last year set emissions The 2060 net-zero target has prompted some
reduction commitments, saying that it aimed to to draw up plans to reduce emissions in the com-
reach net zero by 2060. ing decades.
As such, the government is keen to rein in Curbing pollution and closing old coal mines
coal’s expansion, and is very sensitive to any rise has long been a theme of Chinese energy policy,
in pollution or coal production at old and inef- although until now the country had continued
ficient mines. to open new mines, often in inland regions away
Although staffed by officials from the rel- from coastal cities.™
atively weak environment ministry, the CEIT

Week 05 03•February•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9