Page 6 - AsiaElec Week 24 2022

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China sending mixed

signals on coal use

CHINA JUST months after Chinese authorities imposed decade China will start to limit coal output by
steep penalties on illegal coal mines in the north- adding; “Before the gate closes, the industry
ern province of Shanxi, the first few weeks of is pushing through as many coal projects as
2022 saw Beijing give the green light to 7.3 GW possible.”
of new coal-fired power plants (CPPs) across the In the short term, Yu says “(W)hen people dig
country. up coal from the ground, it’s like they are dig-
Coming at a cost of $1.5bn, construction of ging up money. This is very appealing to people.”
the new CPPs, however, runs somewhat counter The appeal of coal and quick-fix moves to
to a number of pledges made by Chinese Presi- boost an economy temporarily running in sec-
dent Xi Jinping to the United Nations; one being ond gear following a resurgence of COVID is
that Beijing would stop funding overseas coal not expected to last, though.
projects. Beneath the surface contradictions, and
Yet with China starting to emerge from one apparent return to carbon-based energy solu-
of its most extreme COVID-related lockdowns tions, China’s environmental planners remain
since the pandemic began, the demand for coal upbeat – and with influence.
has never been higher. Following an initial boost when Xi spoke in
As such, so perplexing are the messages front of the world at the UN in 2020, high-rank-
emerging from China on coal use, that the gov- ing officials behind the scenes have in the last
ernment is now heavily reliant on the same firm year gone head to head with with the National
it punished in late 2021, Jinneng Holding Shanxi Energy Administration (NEA).
Coal, to run fuel to new CPPs in the north of At the local level, at least in the area surround-
the country. ing the nation’s capital, a “deteriorated political
So powerful is Jinneng Holding now in China ecology” supported by the NEA led the local
that it is now understood to be the nation’s sec- government to reduce coal sourced output
ond-largest producer of coal. around the city in a move that shocked many
One senior researcher at Global Energy Mon- in spring 2021.
itor in Switzerland, Yu Aiqun, called this an Nature intervened when a series of heat waves
indication that “government departments have over the summer and bitterly cold temperatures
different and sometimes conflicting agendas.” over the winter saw a spike in electricity demand
Given that just two years ago, President Xi and officials again turning to coal-fired output.
announced to the world that China would be Undeterred, the government’s Ministry of
carbon neutral by 2060, and promised imme- Ecology and Environment kept up the pres-
diate steps to this end, the statement by Ms. Yu sure on carbon-based electricity generators. In
is regarded as something of an understatement. March four companies were openly slammed
And with major cities including the finan- for faking data on carbon emissions; a crucial
cial hub Shanghai now beginning to open up move many observers see as indicative of a gov-
post-lockdown, economic growth is in many ernment unafraid to go back to the old ways, but
areas trumping climate action. wanting to appear to be doing the right thing in
“The coal industry was waiting for an oppor- the eyes of the wider world.
tunity to ramp up coal production and mining,” And as Yu Aiqun concluded, “the only pres-
Ms. Yu continued, alluding to a promise by the sure that will work (in China) is from the top
Chinese president that from the middle of the down.”™

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 24 15•June•2022