Old King Coal chokes China’s new clean energy boom

Beijing swears to stay on track to swamp the world with clean energy and monopolize carbon emissions, as well as staying on track with two new coal-fired plants per week.

Amid sino-apologetics that China leads the world in cleantech, which is actually true, it’s also widely reported that the world’s second-largest economy is the global leader in rolling out coal-fired power plants.

To put that into perspective, in the first half of 2024, China’s new coal power capacity beats that of all of 2022 or 90% of the world’s new coal plant construction.

It isn’t going to stop there: Beijing plans to bring 80GW of new coal-fired generation capacity online this year, and it’s already the world’s worst emitter. 

To be true, a report by two think tanks – for what think tanks are worth – the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, or CREA, and Global Energy Monitor suggests that Beijing aims to cut down permits for new coal-powered energy sources.

But China’s demand for energy means it has to get it wherever it can. 

Clean energy is subject to the whims of an ever-changing climate.

And if that means coal, China will take the coal, imported from avowedly clean-energy-committed nations like Australia. 

In an optimistic statement, Qi Qin, the lead author of the CREA report, said:

China needs to stop allowing room for fossil fuel emissions to grow in its policies.

Perhaps the guarded optimism is not without basis. According to the website CarbonBrief: 

Clean energy generated a record-high 44% of China’s electricity in May 2024, pushing coal’s share down to a record low of 53%. 

But clean energy is temperamental, subject to the whims of an ever-changing climate. Just pause for thought next time you’re tempted to gush about cleantech giant, the People’s Republic of China.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy of China Factor.