China Approves Expansion of Coal Energy Despite Environmentalists’ Warning

Germany wants to shut down the last coal-fired power plant in 2038. China, on the other hand, is expanding the expansion of coal energy. Environmentalists warn of serious consequences.

According to a Greenpeace study, China has again significantly accelerated the construction of new coal-fired power plants this year. The Chinese regional authorities approved coal-fired power plants with a capacity of at least 20.45 gigawatts in the first three months of the year, the environmental organization said on Monday. That’s more than the capacity of all new power plants approved last year.

An expert report in February already attested to a massive increase in the expansion of coal-fired power plants in China in the past year. The number of newly approved plants was therefore as high as last in 2015. The climate experts therefore see the climate protection goals of the government in Beijing in danger.

China is one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the world. Last year, it covered almost 60 percent of its electricity needs with coal. At the same time, the country’s energy requirements continue to rise sharply. China’s President Xi Jinping has nevertheless announced that his country will reduce its CO2 emissions from 2030 and become climate-neutral by 2060.

“The coal boom of 2022 has clearly continued this year,” Greenpeace’s Xie Wenwen said. A “climate catastrophe” is looming. The Chinese energy sector could theoretically still achieve the declared goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions from 2025, Xie explained. But even then, the emissions released today would remain in the atmosphere for decades.

China is also the world’s largest and fastest growing producer of energy from renewable sources. China’s Energy Agency estimates that wind, solar, hydro and nuclear power will meet a third of China’s electricity needs by 2025, up from 28.8 percent in 2020.

The problem: Many of the newly approved coal-fired power plants are being built in provinces that are lagging behind in the expansion of renewables. According to Greenpeace, the surge in permits shows that the need for near-term economic growth is diverting investment away from renewable energy projects. It would therefore make more sense to expand the power grids to deliver excess wind and solar power to regions that need it.

According to Greenpeace, most of the new power plants will be built in areas that have suffered from power shortages in the past two years as a result of record heat waves. Climate experts also see this as a vicious circle, as the extreme weather phenomena are linked to climate change, which in turn is boosted by the greenhouse gas from the power plants.