“The End Of China’s Coal Boom,” is a new, must-read chart-filled report from Greenpeace. It documents the response of China to the almost unimaginable life-shortening air pollution caused by its rapid growth in coal use.

One of its charts highlights the stunning statistic that over half of the growth in global carbon pollution in the past decade has come just from China’s increase in coal!

But that kind of growth of coal has more than just climate impacts. It is “draining the country’s arid west of precious water resources,” as Greenpeace itself noted.

And then there is the air pollution. Climate Progress has pointed out “when eight-year-olds start getting lung cancer that can be attributed to air pollution, you’ve got a problem. When smog forces schools, roads, and airports to shut down because visibility is less than 50 yards, you’ve got a problem. When a study finds that severe pollution is slashing an average of five-and-a-half years from the life expectancy in northern China, you’ve got a problem.”

The response by the Chinese government has been to require coal burning be cut — in some cases sharply — in China’s heavily populated eastern provinces, as shown in this graphic from the report:

As Greenpeace’s Li Shuo and Kaisa Kosonen wrote:

This puts China and hence the world much closer to the 2°C path, as the report points out. But if we are to have any chance whatsoever of getting anywhere near that essential target, China will have to commit to have coal consumption peak and then start declining in the 2020s. And we Americans will have to get off our butts, too.

Editorial Notes: Good news, but is Greenpeace taking into account China’s plans for coal gasification?

Coal gasification: The clean energy of the future?
The main technology being used is coal gasification – instead of burning the fossil fuel, it is chemically transformed into synthetic natural gas (SNG).

The process is decades old, but recent rises in the price of gas mean it is now more economically viable. The US has dabbled in the technique, but China is going all out in a bid to satisfy its soaring demand for power and reduce its dependency on imported liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The country’s National Energy Administration has laid out plans to produce 50 billion cubic metres of gas from coal by 2020, enough to satisfy more than 10% of China’s total gas demand.

Not only does it make economic sense, but it allows China to exploit stranded coal deposits sitting thousands of kilometres from the country’s main industrial centres. Transporting gas is, after all, a lot cheaper than transporting coal.

Coal gasification can also help address local pollution problems that have in recent months brought parts of the country to a virtual standstill.

But there are two big problems. First, coal gasification actually produces more CO2 than a traditional coal plant; so not only will China be using more coal, it will be doing so at a greater cost to the environment.

As Laszlo Varro, head of gas, coal and power markets at the International Energy Agency (IEA), says: “[Coal gasification] is attractive from an economic and energy security perspective.

“It can be a nice solution to local pollution, but its overall carbon intensity is worse [than coal mining], so it is not attractive at all from a climate change point of view”.

see also Fire in the hole: After fracking comes coal

6 Comments on "Is This The End Of China’s Coal Boom?"

Kenz300 on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 1:03 am 



Quote — “As Greenpeace’s Li Shuo and Kaisa Kosonen wrote:
Twelve of China’s 34 provinces, that burn 44% of the country’s coal, are committed to control their coal use. Some, like Beijing, have pledged ambitious cuts as steep as 50% in only five years.
This puts China and hence the world much closer to the 2°C path, as the report points out.”
——————————

Climate Change will impact each of us………..

Years of Living Dangerously Premiere Full Episode – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brvhCnYvxQQ

Makati1 on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 1:57 am 



It seems that China’s coal consumption grew at about the same rate that we shipped our factories there. Over the last 10+ years, the coal that the US would have needed to produce those same hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods, went to China instead.

We got rid of the coal pollution and exported it to Asia. In exchange, we were able to pretend that all was well here in the States by having cheap Asian made TVs and I-toys that made it seem like US incomes were growing when they were actually shrinking.

Nothing is simple today. But, this article is just more China bashing which is in fashion now.

kervennic on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 5:14 am 



The important point here is the question mark. The data shows that the boom is indeed quite solid.

Davy, Hermann, MO on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 6:58 am 



Mak, you remind me of the guy protecting and enabling his prostitute girlfriend. JUST SAY NO. Did the US make China develop? Did China have no choice in the matter? What about the poor US guy who lost his job that was outsourced? You POSTER GIRL China is killing the planet but you choose to defend her as the one exploited. China the coal slave exploited and forced into coal slavery. MAK, one word BS!

Makati1 on Sat, 19th Apr 2014 10:21 am 



Davy, I will defend any country but my own. I would just as soon see the US go under than what it has been doing and will do to the earth and it’s inhabitants as it’s greedy 1% and it’s self-preservation military industrial complex goes insane.

It is building a new generation of nukes 40 times the power of those dropped on Japan and placing them all over the EU. That is insanity in today’s world. But then, as always, they hope to keep the ‘collateral damage’ in someone else’ lands, not the precious US 50.

I wonder when Russia will say enough and push the button? How far can you push a powerful beast (Russia) into a corner and not expect to get bitten? Last count Russia still has about 15,000 nukes.

Kenz300 on Sun, 20th Apr 2014 12:48 pm 



Even China has begun the transition to safer, cleaner and cheaper alternative energy sources.

They are investing huge amounts into wind and solar energy. They are also closing down some of the worst polluters. It is not going to be easy but they have started to transition.

The clean energy transition is unstoppable, so why fight it? – SmartPlanet

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/the-take/clean-energy-transition-unstoppable-so-why-fight-it/?tag=nl.e662&s_cid=e662&ttag=e662&ftag=TRE383a915