Despite COP26 rhetoric, China’s coal production is hitting all time highs

Beijing’s continued reliance on coal, which accounts for more than half of the country’s power generation, reflects the country’s competing priorities. China has promised to peak its carbon emissions before 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, while raising its share of non-fossil fuel energy consumption. Chinese President Xi Jinping has also promised his country would stop funding of overseas coal plants.

Yet on Saturday, as more than 200 nations in Glasgow negotiated a climate deal, delegates from China and India watered down language in the agreement on reducing the use of coal, proposing the term “phase down unabated coal” instead of “phase out.” Alok Sharma, president of the event known as COP26, on Sunday called on both countries to “explain themselves.”

In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Monday that differences in development and resources should be “respected.”

“Before calling on all countries to end their use of coal, the energy needs and shortfalls of these countries must be considered,” he said. “We encourage developed countries to take the lead in stopping the use of coal. What we need is not just slogans but real action,” he said, according to the state-run Global Times.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who claimed the summit was a “game changing agreement,” maintained that the diluted language did not make “that much of a difference” and the summit had still sounded the “death knell” for coal, according to Reuters.

Still, China has come under increased criticism over its climate commitments, which critics say are not ambitious enough. Xi, who has not traveled outside of China since January 2020, did not attend the climate summit and Beijing did not commit to more ambitious pledges, giving the country room to expand coal consumption into the next decade. In its updated Nationally Determined Contributions, or climate commitments, Beijing reiterated earlier promises.

“I think the current energy crunch in China also makes it very hard for China to consider any stronger pledge on passing out coal,” said Yan Qin, a research associate at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies.

In response to power shortages that forced electricity rationing to factories and households across more than half of the country, China has increased coal imports and approved a raft of new coal mines. Regulators have ordered coal mines to expand production, increasing capacity by an additional 220 million tons a year.

Weaning itself from coal will be no small feat, especially as electricity demand ramps up during the winter when much of the country depends on coal for heating.

“There is no way to eliminate within 30 years,” said Yu Lihong, a professor at East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai focusing on energy and economics. “Once winter comes, there is no way to control the amount of coal used when basic livelihoods must be guaranteed,” she said.

Coal has been the lifeblood of China‘s economic boom, climate activists say, a fact that makes the current energy transition that much harder.

“For China to quit coal is like for a chain smoker to quit cigarettes. It won’t be pain free. It won’t happen overnight. But it has to be done,” said Li Shuo, senior adviser at Greenpeace East Asia.

Pei-Lin Wu in Taipei contributed to this report.