China and India are currently mining the dirtiest fossil fuel combined at 14 million tonnes per day. Coal continues to be important not only for their current energy needs, but its role seems to be determined in the coming decades. It is also as the two Asian giants install massive amounts of renewable energy and pursue the goal of zeroing greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the Global Energy Monitor, the global pipeline of coal power under development grew last year, the first progress since 2015, driven by a wave of proposed new facilities in China.
The government estimates that coal plant capacity will increase to 267 GW by 2030 from 208 GW now.
Typically, new coal-fired plants would be expected to operate for at least 30 years, cementing the fuel’s role in the global energy mix beyond the middle of the century.
Negotiators on Saturday grappled with last-minute changes to the COP26 treaty to accelerate the “phase-out” of continuous coal power to pledge to “phase-down” use of the fuel after pushback from India and China One call down. COP26 President Alok Sharma said in a BBC interview that there was backlash against both the countries, countries have to explain themselves.
Meanwhile, mines in China and India have been ramping up production in recent weeks to ease supply shortfalls that have caused widespread power outages and curbed industrial activity.
China’s miners have surpassed the government target of increasing production to 12 million tonnes per day, while India’s daily output is closer to two million tonnes.
Yang Weimin, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference’s economic committee and government adviser, told a conference in Beijing on Saturday: “The power cuts from the end of September to the end of September show that we are still not adequately prepared.” ”
He said additional funding is needed to ensure that coal plants can be used to supplement the growing share of renewable energy.
According to BloombergNEF, the share of coal in global electricity generation fell to 34% in 2020, the smallest in more than two decades, although it remains the largest power source.
In China, it accounted for about 62% of electricity generation last year. President Xi Jinping has set a target for the country to peak fuel consumption in 2025, and to reduce non-fossil fuel energy sources to more than 80% of its total mix by 2060.
Even more important for India is coal, which accounts for 72% of electricity generation. Fuel will still make up 21% of India’s electricity mix by 2050, said analysts at BNEF, including Atin Jain, in a note last month.
“Coal can help the country meet its energy needs without relying on imports,” said Debashis Mishra, Mumbai-based partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, “especially as alternatives such as nuclear have been hindered by high costs and security concerns.”
Climate scientists insist that allowing longer-term use of the fuel by top coal-consuming countries is incompatible with efforts to limit the rise in global temperature to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
“Securing a safe climate future will require us to give up coal,” Scientia Professor Matthew England from the Center for Climate Change Research at the University of New South Wales in Sydney said in a statement. “Net zero cannot be achieved without immediate action to release the world’s fossil fuel reserves into the ground.”
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