Friday 28 September 2018

CHINA'S BOOST FOR COAL FIRED POWER PLANTS REVEALED

Building work has restarted at hundreds of Chinese coal-fired power stations, according to an analysis of satellite imagery. The research, carried out by green campaigners CoalSwarm, suggests that 259 gigawatts of new capacity are under development in China. The authors say this is the same capacity to produce electricity as the entire US coal fleet. The study says government attempts to cancel many plants have failed. --Matt McGrath, BBC News, 26 September 2018



259 Gigawatts (GW) of new capacity are under development in China, comparable to the entire U.S. coal fleet (266 GW). This represents a 25% increase in China’s coal power fleet. The new capacity is the result of a permitting surge from late 2014 to early 2016, after a regulatory devolution from central to provincial authorities. Contrary to previous reporting and analysis, many of the restrictions only delayed new projects rather than stopping them. CoalSwarm, 20 September 2018




China will talk a good game at the UN Climate Conference in Paris but won’t make any binding commitments, concludes The Truth About China, an important new report published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation. “China’s Communist Party has as its highest priority its own self-preservation, and that self-preservation depends overwhelmingly on its ability to continue raising the standard of living of its citizens,” states economist Patricia Adams. “With China’s economic growth faltering, the last thing the Communist Party wants is to hobble its economy further by curtailing the use of the fossil fuels upon which its economy depends. A major cutback in fossil fuel use represents an existential threat to the Communist Party’s rule. It simply isn’t going to happen.” --Global Warming Policy Foundation, 2 December 2015

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