BEIJING: China and India’s coal-power boom is undermining the world’s shift from the heavily polluting source of electricity, according to a new report from Global Energy Monitor (GEM).
The world outside China shrunk its coal infrastructure by 9.2 gigawatts last year, retiring more plants than it commissioned, including shutting the very last generator in Britain.
Even including China, new plants totalled only 44 gigawatts, the lowest level in 20 years, researchers said in the report published yesterday.
But the slowdown may just be the calm before the storm.
China last year started construction on 94 gigawatts of coal plants, the most in data back to 2015. And India saw proposals for new plants jump to a record 38 gigawatts, the researchers said.
“If not curtailed, the wave of new coal plants could undo President Xi’s pledge to strictly limit the growth in coal consumption through this year,” the report said.
Coal, which emits more carbon dioxide than oil or gas when burned, has proven far more resilient than many expected when most of the world’s nations agreed in Paris in 2015 to cut emissions and limit the impacts of climate change.
Amid rising global demand for electricity, coal consumption hit a new peak last year, and the International Energy Agency has revised its coal demand outlook higher in its last four annual reports.
Driving that are China and India, which combine to consume more than two-thirds of the world’s coal.
The two countries accounted for 92% of all newly proposed plants last year, according to GEM.
Retirements of old coal plants picked up in Europe, led by Germany.
But they’ve slowed in the United States, where several utilities have delayed or withdrawn their plans as the boom in data centres to feed artificial intelligence cause surprising increases in electricity demand.
“Work is still needed to ensure coal power is phased out in line with the Paris climate agreement, particularly in the world’s wealthiest nations,” Christine Shearer, a project manager at GEM, said in a written statement.
China’s companies also continue to fund coal power developments beyond its borders, despite President Xi Jinping’s vow in 2021 to halt overseas financing.
Newly proposed coal plants in Africa rose for the third year in a row, with all 2.8 gigawatts of capacity backed by Chinese or Indian companies, according to the report.
Just last week, equipment manufacturer China Western Power Industrial Co announced it had signed a US$1.4bil deal to help build the 1.8 gigawatt Xekong thermal power plant in Laos.
While the filing didn’t specify the fuel to be used, GEM has said its research on the plant indicates it will be coal-fired.
Representatives of China Western and Xekong Thermal Power Plant Co didn’t respond to requests for comment. — Bloomberg
