Thursday, November 21, 2019

China Still Stuck on Coal


Some have the idea that China will lead the world to a green future of renewable energy. That's an idea that sounds good but doesn't stand up to facts.  China isn't giving up on coal power plants. It's surging ahead.

As other nations close coal plants, China brings new coal plants online even faster.
China’s growing appetite for new coal-fired power stations has outstripped plant closures in the rest of the world since the start of last year, data shows. 
Elsewhere countries reduced their capacity by 8GW in the 18 months to June because old plants were retired faster than new ones were built. But over the same period China increased its capacity by 42.9GW despite a global move towards cleaner energy sources and a pledge to limit the use of coal. 
Christine Shearer, an analyst at the NGO Global Energy Monitor, said: “China’s proposed coal expansion is so far out of alignment with the Paris agreement that it would put the necessary reductions in coal power out of reach, even if every other country were to completely eliminate its coal fleet.”
...China is also helping to finance a quarter of all the new coal projects in the rest of the world, including in South Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh. 
China’s coal investments, including domestic projects, mean it is backing more than half of all global coal power capacity under development.

Conclusion: The global community is not taking climate change seriously even as it poses a genuinely existential threat to the survival of civilization, the survival of our species and the survival of most other species with which we share this planet, its lands and its oceans. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was a report the other day on Arirang TV in South Korea of a Chinese person found to be sick with the Bubonic plague which is an infection of the lymphatic system, usually resulting from the bite of an infected flea, Xenopsylla cheopis (the rat flea). In very rare circumstances, as in the septicemic plague, the disease can be transmitted by direct contact with infected tissue or exposure to the cough of another human.There hasn't been any mention since....not related to this article but I thought I would send it along. Anyong

The Mound of Sound said...

Bubonic plague is rare but still occurs even in the United States, Anyong. The instances where a human is infected are quite rare. What I read about the Mongolian case suggests the victim ate an infected rabbit.