China coal-fired power capacity still rising, bucking global trend

Chinaraised itscoal-firedpowercapacityby 42.9 gigawatts (GW), or about 4.5 per cent, in the 18 months to June, connecting new projects to the grid at a time whencapacityin the rest of the world shrank, according to astudypublished on Wednesday.

Chinaalso has another 121.3 GW ofcoal-firedpowerplants under construction, US-basedresearch networkGlobalEnergy Monitor said in its report, nearly enough topowerthe whole of France.

The increase followed a 2014-2016 "permitting surge" by local governments aiming to boost growth while formerly suspended projects have also been restarted,GlobalEnergy Monitor said. In the rest of the world,coal-firedpowercapacityfell 8.1 GW over the same period.

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To cut pollution and greenhouse gas emissions,Chinahas promised an "energy revolution" aimed at dramatically reducing its reliance oncoal. It cutcoal's share of the country's total energy from 68 per centin 2012 to 59 per cent last year, and researchers predict it will fall to 55.3 per centby 2020.

Absolutecoalconsumption, however, has continued to increase in line with a rise in overall Chinese energy demand.

And environmental groups have accused Beijing of relaxing its efforts oncoal, pointing to remarks in October by Premier Li Keqiang, who urgedChinato make greater use of itscoal"endowment" by building cleanpowerplants.

Chinaapproved new 40coalmines in the first three quarters of 2019, and it has continued to make use of "green" financing to supportcoal-related projects.

China's totalcoal-firedpowercapacitystands at more than 1,000 GW.GlobalEnergy Monitor said it needed to close more than 40 per cent of that to meet greenhouse gas reductions required to keepglobaltemperature rises well below 2 degrees Celsius.

It urged the government to strengthen policies discouragingcoalplants, support low-carbonpowerand move toward clean energy, while an investor body warned of the risk of building newcoal-firedplants.

"Over 40 per cent ofChina's existingcoalfleet is already estimated to be loss-making," said Stephanie Pfeifer, chief executive of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change.

Though costs are now as low as fossil fuels, some Chinese policymakers worry renewables like wind and solar are unreliable, and there are concerns that decarbonisation will hurt the country'scoalregions.

Some also believe that future energy shortages could hurtChina's attempts to address its slowing economy, said Yang Fuqiang, senior advisor with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a USenvironment group.

"Right now there is a big argument about whetherChinaneeds morecoal-firedpoweror not," he told Reuters. "They think the fourteenth five-year plan (2021-2025) will stimulate economic development and they are a little afraid there won't be enough electricity to support the economy."