Three months into 2023, China approves record coal burning plants despite pledge to reduce emissions

Despite its pledge to reduce emissions from fossil fuels, China as per Greenland has this year approved a major surge in coal power. The jump in approval of coal-powered power plants has sparked concerns that China, which happens to be the world's second-largest economy and also globally the biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases driving climate change, will backtrack on its climate goals.

China has pledged that it will reach peak emissions between 2026 and 2030 and that by 2060 it will become carbon-neutral.

However, as per Greenpeace, in the first three months of 2023, local governments in"energy-hungry" Chinese provinces have approved at least 20.45 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power.

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This, according to AFP, is more than double the 8.63 GW which Greenpeace reported for the same time period last yearand surpasses the 18.55 GW approved for the entirety of 2021.

Most of the newly approved coal projects, as per AFP, are in provinces that, during the last two years, have suffered "punishing power shortages" due to record heatwaves. Others are in the southwest part of the country where last year, a record drought significantly cut down the hydropower output.

In February, the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) released a study according towhich last year China approved the largest expansion of coal-fired power plants since 2015.

As per Greenpeace campaigner Xie Wenwen, China's push for more coal plants "risks climate disasters... and locking us into a high-carbon pathway."

"The 2022 coal boom has clearly continued into this year."

Last year, China reportedly relied on coal for nearly 60 per cent of its electricity needs.

Watch |China approves biggest expansion in new coal power plants

Greenpeace experts cautioned that investing in additional fossil-fuel plants to cope with the surge in air conditioning would generate a vicious cycle: higher greenhouse gas emissions from the coal plants would accelerate global warming, leading to more frequent extreme weather events like the heat waves China experienced in the past couple of years.

Beijing is also the world's largest and fastest-growing producer of renewable energy. Xie says that the nation's power sector can still peak emissions by 2025, but that emissions released today will continue to linger in the atmosphere for decades.

(With inputs from agencies)

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