Rising CO2 emissions: China, Kerry and coal

In a per capita comparison, China emits more carbon dioxide than the EU. And new coal-fired power plants are still being approved. The US climate commissioner Kerry should encourage a rethink.

The authorities in China have approved 24 new hard coal-fired power plants since the beginning of the year – at least Greenpeace announced last week. The total output is more than five gigawatts – five times as much as the large coal power plant in Datteln, North Rhine-Westphalia, which is controversial in Germany.

So in the People’s Republic there is more investment in coal. At least the pace of the expansion of coal-fired power in China has slowed down in recent months, the environmental lobby organization recognizes.

Wind, solar and coal power

Nowhere in the world is there so much investment in new wind and solar power systems as in China. But while the central government in Beijing feels committed to climate protection, the issue has not yet reached all provinces, said Li Danqing, Greenpeace China representative.

“Some regional governments, especially in coal-rich parts of the country, still feel motivated to invest in new coal projects,” said Li Danqing. “Inwardly, these regional governments have not yet given up their belief in coal; they continue to rely on the coal industry.”

The specifications come from Beijing

The impression that individual regional governments in China could do what they want in terms of climate protection is, however, misleading. Because in the dictatorship of China, the Communist Party has absolute say; both at the central government level and in the 33 parts of the People’s Republic. This also applies to climate protection.

“It is time for the central government to put more pressure on local governments to change their attitudes towards climate protection and coal,” urged Yan Qin, an expert on China’s climate policy at the economic analysis firm Refinitiv in Oslo. Last year, state and party leader Xi Jinping promised to make the People’s Republic a climate-neutral country by 2060. This is a very ambitious goal, says the analyst.

China now emits more carbon dioxide per capita than the EU. Unlike in Europe and the USA, CO2 emissions will continue to increase over the next few years. Only towards the end of the decade does China want to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

“A huge potential for China”

“What is not discussed too much in the Chinese media is the fact that we have completely different technologies today than we used to,” says climate protection analyst Yan Qin. “The costs for solar and wind energy, but also for hydrogen technologies, have fallen sharply.”

The low-carbon options are much cheaper than they were ten years ago. “So there is huge potential for China to get out of fossil fuels even faster,” says Yan with conviction.

Greenpeace sees China under time pressure

“China’s leadership has determined when CO2 emissions will decrease and when carbon neutrality will be achieved. There is not much time left for the People’s Republic,” says Li Danqing from the Greenpeace office in China. “Because China started industrialization later than others, it means that the People’s Republic is under more pressure and has less time than others.”

Kerry wants to get China off coal

The news agency Reuters and the “Wall Street Journal” report that in the next few days the US climate commissioner John Kerry will travel to China again to persuade the communist leadership to phase out coal more quickly. It is possible that Kerry will persuade the Chinese leadership to forego financing coal-fired power plants in other countries.

So far, China has invested billions in infrastructure projects, especially in emerging and developing countries – including large sums in coal-fired power plants. According to the “Wall Street Journal”, China’s government has not financed any new projects in the current year.

In China itself, the issue of climate protection has so far hardly played a role – neither in society, nor in the media or in people’s everyday lives.