China has grown its coal mining capacity over the course of last year despite promises to move away from relying on fossil fuels, particularly dirty coal and in addition to specific announcements to do away with excess mining capacity.
Data published by Chinese energy bureau this week show that the world’s second largest economy added mammoth 194 million tonnes of coal mining capacity in 2018.
According to Beijing-based National Energy Administration, China’s total coal mining capacity went from 3.34 billion tonnes at the end of 2017 to 3.53 billion. These numbers do not take into account a further 1.03 billion tonnes per year of already-approved coal capacity currently under construction, nor do they include another 370 million tonnes per year that are currently being extracted as part of a trial operation.
China’s National Energy Administration has already green lighted an additional seven coal mining operations which altogether would have a capacity of million tonnes per year within a period of time which already started at the beginning of 2019.
“For the energy transition, the role of gas is more important but the producers are not keen on reducing the sales price to maximise their investment return” Keun Wook Paik, senior research fellow at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies told BusinessDay.
According to data published by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, Chinese mines produced 3.55 billion tonnes of coal last year, a 5.2 percent increase as compared to 2017. The bureau also reported that in 2018 the country generated a total of 4.979 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity from coal-fired power plants, 6 percent higher than the same measure in 2017.
While coal mining capacity has seen an overall increase, however, the total number of coal mines in China has actually declined. At the end of 2018, the Chinese National Energy Administration reported 3,373 domestic coal mines, down from 3,907 in 2017. The majority of the coal mines that have been shuttered recently were small and ineffective operations in eastern China.
The United States and Europe have seen an increase in admissions as well. “Countries with massive and rapidly expanding middle classes such as China and India can be expected to continue driving up demand and therefore emissions, especially if they continue to lean on fossil fuels to fill their populaces’ growing need” Haley Zaremba, a writer and journalist based in Mexico City said in Oilprice.com article.
China’s fleet of coal plants are mostly young, around an average of 12 years old with a total lifespan of 40 years. As their capacity continues to increase, “we can expect coal-fired emissions to keep breaking records in the coming years” Zaremba added.
