While consuming nearly half the world’s coal China is the biggest global emitter of gases that cause climate change and simultaneously plagued by air quality that causes half a million deaths a year.
However, that may be changing as recent data released by the National Energy Administration (NEA) shows.
According to the NEA data newly installed coal and gas power capacity in China fell 38.9 per cent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, a sign that the share of fossil fuels in the energy mix are slowly coming down.
Reuters Newsagency reports new renewable energy and nuclear capacity grew in the same period.
Since the beginning of last year, non-fossil fuels have accounted for nearly 60 per cent of new power capacity.
“The reduction in coal-fired capacity is due to the economic slowdown,” Li Junfeng, director general at government think-tank the National Centre of Climate Change Strategy, told Reuters.
“But the reduction is also a result of the crackdown on air pollution,” Mr Li said.
China’s GDP grew by 7.4 per cent in the first three months of the year, a notable drop from levels seen in the last decade.
Reuters reports in a bid to curb smog levels in the nation’s main urban centres, the government has banned construction of new coal plants in the Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin region in northern China, and in the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas.
Coal capacity makes up most of China’s thermal fuel power generators.
According to Mr Li, 75 per cent of the investments in the power sector last year flowed to non-fossil fuel projects, including hydro, solar and nuclear plants.
“Over the past several years, the share of thermal generation has been declining steadily,” said Wang Wanxing, the utility program director of think-tank The Energy Foundation.
“With the slowdown in economic growth and the requirements for air quality improvement, investment in thermal generation could decline further,” said Mr Wang.
Government data shows that coal-fired power generation continues to grow in absolute terms, 4.7 per cent in the first quarter, as China continues to consume more and more energy.
In comparison, nuclear power rose by 16.3 per cent year-on-year in over the same period, hydro by 9.7 per cent and wind by 9.5 per cent.
Reuters reports China hopes to bring coal’s share of total energy consumption to below 65 per cent this year, two years ahead of schedule, and continues to shut down old, inefficient coal plants and factories to mute energy waste.
Last year, coal’s share of the energy mix was 69.6 per cent, the first time it had dropped below 70 per cent in 35 years.
