According to a study co-authored by a government-backed research institute China must end the construction of all new coal-fired power plants in order to meet long-term climate goals in the most economically feasible manner.
China’s energy strategy over the next decade is under close scrutiny as it aims to bring climate warming carbon emissions to a peak by 2030 and fulfill a pledge made as part of the 2015 United Nations sponsored Paris Agreement on climate change.
Reuters Newsagency reports with economic growth at its slowest pace in nearly 30 years, Beijing has continued to approve new coal-fired plants, raising fears the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gas is backtracking on its commitments.
Beijing is capable of phasing out coal to help meet a global target to keep temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, but only if it embarks on a “structured and sustainable” closure strategy to minimise the economic impact, according to the study by Chinese government researchers and the University of Maryland Centre for Global Sustainability just published.
The report, which evaluated more than 1000 existing coal-fired power plants, said China must first end new construction and then rapidly close older and inefficient plants.
As much as 112 gigawatts (GW) does not meet environmental standards and could be shut down immediately, it said.
China currently has over 1000GW of coal-fired power, accounting for about 60 per cent of the country’s total installed generation capacity.
“Well-designed policies can help lower the cost of coal-power deep decarbonisation,” said Professor Jiang Kejun, researcher with the Chinese government-backed Energy Research Institute, one of the report’s authors.
China should also change the role of coal-fired power in its energy system.
By reducing the total operating hours of each plant, China could make coal-fired power a “peak load” supplier during periods of high electricity consumption, rather than the main “baseload” power source.
Beijing promised last year to show the “highest possible ambition” when drawing up new climate pledges for the coming decade, but it has built 42.9GW of new coal-fired power capacity since the start of 2018, with another 121GW under construction.
According to a research institute run by the State Grid Corporation, China will still need 1250GW to 1400GW of coal-fired power over the long term to guarantee stable electricity supplies.
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