The editorial in Global Times today defends China’s commitment to reaching its “carbon” reduction promises by 2030, but notes that this will include its continuing expansion of new coal-powered plants, since “China’s pursuit of carbon goals is on par with its focus on economic development.”
They report the stats on coal: “China approved permits for 52 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity in the first half of 2023, maintaining the previous pace of approving two plants per week, reported the South China Morning Post, citing a report by the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) on Tuesday.
“China also doubled its commissioning of coal plants year-on-year, plugging 17.1 GW into the grid in the first half of the year, according to the report.... The development of the power sector is closely related to the national economy and people’s livelihoods. Given China’s economic development trajectory, its power demand will still be rising steadily for a long time to come. According to an industry report, China’s electricity demand is expected to reach 9.5 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), about 2 trillion kWh more than in the 13th Five-Year Plan period.”
They go on to report that the installation of solar and wind power is growing even faster, and off-shore wind in China now exceeds that of the EU. For some reason they don’t mention nuclear power, even though the original plan for overall power and carbon emissions made clear that the reduction of carbon depended on the installation of nuclear power to take up the slack.
They reiterate: “The West has no right to demand China give up the right to development, especially when China has the ability to pursue the combination of carbon emissions reductions and economic growth. For a developing country like China, the accomplishment of the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals must be based on national conditions and cannot be divorced from the fundamentals of economic development.”
