By Paul Homewood

From Voice of America:

China is planning to increase coal production by a reported 300 million tons this year. Observers say the government hopes such a plan will renew the country’s slow-growing economy.

However, critics say increasing coal production will hurt efforts to reduce climate-changing carbon emissions.

The amount of the reported increase would represent seven percent of China’s total coal production in 2021 — 4.1 billion tons.

China is one of the biggest investors in wind and solar energy. But recently its leaders called for more coal-burning power after economic growth fell last year. Power shortages caused power failures and factory shutdowns. Russia’s attack on Ukraine added to worries that foreign oil and coal supplies might be disrupted.

Coal is important for “energy security,” government officials said at an April 20 meeting that approved plans to expand production. That information was reported by the business news publication Caixin.

The ruling party also is building power plants to help grow China’s economy.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/china-promotes-coal-burning-again-/6547558.html?mc_cid=07cef24d56&mc_eid=4961da7cb1

BTW – we must ignore the commonly made claim that “China is one of the biggest investors in wind and solar energy”. China is, of course, by a long way the world’s largest consumer of electricity, by nature everything they do is big… But wind and solar make up less than a tenth of their electricity, tiny by western standards.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

MAY 4, 2022

China Promotes Coal-burning Again