China Pledges to Stop Building Coal Plant Abroad: Announced

China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, said on Tuesday that his country stop building Coal-fired power plants offshore are a major shift for the world’s second-largest economy to move away from fossil fuel support.

China “will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” he said. United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.

The news comes amid a large-scale international effort to reduce coal use and prevent global temperatures from rising at their current pace, which scientists warn could be catastrophic.

The statement of China, which is by far the largest domestic coal producer and the world’s largest coal power plant financier, was met with caution by experts.

“Now all the major public financiers have signaled that they are moving away from coal overseas,” said Kevin P. Gallagher, professor of global development policy at Boston University. tracing China’s global energy finance. “China’s announcement could be a step towards accelerating green transformations.”

China is the undisputed king of coal.

Last year, China built three times more new coal plants than all the other countries in the world combined, which equates to “more than one large coal power plant per week.” according to estimates From the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research in Finland, Dr.

China’s domestic net coal plant capacity construction increased by 29.8 gigawatts, offsetting gains from the rest of the world where net coal plant capacity decreased by 17.2 gigawatts, according to the centre.

To wait. How much energy is in a gigawatt?

enough power 750,000 homes or 110 million LED bulbs, according to experts, or almost a time travel DeLorean.

How many countries have coal-fired power plants financed by China?

Currently, more than a dozen countries, mostly in Asia.

China Development Bank and China Export-Import Bank, which are China’s main sources to finance the construction of coal plants, have poured $51.6 billion into coal plants around the world. Boston University follower.

According to the tracker, the largest part of it, more than $34.4 billion, is in Asia.

Indonesia is China’s largest coal mining partner with 21 projects and around $9.3 billion in investment, followed by Vietnam with 13 projects and $8.8 billion in investment.

Pakistan has seven coal plants with $4.5 billion financed by China. Other countries with Chinese-funded coal plants include South Africa, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Russia and Turkey.

Is China giving up coal? Not yet.

China produces about 1,200 gigawatts of energy from coal domestically, according to Greenpeace China. The group said the coal plants it helped build abroad produce less than 100 gigawatts.

Mr. Xi’s announcement did not refer to domestic production. And the country’s latest five-year development plan, approved earlier this year, allows for the expansion of domestic coal-fired power plant construction in the coming years.

Is China currently developing any coal plants abroad? Yeah.

According to Li Shuo, policy adviser to Greenpeace China, there are about 40 gigawatts of new coal plant projects in different stages of development in 20 different countries.

For some host countries, the only way to extract energy from their coal supplies is to partner with China, he said. This is because China has plenty of money, the steel mills needed to build coal power plants, and engineering expertise that many other countries do not have.

“The host country may never achieve these projects,” Mr. Li said. “For some, it’s a deal breaker. If you don’t have Chinese support, you won’t have these projects either.”

Has anyone built a coal power plant?

South Korea and Japan became the two largest supporters of coal power plants abroad, after China. South Korea in April announced plans to stop funding such projects. Japan in May i did that too. In light of this, China’s role in financing overseas power plants would “only increase,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst at the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research, a research organization.

construction plans coal plants were also shelved (South Africa), reassessed (Bangladesh) and faced with financing problems (Vietnam).

What questions did Xi leave unanswered?

When Mr. Xi said that China would not “build new coal-fired power projects abroad,” he didn’t specify whether he meant just the government or included private companies in China, Greenpeace’s Mr. Li wondered.

It also said in the statement that it was not clear whether the moratorium on “build” now means funding or whether the new policy would apply to projects that have already been proposed, approved or under construction.

Mr. Li said he would like to have more clarity on these issues in the coming weeks.