China Green Targets Tied to Coal Pollution Problem

China in Global Clean Energy: Leading Wind Power, Struggling with Coal Dependency

If we would like to look at the global energy outlook in 2024. According to the IEA's mid-term update, the global electricity demand is expected to grow by around 4% in 2024, compared to 2.5% growth. In 2023. demand is projected to increase by 2.2% to 627 TWh in 2023, which is 0.3 percent below the average annual growth rate of the past decade.

The world's highest electricity production and consumption is led by China and India, who occupy the first and third places in Asia. China is also the largest regional investor in renewable energy. Although countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh in South Asia have boosted power generation, they are excessively reliant on coal, fossil fuels, and oil. China, in contrast, accounts for one-third of global clean energy investment in solar and wind power, with $273 billion invested in energy initiatives in 2023 alone. With a focus on green industry, China has set ambitious targets to reduce emissions and address climate change: peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. However, China's main electricity source is coal, accounting for more than 50% of its total generation.

Can China meet climate goals by relying on coal as its main energy source?

China's coal-fired generation reached 2,7993.5 terawatt-hours (TWH), making the highest output since 2015. The energy think tank Ember has released a report with anxiety about this. The non-governmental organization the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) has also warned that China's planned coal mining expansion threatens its climate goals. The country produced a record 4.7 billion tons of coal last year, more than half of the global production, and it is set to add 1.2 billion tons of capacity annually, which includes the risk of methane emissions, and environmental pollution from the new sites, and existing mines

Surprisingly, coal-fired power generation fell in the first six months of 2024 and no new coal-fired power projects were approved for construction, the first visible result of China's 'dual carbon target' policy introduced in 2020. The share of electricity supplied by coal has increased from 63% to 59.6%.

A question arises: Is China advancing clean energy for commercial gain or to control air pollution? 

The meaningful purpose is that China must move away from coal dependence. One after another, China's investment in solar and wind projects is skyrocketing, just like putting the world on the shelf.  This country is set to achieve its wind and solar capacity goals and objectives by the end of 2024, six years ahead of schedule. 

In fact, the amount of wind power under construction in China is nearly twice that of the rest of the world combined.

According to GEM, China's wind energy capacity in 2024 is far ahead of the United States. The country is on track to reach wind and solar capacity by the end of 2024, six years ahead of Beijing's target. 

However, the organization highlights some critical issues in China's green energy policies. Despite massive investments in renewable energy, particularly solar and wind power, China gained 50% of its target so, this country needs enormous investment in renewable energy to produce 25% of its energy from non-fossil sources by 2030.

And it is alarming that the analysis also reveals the number of new coal power plants in China has quadrupled over the past decade. 

While China has previously vowed to aggressively limit new coal projects, the current trend seems to be that it continues to invest in coal-fired power.

Its growing wind power capacity aims to offset pollution in its environment while presenting a global impact.

China's wind power 2024 from January to June was recorded at 525.3 TW, up 10.4% from the same month in 2023.

It's an incredible move to say China is moving greener than coal?