TV Schedule

China coal demand unfazed despite winter storms


  3. JanforGore
  4. related topics
by Siobhan Devine
Washington, March 5, 2007
When snowstorms blanketed large swaths of China this winter they aggravated transportation bottlenecks and already-depleted coal reserves, provoking local power cuts and highlighting the vulnerability of China's reliance on coal. But despite such challenges and coal's damaging environmental side-effects, demand is unlikely to wane soon.

"The government is very aware of relying too heavily on coal, because it contributes to the energy security issue and the environmental issue," said Yingling Liu, China program manager at the Worldwatch Institute. Nevertheless, she predicts coal demand will increase in the near and medium term.

"Urban demand has driven the expansion of the heavy industry sector, and this trend will continue in the next two decades. This means that demand for energy, and coal specifically, will increase," she said.

Chinese demand for coal has registered 12 percent annual growth since 2001, and coal makes up almost 70 percent of China's energy consumption, according to a joint report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. According to a separate CSIS report released in October, demand is expected to triple by 2025, particularly due to growth in the nation's electricity sector. And coal demand in China's non-electricity, primarily industrial, sectors is expected to more than double by 2030, according to the Energy Information Agency.

Coal's widespread popularity in China derives from its abundance there. China is the world's top coal producer, providing 40 percent of global supply in 2006, according to BP. Such production is sustained by the world's third-largest share of proved reserves (13 percent of the total), and a healthy reserves-to-production ratio of 48 years.

As such, coal in China is relatively "cheap and stable, so it meets the demand for a reliable and affordable energy supply," said Liu.

~~~
Based on this, how can we expect China to sign any global treaty when their rapacious and continuing use of coal would only negate any promises they make?
JanforGore

2 responses // China coal demand unfazed despite winter storms

  • Reminds me of the deplorable pictures of the ruined mountain tops in West Virginia. Obviously they don't get it either. It makes you wonder if anyone will until it really is too late. Don't they have wind, water and sun? The leadership to make that major change doesn't exist. Maybe we need an environmental world council. Um, wonder who would be the person to head that up?
    iamforchange
  • Hmm, an environmental world council? Who would head that up... let me see... ;-). I already wrote the UN to request he be made our UN Global Environmental Ambassador. So yes, I could see Al Gore as this too. We need something because as long as China has coal they are going to use it regardless of what the dangers are because once again profit trumps principle. Will we have to get to the point where we actually penalize countries that continue to go against what is healthy for the global population and the planet?

    And yes, they say they have "plans" to have 15% of their energy generated from alternate sources I think by either 2020 or 2030... but it makes no difference if they continue to spew this coal crap out at such a rapacious pace. I can't fathom it. Millions of their people now go without water because of the persistent drought and the pollution and many of their crops have been devastated as desertification increases... and yet, coal is still their God. They think they can have their cake and eat it too, and they always use the excuse that the U.S. has to go first and then the U.S. comes back saying no, China has to go first and the roundabout just keeps going around with nothing getting done.

    So that's why the U.S. has to then lead and shame them into it, only, what country owns most of our paper? We borrow from China to buy oil from Saudi Arabia so how credible do we now look in the international community spouting about sustainability? So this isn't just about environmental policy, but foreign policy. I too think at times that it will have to come to parts of Florida going under water before people finally start to see that this is something we must address now... not in ten years. The world can't wait.
    JanforGore

Add your response

Login/Registration is required to add a response.