“The dominant role of coal is unlikely to change in the next 10 to 15 years,” Zhang Hong, deputy secretary general of the China National Coal Association, said at a briefing July 20.
China, which produces more than half of the world’s coal, believes its consumption won’t peak until 2025. According to Zhang, annual demand will grow by 4% to 4.3 billion tons by that time.
In 2030, the country will still be burning about 4 billion tons of fuel, hardly less than now. And as the government opens even more mines, capacity is likely to be maintained well above the projected demand of 5 billion tons.
Despite China’s massive buildup of clean energy, climate action remains hostage to energy security, especially after last year’s catastrophic electricity shortages and price spikes.
China Electricity Council spokesman Wang Zhixuan called the inherent volatility of renewable energy sources (RES) an obvious but overlooked risk that could lead to the collapse of the power grid if there is no coal as a reserve.
“Safely switching energy sources is the basis for phasing out coal,” he said.