China depends on coal power for now, sets carbon neutrality target for 2060
Chinese officials said that the country still depends on coal power for now and will use it as a point of “flexible adjustment”.
“China’s energy structure is dominated by coal power. This is an objective reality,” said Su Wei,Deputy Secretary-General of the National Development and Reform Commission, according to the translation from mandarin by CNBC.
“Because renewable energy (sources such as) wind and solar power are intermittent and unstable, we must rely on a stable power source,” added Su Wei. “We have no other choice. For a period of time, we may need to use coal power as a point of flexible adjustment.”
President Xi Jinping announced in September that the country's carbon emissions would start to fall by 2030, with the country projected to reach carbon neutrality by 2060.
At the Leaders' Summit on Climate held the week before, he also said that international cooperation to reduce emissions was necessary and that each country should play a different role in the task.
Xi said China would “strictly control coal-fired generation projects” and limit increases in coal consumption over the next five years.
Separately, on Tuesday China’s ecology ministry indicated that China’s funding of coal power in the developing world will continue.
“China has supported some developing countries in the construction of coal-fired plants overseas,” Li Gao, director general of the ministry’s department of climate change, told reporters in Mandarin that CNBC translated. “China provides this support according to the local situation.”
“Many developing countries don’t even have electricity,” he said. “In this situation, if you don’t use coal, what will you use?”
Li said that coal accounted for 56.8% of China’s domestic energy generation in 2020, down from 72.4% 15 years ago. It is still the largest consumer of coal.