Telegraph Piece: China is building new coal power so fast that ‘energy transition’ by the West is meaningless

China will soon have more brand-new coal power than the US does in total CREDIT: Michael Reynolds/EPA

[Note: This story is also published at the Telegraph US]

Several interesting things have happened lately.

Bloomberg reported on August 30 that a recent update by British/Dutch oil giant Shell seems to have quietly abandoned a previously-announced radical plan to cut the company’s carbon emissions. Meanwhile Shell will increase investment in finding and producing more oil and natural gas. 

The same media platform reported August 29 that China’s government has now approved the building of more new coal-fired power plants than are currently operating in the United States. The researchers who worked this out stated that these new coal plants are mostly in places with lots of existing coal power, and will provide capacity beyond that needed to back up renewables. This would appear to be a tacit admission that more fossil fuel energy is required to meet rising demand for electricity, even as Chinese population growth has stagnated.

Also on August 29, Rystad Energy released a new report which finds the “reinvestment rate among a group of 18 public shale companies hit 72 per cent in Q2 2023, the highest since Q2 2020,” as US shale producers strive to raise production to meet rising demand.