Yes, Virginia, China Will Keep Using More and More Coal

A coal strip-mining operation in China. Credit: Wall Street Journal

In the midst of a recent rash of glowing media reports trumpeting a supposed refocusing away from coal towards solar and wind energy by China, the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) said Tuesday that China has over 1 billion tons per year of new coal mines currently in its development pipeline.

According to GEM’s updated dataset, China currently has 283 new coal mines in its development queue, well over half the global total of 506. Of those, 111 are already under construction, another 83 are already permitted, with the rest in the pre-permitting stage. Across the rest of the world, just 35 new mines are in the construction phase of development.

Regarding the media-pushed narrative that China is scaling back on new coal plant development, no one should think that means the communist government there is weaning itself off the highest-emitting power generation source. Per GEM, China is currently the home to a little more than half of the world’s coal-fired generating capacity, but it is also home to over 2/3rds of new coal-fired plants currently under development. Thus, while the country’s pace of coal generation capacity growth has slowed a bit from its frenetic pace of the past few years, it is still investing billions for massive new growth in its fleet.