{"id":367775,"date":"2025-02-26T16:42:17","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T15:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=367775"},"modified":"2025-02-26T16:42:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T15:42:19","slug":"china-is-so-committed-to-net-zero-last-year-it-started-building-95-gigawatts-of-coal-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=367775","title":{"rendered":"China is so committed to Net Zero last year it started building 95 Gigawatts of coal plants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Henan S88 Expressway\u00a0\u00a0 Photo by\u00a0Windmemories<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Does this look like a country that cares about carbon emissions?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

President Xi said he would \u201cstrictly control\u201d coal power from 2021 to 2025, and he has strictly controlled\u2026 a huge increase in coal power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Xi: \u2014 Reuters (April 2021)<\/em> \u2013\u201c<\/a>We will strictly limit the increase in coal consumption over the 14th five-year plan period (2021-2025) and phase it down in the 15th five-year plan period (2026-2030),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But nobody cares either:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s 2024 coal power construction hits 10-year high, researchers say<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

SINGAPORE, Feb 13 (Reuters) \u2013 China started construction on 94.5 gigawatts of coal-fired power in 2024, the highest volume of new builds since 2015, hampering the country\u2019s transition away from fossil fuels, researchers said\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The surge came despite a record-breaking increase in renewable capacity last year and could make it harder to connect clean power to the grid, said the report, published by CREA and the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) think tank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China also promised its emissions will peak in 2030, right when a whole squadron of these new plants will have barely started operation. But it\u2019s OK because the new coal plants are only a \u201cback up for renewable power\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has retired more than 100 GW of obsolete coal-fired power in the last decade, according to its energy regulator, and new projects can only be built to provide back-up for renewable energy bases.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So each year China is started building ten times as much coal power as it is retiring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And all this coal power is needed despite the fact that President Xi\u00a0China added a phenomenal\u00a0356 GW of wind and solar capacity in 2024 alon<\/a>e.
Where was all that wind and solar power when China needed electricity? \u2014 it was providing an excuse for all the extra coal plants China wanted to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spot the strict limit on coal development in China\u2026<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

These graphs cover Comissioning, Contruction, \u201cPermitted\u201d, New Project\u201d and Retired coal plants in the last ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We can all see for ourselves just how much work China has put in to stop \u201cClimate change\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Xi said he would \u201cstrictly control\u201d coal power from 2021 to 2025, and he has strictly controlled\u2026 a huge increase in coal power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":367780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818341,691818636,691818656,691819121],"class_list":{"0":"post-367775","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-china","9":"tag-coal-power","10":"tag-electricity","11":"tag-wind-and-solar-power","13":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/0Screenshot_20220428_135645_com.android.gallery3d_.jpg?fit=1617%2C910&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1xFR","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":287985,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=287985","url_meta":{"origin":367775,"position":0},"title":"China promised to strictly control coal then started 182 coal power plants instead","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"17\/11\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"By Jo Nova Two and a half years ago President Xi promised to \u00a0\u201cstrictly control coal-fired power generation projects\u201d in China. 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Afterwards, to show how committed they were to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-414.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-414.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-414.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-414.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-414.png?fit=1200%2C676&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 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