China risks wasting $490bn on new coal plants, say campaigners
China could waste as much as half a trillion dollars on unnecessary new coal-fired power stations, a climate campaign group has said, arguing that the world’s top carbon polluter already has more than enough such facilities. China’s rise to become the world’s second largest economy was largely powered by cheap, dirty coal. But as growth slows, the country has had a difficult time weaning itself off the fuel, even as the pollution it causes wreaks havoc on the environment and public health. Many of China’s giant state-owned coal mining firms are unviable and plagued by overcapacity, but the ruling Communist party is reluctant to turn off the financial taps and risk widespread unemployment, with its potential for anger and unrest. As of July, China already had 895 gigawatt in coal-fired power stations – representing more than half its electricity generation – said the London-based Carbon Tracker Initiative, which argues for limiting carbon emissions using financial data. The country was operating the coal units at less than half their capacity, the campaign group said on Monday, but “perversely” had another 205GW already under construction and plans for an additional 405GW. At an estimated $800m per kW, that could cost $490bn in total, CTI said. “This misallocation of capital is a microcosm of wider structural woes within the Chinese economy,” it said in a report. Power demand growth had slowed from 10% to 3% or less per year, it added. Even if power consumption grew at 5% a year until 2020 and coal-fired stations were run at 45% capacity, it said, existing plants and those currently under construction would be more than enough.
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on Nov 29 2016. Filed under News at Now.
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