China increases coal output despite emissions pledge

China continues ignoring its climate goals duties to lower carbon emissions, as it has been increasingly approving more coal power plants in 2022, according to a Global Energy Monitor’s (GEM) report showed on Monday.

China is the biggest country to oppose the global direction of decreasing the number of factories operating with coal, said Flora Champenois, research analyst at GEM.

“The speed in which the Chinese government has approved the projects and their permits, and already entered the implementation phases in a span of a few months in 2022 is astronomical,” added Champenois.

China’s increased dependency on coal came in light with the country’s worst heat wave and drought in six decades, which heavily impacted provinces dependent on hydroelectricity.

World leaders have pledged to lower carbon emissions, among them was China’s President, Xi Jinping, who announced in 2020 the country’s plans to be carbon neutral by 2060.

Since then, activists and experts have been calling out the government’s lack of proper decision-making to achieve its targets. Although China have set a new plan in 2021 to become less dependent on fossil fuel.

China’s increased coal production does not seem to be stopping soon, as the government’s expansions in the renewable energy sector is not enough to cover its expansions in coal production, said GEM’s report.

The country would need to get rid of its huge number of coal power plants in order to lower carbon emissions, instead of growing it, added the report.

The East Asian country’s attempts to achieve its climate goals are hindered by geopolitical obstacles, especially with china suspending climate discussions with the U.S. last year, as a response to House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi.

China’s carbon emissions are double the U.S.’s emissions, which makes it a great global challenge to lower carbon emissions.