China is still driving coal use up. The world saw the greatest drop in coal production ever this year, at 3%. When China comes around, coal can fall at something like the rate needed to save us all. So what is holding China back? Its self-contradictory laws and economy. The activists know what to do. Please join them.
My next statement is true.
My previous statement is false.
Doctor Who, logic-bombing an evil computer.
The official national policy in China is No More Coal. About a thousand coal mines are being shuttered. Coal-fired power plants are running at 50% capacity. And yet, even more coal-fired power plants are being built because of
and more.
Let's take a look.
Dec 3, 2019 — The obvious paradox within China's environmental politics is the big gap between the central government's policy and its implementation outcomes at local levels. Despite concerns about implementation at the local level, much about the role of central governments in China's local environmental politics is still poorly understood. This article examines how the incentive structure set by the central authorities affects the policy implementation gap at the local level. Drawing on fieldwork and document analysis, this article argues that the incentives set by the central government regarding environmental policy implementation at local levels are perversely structured, meaning that the central government provides much more incentive for local governments' non-implementation or poor implementation of its environmental policies than it provides for full implementation. The central government's failure to encourage—politically, financially, as well as morally—local government officials to appropriately implement environmental policies can partly explain the production of the policy implementation gap at the local level. This implementation gap cannot be overcome by efforts at the local level unless the central government takes significant measures to address the perverse incentive structure embedded in the overall structure of China's local environmental politics.
Apr 18, 2016 - “That's why we've called it the problem of perverse incentive.” Beijing is trying to keep the problem in check. "Chinese provinces are promoting construction of unneeded coal plants for precisely the same reason they are promoting every other kind of construction as well,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, Senior Global Campaigner at Greenpeace, “to boost economic activity in the short term, often with little regard for longer-term profitability or debt problems. There is generally no oversight or due diligence for obtaining finance for projects like this.”
China Is Still Building an Insane Number of New Coal Plants ...
Nov 27, 2019 - “We don’t have a lot of time in terms of emission reduction, but clean energy development is happening alongside coal plant construction rather than displacing it.” To meet its climate goal as stipulated in the Paris agreement, China will need to reduce its coal power capacity.
China outdid itself again in setting 2020 low-carbon targets
Aug 11, 2015 - “So the old factoid about China adding one coal plant per week ... same time it increases the perverse incentive to build new coal power plants.
Coal in the World
Coal: Is this the beginning of the end?
This year looks set to see the largest fall in electricity production from coal on record, according to a new report.
The reduction is estimated to be more than the power generated from coal in Germany, Spain and the UK combined.
It is projected to drop by 3% - which is a fall of 300 terawatt hours.
Meanwhile, the US has seen the largest reductions in coal-fired power generation.
This comes despite US President Donald Trump's vigorous efforts to revive the US coal industry.
Eight US coal companies have filed for bankruptcy this year, including Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal company in the country.
Coal production has peaked three times in recent years. Goldman-Sachs called Peak Coal in 2013. Let us hope that this is the true Peak, Peak Coal. No, better, let us do something about it. Let us hold China's feet to the coal fire.