31. Coal, China and Climate ...

A colleague of mine who was recently in China, forwarded the below information about air quality in parts of China as a result of burning coal. It is disturbing reading and points to a huge problem for China and the world. The mix of coal and a growing China is certainly not good for responding to global warming. Not to mention the devastating air quality impacts in cities, like Beijing.

According to the EIA, China is now burning almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined, due to an increase of more than 200% in Chinese electric generation, in comparison to 2000 levels, fueled mostly by coal. Currently Chinese coal demand accounts about 47% of global consumption.

Additionally, China was the world's largest coal producer in 2011, with more than 3.5 billion metric tons, or nearly 46% of global coal production in 2012, according to data published by the IEA. China was also the world's biggest net importer of coal in 2011, importing about 177 million metric tons of coal and has the third-largest coal reserves. Coal is cheap, and China has access to much of it both within its own borders and through import agreements with other countries.

Global demand for coal has grown by about 2.9 billion short tons since 2000, with 82% of that demand growth registered in China, the EIA said. Meanwhile, in the rest of the world, coal consumption had a hard time, increasing only 1% on average per year, in the last 12 years.

Air pollution in China hit a record high at the beginning of January 2013 at 30- 45 times above recommended safety levels with the Air Quality Index in Beijing increasing to a record 755. China intends to increase the amount of renewable energy it consumes, but growing demand for electricity denotes that coal consumption will remain strong.