China cancels 67% of planned overseas coal capacity — TimesLIVE
In New York, United States, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, a new report was presented stating that China cancelled 67% of the coal power plant capacity planned for construction abroad in 2021. According to research by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and People of Asia for Climate Solutions (PACS), this amounts to 61.5 GW of planned capacity. The authors estimate that cancelling these facilities avoided 6.4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over their operating lifetimes.
TimesLIVE reports on the study’s findings. In 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to stop financing overseas coal power plants. Before that, China was the world’s largest financier of such projects outside the country.
Private investment in coal
At the same time, analysts note that the commitment allows private Chinese companies to invest in coal facilities abroad. CREA analyst Xiahdive Moezbar said that the expansion of coal power has not stopped because of the specifics of this pledge.
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The largest volume of planned capacity supported by Chinese companies is in Indonesia — 17.1 GW. In Vietnam and Pakistan, less than 4 GW of such capacity is planned in each country. In Indonesia, Chinese companies finance coal power plants for energy-intensive industries, including nickel and aluminium smelting, which are not connected to the national grid. Such facilities are called captive coal — autonomous coal capacity for industry.
Energy security in Southeast Asia
Despite the rapid growth of renewable energy, coal retains an important role in Asia. According to the source, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam increased coal use because of an energy shock linked to the war in Iran. At the same time, countries in the region are developing rooftop solar installations, encouraging the use of electric vehicles and considering nuclear power.
According to the International Energy Agency’s estimate, Southeast Asia will account for nearly 20% of global growth in energy demand by 2035. Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, noted that the countries of the region’s efforts to ensure reliable energy supplies could trigger a new wave of active coal use.
