New coal plants in China soar despite President Xi’s pledge to ‘strictly control’ dirtiest fuel
China ramped up coal power capacity last year, according to new analysis, despite a pledge to “strictly control” the dirtiest fossil fuel.
The country added 47.4 Gigawatts (GW) of new coal power in 2023, more than double the amount added by the rest of the world combined.
It raises concerns that gains in clean power, including by China, are being undermined by the persistent use of coal, the worst energy form for climate change and air pollution.
Analysts say China may not use all the capacity it has built.
Beijing has promised to reduce coal consumption from 2026, and said its polices align with the international Paris Agreement on climate.
But the surge drove an increase in global coal by 2% last year, the first uptick since 2019, though other countries were responsible too, Global Energy Monitor (GEM) said.
The global rise comes two years after countries promised at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow to “transition away” from coal.
GEM said it could just be a “blip”.
But Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands, which are battling rising sea levels, said fossil fuel support is “unacceptable”.
Professor Piers Forster, interim chair of the UK government’s Climate Change Committee, called it “worrying”.
While extra capacity may not end up being used, “without strong regulation and polices that prevent it from being used, 2023 will not be seen as just a blip and future emissions rise will be inevitable”, Prof Forster said.
Does China need more coal power?
China’s coal spree is “very out of line” with a promise made by President Xi in 2021 to “strictly control” new coal power, said Flora Champenois, GEM coal programme director.
It also threatens a Chinese Communist Party target to shut down 30GW of coal power by 2025 – with only 9GW retired in the last few years.
“This coal boom – in terms of new coal plants coming online, new permits being awarded, new construction starting, no signs of a slowdown, no signs of retirement on the horizon – does not align with the commitment to strictly control coal,” Ms Champenois told Sky News.
But the new coal plants do “not necessarily mean that China is going to increase an equivalent scale of CO2 emissions,” said Qi Qin, China analyst for Research on Energy and Clean Air, who also wrote the report.
That’s because China is “increasing its renewable power capacities by [the same] scale too”, she said.
China has recently built more solar power than the rest of the world combined, and is on track to meet a 2030 clean power goal five years early.
The surge is partly fuelled by power shortage fears after a 2022 drought shrivelled water supplies for China’s hydropower.
But it already has more coal power than it needs, said Ms Qin, but a rigid grid system makes it hard for provinces to share power, meaning many are building their own coal plants.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visiting a coal yard Pic: Xinhua News Agency,
‘Blip’ or ‘unacceptable’?
Seven other countries added new coal power in 2023 too, GEM found.
Those were Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Japan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Korea, Greece, and Zimbabwe.
But GEM also partly blamed the global net increase in coal power on rich countries stalling plant closures amid the energy crisis in 2022.
Marshall Islands climate envoy Tina Stege, said: “We can’t afford blips.”
She told Sky News: “Since the start of the year, my country has been reeling from one climate-induced emergency to another, with flooding from king tides and drought affecting communities throughout the islands.”
Coal power, still the single largest source of emissions globally, must be “phased out as soon as possible” to avoid “catastrophic sea level rise and [save] lives and livelihoods”, she said.
She called it “unacceptable” the world has hardly started on shifting the trillion dollar subsidies for the fossil fuel industry to clean alternatives.
A spokesperson from the Chinese embassy in London said China will go from peaking emissions to carbon neutrality “in the shortest span of time ever in the world”.
“Our climate policies and objectives are fully consistent with the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement.
“Today, close to half of the world’s installed [solar PV] capacity is in China, over half of the world’s new energy vehicles run on roads in China, and one-fourth of the world’s increased area of afforestation is in China.”
They added: “We are also working to cultivate large-scale new growth drivers in green infrastructure, green energy, green transportation and green lifestyle.”
Winter fuel payments will extend to everyone over the state pension age with an income of or below £35,000 a year, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced.
The Treasury said the change will cost around £1.25bn in England and Wales but still save £450m if the universal allowance had been kept.
Politics Live: Chancellor makes winter fuel announcement
Dropping the benefit for all pensioners was one of the first things Labour did in government, despite it not being in their manifesto.
The change meant only those on pension credit or other benefits were eligible – a deeply unpopular move that was widely blamed on the party’s poor performance in May’s local elections.
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Ms Reeves said: “Targeting winter fuel payments was a tough decision, but the right decision because of the inheritance we had been left by the previous government.
“It is also right that we continue to means-test this payment so that it is targeted and fair, rather than restoring eligibility to everyone, including the wealthiest.
“But we have now acted to expand the eligibility of the winter fuel payment so no pensioner on a lower income will miss out.”
The government signalled its intention to widen eligibility last month, but no detail was given on what the new threshold might look like.
The lack of clarity threatened to overshadow Ms Reeves’ spending review on Wednesday, when she will set out what funding has been allocated to each government department over the next three years.
The chancellor repeatedly faced questions on winter fuel during a speech in Manchester last week to promote a £15.6bn funding settlement for local transport projects, when she said changes would be in place for this winter.
However ministers still could not give further detail, with Science Secretary Peter Kyle telling Sky News on Sunday that the new eligibility would be set out “in the run up to the autumn”.
It is still not clear how the new policy will be funded, with the costs to be accounted for in the autumn budget.
Asked by Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates if the change is a signal to markets that she can’t say no to her MPs, Ms Reeves said after her spending review “markets and the public will be able to see public services living within their means”.
‘Humiliating U-turn’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Keir Starmer has scrambled to clear up a mess of his own making. I repeatedly challenged him to reverse his callous decision to withdraw winter fuel payments, and every time Starmer arrogantly dismissed my criticisms.
“This humiliating u-turn will come as scant comfort to the pensioners forced to choose between heating and eating last winter. The prime minister should now apologise for his terrible judgement.”
The Treasury said that by setting the threshold at an income of £35,000, over three-quarters of pensioners – around nine million people – will benefit.
The universal system meant some 11.4 million pensioners were in receipt of the benefit, which was slashed down to 1.5 million when the initial means-test was brought in.
The new threshold is above the income level of pensioners in poverty and broadly in line with average earnings, the Treasury said.
No pensioner will need to take any action as they will automatically receive the payment this winter.
“It’s a big deal for this government,” says Simon Case.
“It’s the clearest indication yet of what they plan to do between now and the general election, a translation of their manifesto.
“This is where you should expect the chancellor to say, on behalf of the government: ‘This is what we’re about’.”
As the former cabinet secretary, Mr Case was the man in charge of the civil service during the last spending review, in 2021.
On Wednesday, Rachel Reeves will unveil the Labour government’s priorities for the next three years. But it’s unclear whether it will provide all that much of an answer about what it’s really about.
Unlike the Autumn budget, when the chancellor announced her plans on where to tax and borrow to fund overall levels of spending, the spending review will set out exactly how that money is divided up between the different government departments.
Since the start of the process in December those departments have been bidding for their share of the cash – setting out their proposed budgets in a negotiation which looks set to continue right up to the wire.
This review is being conducted in an usual level of detail, with every single line of spending assessed, according to the chancellor, on whether it represents value for money and meets the government’s priorities. Budget proposals have been scrutinised by so called “challenge panels” of independent experts.
It’s clear that health and defence will be winners in this process given pre-existing commitments to prioritise the NHS – with a boost of up to £30bn expected – and to increase defence spending.
On Sunday morning, the government press release trumpeted an impressive-sounding “£86bn boost” to research and development (R&D), with the Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle sent out on the morning media round to celebrate as record levels of investment.
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What will be in spending review?
We’re told this increased spending on the life sciences, advanced manufacturing and defence will lead to jobs and growth across the country, with every £1 in investment set to lead to a £7 economic return.
But the headline figure is misleading. It’s not £86bn in new funding. That £86bn has been calculated by adding together all R&D investment across government for the next three years, which will reach an annual figure of £22.5bn by 2029-30. The figure for this year was already set to be £20.4bn; so while it’s a definite uplift, much of that money was already allocated.
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Peter Kyle also highlighted plans for “the most we’ve ever spent per pupil in our school system”.
I understand the schools budget is to be boosted by £4.5bn. Again, this is clearly an uplift – but over a three-year period, that equates to just £1.5bn a year (compared with an existing budget of £63.7bn). It also has to cover the cost of extending free school meals, and the promised uplift in teachers’ pay.
In any process of prioritisation there are losers as well as winners.
We already know about planned cuts to the Department of Work and Pensions – but other unprotected departments like the Home Office and the Department of Communities and Local Government are braced for a real spending squeeze.
We’ve heard dire warnings about austerity 2.0, and the impact that would have on the government’s crime and policing priorities, its promises around housing and immigration, and on the budgets for cash-strapped local councils.
The chancellor wants to make it clear to the markets she’s sticking to her fiscal rules on balancing the books for day-to-day spending.
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But the decision to loosen the rules around borrowing to fund capital investment have given her greater room to manoeuvre in funding long-term infrastructure projects.
That’s why we’ve seen her travelling around the country this week to promote the £15.6bn she’s spending on regional transport projects.
The Treasury team clearly wants to focus on promoting the generosity of these kind of investments, and we’ll hear more in the coming days.
But there’s a real risk the story of this spending review will be about the departments which have lost out – and the promises which could slip as a result.
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