Further to my post from yesterday in which I noted that researchers were recording ever-increasing carbon dioxide emissions from China and, to a lesser extent, India, there have been some articles recently on the rapid rise in China’s coal consumption.
The graphics here are from Elisabeth Rosenthal’s article yesterday in the NY Times about how nations that themselves are cutting back on coal use are exporting rapidly growing amounts to China. We have known for some time that China’s coal-fired power plants are one more dagger poised to plunge into the heart of the climate system. China has been for the past couple of years the world’s leading emitter of carbon dioxide: 6.5 billion tons in 2007 – 22.3% of the world’s total of 29.3 billion. (Remember, however, that although carbon dioxide is the biggest single problem in generating climate change, other gases, principally methane, are also critically important.)
In any event, as Rosenthal writes: “At ports in Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Colombia and South Africa, ships are lining up to load coal for furnaces in China, which has evolved virtually overnight from a coal exporter to one of the world’s leading purchasers.” The US is also gearing up for high-volume exports. The Sierra Club says “This is a worst-case scenario.”
Meanwhile, over at the FT’s Energy Source blog, Kiran Stacey notes Greens wake up to China’s coal boom. She references some of the activists quoted in the NYT article. If one entrepreneur alone “…is willing to make a $3bn bet on exporting coal to China, the greens’ cause looks a tough one to say the least.” (Stacey wrote last week about some of the M&A activity being driven by China’s ravenous hunger for coal.)
What to do? Help China turn up the dial on the transition to energy efficiency and renewables. Now. In a big way.