China provinces insist additional 100-GW coal power

This is despite the decline of new approvals for coal-fired powerplants in H1 2021.

The environmental group, Greenpeace, said that China’s provinces are devising to launch more than 100 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power capacity amidst a decline in new approvals in the first half of 2021.

The local planning agencies approved 24 new coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 5.2 GW in the first six months of 2021, Greenpeace reported.

This figure is down nearly 80% from a year earlier as new projects rose to aid China’s post-lockdown recovery; but it adds up on China’s provincial project lists of total planned capacity at 104.8 GW, which will be enough to power the whole of the United Kingdom.

A UN climate panel said earlier this month that global warming is perilously close to spiralling out of control. The panel urged immediate, rapid, and large-scale action to reduce emissions.