Sami Grover on Treehugger waxes ecstatic over the drop in China coal imports:
If the fact that the decline in coal brings a net growth in jobs is true in China as well as America, Chinese workers may have a lot to cheer about.
Because The Guardian reports that Chinese coal imports were down a whopping 42% for Q1, compared to the year before.
Now I’ve posted several times already about China’s break up with coal and how it is happening sooner and faster than anyone expected. But this single issue is so central to everybody’s wellbeing, we would be wise to continue following closely.
A year would be more impressive, but it’s still encouraging. China’s coal production appears to also be sinking, albeit a little less than 42%, according to the Guardian:
State media reported on Monday that coal production fell in 2014 for the first time this century, with production totalling 3.5bn tonnes between January and November representing a 2.1% fall on the same period in 2013. …
The industry maintains that it has been hit by a number of one-off factors, such as high rainfall leading to high levels of hydro-electric production that has in turn impacted demand for coal. Similarly, government restrictions on the export of low-quality coal hit a market that was already suffering as coal prices fell by around 20%.
However, Xinhua acknowledged that much of the pressure on the coal industry is the result of demanding new environmental regulations from the Chinese government and increased investment in renewable energy, that has made China the world’s largest investor in clean technologies.
Covering the third leg of the tripod, Chinese consumption of coal is also falling, according to Reuters:
Clean-fuel policies, as well as an economy growing at its slowest pace in 25 years, are driving lower coal use, with power companies using a greater mix of hydro, nuclear and renewable options, especially wind.
Coal still makes up nearly two-thirds of China’s energy mix, but utilisation rates at thermal power plants – nearly all coal-fired – have dropped to 52.2 percent in the first two months of this year, Reuters calculations based on monthly power generation and consumption figures show. If that rate holds for the full year, it would be a new annual low.
This affects coal prices, Reuters also notes:
China’s coal imports fell 11 percent in 2014 compared to the previous year, the first annual decline in at least a decade.
The market is taking note. Australian coal prices – a benchmark for Asia – slumped 30 percent last year and dropped below $60 a tonne this month to the lowest level since May 2007. Producers are now holding back shipments to China amid uncertainty over quality checks under new ash and sulphur restrictions imposed in January.
In this article, the Guardian reports the Chinese are taking climate change seriously:
At the UN climate change summit in New York in September, China said it would start to reduce the nation’s huge carbon emissions “as early as possible”.
[Lauri] Myllyvirta warned that year-to-year fluctuations in energy use and industrial prediction could see coal burning grow again in future. “It may not be the peak yet, but it is a sign that China is moving away from coal.” Climate scientists say that global carbon emissions need to peak by 2020 and rapidly decline to avoid dangerous climate change.
Myllyvirta said the greatest significance of the current drop in coal use was that economic growth had continued at 7.4% at the same time, although that is a lower rate than in recent years. “The Chinese economy is divorcing coal,” he said. By contrast, the tripling of the Chinese economy since 2002 was accompanied by a doubling of coal use.
The American GOP’s refusal to take climate change seriously has led to little progress on the issue despite citizen calls for action. Still, use of coal may be declining, although solid figures are somewhat hard to come by. For 2013, though, we have this information (link will eventually go stale) from the Energy Information Administration of the Federal Government:
For the first time in two decades, U.S. coal production fell below one billion short tons to 984.8 million short tons in 2013 from 1,016.5 million short tons in 2012 (3.1% lower than 2012).
However …
U.S. coal consumption increased 4.0% to 924.8 million short tons, an increase of 35.6 million short tons. The electric power sector consumed about 92.8% of the total U.S. coal consumption in 2013.
This table, also from the EIA, gives coal consumption figures from 2008 – 2013, and is not particularly encouraging – we may be dropping consumption, but not by huge numbers. Index Mundi, a site aggregating data to create country profiles, provides a Flash-chart.
http://www.greenpeace.org/
Why is coal a big deal? Greenpeace, amongst many, has an explanation; if you’re offended by Greenpeace, rest assured that far more conservative websites will give similar information.
Coal fired power plants are the biggest source of man made CO2 emissions. This makes coal energy the single greatest threat facing our climate.
[Live in the USA? Check out the Quit Coal website to join communities around the country organizing to fight coal and demand clean energy.]
To avoid the worst impacts of climate change, including widespread drought, flooding and massive population displacement caused by rising sea levels, we need to keep global temperature rise below 2ºC (compared to pre-industrial levels). To do this, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2015 and from there go down to zero.
A third of all carbon dioxide emissions come from burning coal. It’s used to produce nearly 40 percent of the world’s power, and hundreds of new coal plants are planned over the next years if the industry gets its way.
Apart from climate change, coal also causes irreparable damage to the environment, people’s health and communities around the world. While the coal industry itself isn’t paying for the damage it causes, the world at large is.
And that doesn’t even mention the mercury output of coal fired plants that leads to mercury poisoning in people who enjoy eating fish from the top of the food chain.
So … the United States, rather than being the leader we like to think we are, is instead stuck in squabbling mode and ceding leadership to China. It’ll be interesting to see if democracy continues to be the best political system in the world, or if the obsolete Red Chinese are actually better than us when it comes to reality-based thinking.
Fortunately, it may not matter, as it appears US industry may be preparing to slam a bit of reality into the GOP, according to this article from ThinkProgress:
There’s little question that disaster costs have increased in the last several decades. Since the Stafford Act was passed in 1988, the report notes that disaster declaration have steadily escalated — from 16 declarations in 1988 to 242 declarations in 2011.
Since 1980, the U.S. has increased its yearly spending on disaster relief.
CREDIT: smartersafer.org
The reasons for those increased disaster costs are two-fold, the report says. For one, the economy has grown since 1980, and there’s been more development — meaning there are bigger and more expensive structures to be damaged when extreme events hit. The other reason, it asserts, is climate change, which is increasing the risks that bad storms will occur across the country.
