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China committed to cutting coal use but needs new tech

China is committed to sharply limiting its coal consumption but needs new clean technologies before demand can peak, its top climate negotiator said Tuesday.

Xie Zhenhua, the vice chairman of China’s top economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, said at media briefing Tuesday that China was swiftly moving to replace coal consumption with lower-emission alternatives such as natural gas, hydropower and nuclear power.

But he declined to give a date by which Chinese coal demand would level off, saying that hinged on China’s ability to overcome technological challenges related to cleaner and renewable energy sources. China aims to make coal the source of 62% of total energy consumption by 2020, down from around 66% last year.

Reaching a peak in China’s coal demand “depends upon on technology,” said Mr. Xie. He cited technology issues ranging from the rollout of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power to issues that have slowed the building of China’s nuclear-power capabilities.

“We are hoping that through increasing international cooperation in this area, technology cooperation and technology transfer, it allows everyone to embrace low-carbon technology.”

China is by far the world’s biggest coal consumer. It consumed about 3.6 billion tons last year, up from about 3.5 billion in 2012. Last week China released details of an energy-development plan which said the country would cap coal demand at 4.2 billion tons until 2020.

Chinese government agencies are currently studying energy-consumption targets for China’s 13th Five-Year Plan, which begins in 2016, and some environmental groups are pushing for a coal-consumption peak to be included in that plan. The New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council has called for China to reach a coal-consumption peak by 2020.

The NDRC, in a report distributed Tuesday on China’s efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, said the country had already taken aggressive actions limit carbon emissions. It cited efforts under way to cut by 83 million tons of coal consumption by the end of 2017 in metropolitan regions of Beijing and neighboring Tianjin as well as the provinces of Hebei and Shandong.

Source: The Wall Street Journal