Coal news and updates

But in China and India, the trends are very different, as those nations are gravitating toward coal because of its low price and availability. China also is making significant investments in renewable energy, but given its exploding growth, coal will become an increasingly large part of the mix going forward, analysts say.

In 2012 China accounted for 46 percent of all global coal production and 49 percent of consumption, EIA figures show. The agency also pointed out that China’s gross domestic product grew 7.7 percent in 2012 and has been steadily rising along with coal use.

“China’s coal consumption fuels its economic growth,” the EIA said in a recent report.

The same year, U.S. coal production dropped by 7.2 percent, and consumption fell 11.3 percent, according to the EIA.

India also is fully embracing coal. Its coal imports shot up by 21 percent last year, Reuters reported, and the nation now is the world’s third-biggest importer, behind only Japan and China.

While the administration has deemed a reduction in carbon emissions as a top priority, the chief goals in developing largely impoverished nations, such as India, are to build reliable infrastructure and create a thriving middle class, putting them at odds with the president’s stated goals.

“In India, they’re saying, ‘Our main goal is poverty eradication. That is job No. 1. And that is what we will focus on doing.’ Everything in the Indian context starts from there,” said Sarah Ladislaw, director and senior fellow in the Energy and National Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “For China it’s really been about making sure you’ve got the resources you need to not constrain development.”

 

 

Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/