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Three months into 2023, China approves record coal burning plants despite pledge to reduce emissions

Despite its pledge to reduce emissions from fossil fuels, China as per Greenland has this year approved a major surge in coal power. The jump in approval of coal-powered power plants has sparked concerns that China, which happens to be the world's second-largest economy and also globally the biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases driving climate change, will backtrack on its climate goals.

China has pledged that it will reach peak emissions between 2026 and 2030 and that by 2060 it will become carbon-neutral.

However, as per Greenpeace, in the first three months of 2023, local governments in "energy-hungry" Chinese provinces have approved at least 20.45 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power.

This, according to AFP, is more than double the 8.63 GW which Greenpeace reported for the same time period last year and surpasses the 18.55 GW approved for the entirety of 2021.

Also read | China, world's largest polluter, approved record coal power plants in 2022: Report

Most of the newly approved coal projects, as per AFP, are in provinces that, during the last two years, have suffered "punishing power shortages" due to record heatwaves. Others are in the southwest part of the country where last year, a record drought significantly cut down the hydropower output.

In February, the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) released a study according to which last year China approved the largest expansion of coal-fired power plants since 2015.

Also read | World burnt more coal when it needed to cut emissions: Report

As per Greenpeace campaigner Xie Wenwen, China's push for more coal plants "risks climate disasters... and locking us into a high-carbon pathway."

"The 2022 coal boom has clearly continued into this year."