"A joint report ... by the U.S.-based Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and Helsinki-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found China built over three times as much coal-fired electrical power capacity in 2020 as the rest of the world combined.
... this tremendous surge of coal-burning power plants, which are ostensibly one of the worst sources of global warming emissions, would seem to “undermine” China’s loudly declared “short-term climate goals” and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping’s promises to make his country “carbon-neutral” by 2060.
... China’s coal power capacity grew by a net 28.8 gigawatts ... to provide cheap power for its swelling industrial capacity ...
China approved the construction of a further 36.9 GW of coal-fired capacity last year, three times more than a year earlier, bringing the total under construction to 88.1 GW.
It now has 247 GW of coal power under development, enough to supply the whole of Germany.
... “The runaway expansion of coal-fired power is driven by electricity companies’ and local governments’ interest in maximizing investment spending, more than a real need for new capacity,” CREA lead analyst Lauri Myllyvirta judged.
Myllyvirta co-authored an essay in March that expressed similar confusion about China plowing ahead with coal power construction even though it already has “overcapacity” in its energy sector, over half of its coal power firms have trouble turning a profit, most of its existing plants are running at half capacity, and every “five-year plan” featuring rampant coal power growth makes Beijing’s promise of carbon neutrality in 40 years look more unrealistic.
... China is an authoritarian dictatorship, and its absolute rulers are very well aware that coal power plants are under construction at a rampant pace, even as Xi and other top officials sing the praises of globalist climate change agreements.
... China is now well into the second “five-year plan” during which it indisputably knew it had to begin dramatically scaling coal power back to meet its nominal climate goals, but it tripled power plant construction instead.
... Beijing knows exactly what it is doing, and it has industrial ambitions for the future that will require all of the cheap and dirty power capacity it seems determined to build."