China Outpaces U.S. in Cleaner Coal-Fired Plants

As China’s rate of building coal power plants has increased in recent years, fears of global climate change have followed apace. But looking closer at the newer plants reveals that China’s massive construction scheme may actually help to reduce emissions. Many of the new plants are more efficient and also come with a government condition that an older, less efficient plant be retired to ensure approval. Moreover, China has also invested in wind capacity and may soon become the world’s largest market for wind power equipment. All of which has prompted the International Energy Agency to reduce its projections for the annual increase in China’s emissions in the coming years. But this doesn’t mean emissions are declining because hurdles remain. China will always rely on coal power, which is dirtier than natural gas; the country has yet to develop plants that sequester carbon; and the pace of construction has slowed, so there could be fewer efficient plants to offset the less efficient ones in terms of emissions. Still, by some estimates the cost to build a more efficient coal power plant in China is now smaller than a less efficient plant in the US. Whether such figures can be replicated outside of a quasi-market economy is uncertain, but it suggests that clean technology does not have to be uneconomic. – YaleGlobal