The future isn’t bright for Chinese coal. Ever since 2013, when the country was smothered by dangerously thick pollution in an event known as China’s “airpocalypse,” the country’s government has come under pressure to rid China of smog-making coal power plants.
Coal is the “most dirty energy” in the world, said Yang Fuqiang, senior advisor to China’s Natural Resources Defense Council, speaking at a roundtable debate on the future of energy Thursday at Fortune’s Global Sustainability Forum in Yunnan, China.
“The question is, how do we get rid of coal?” he asked. That’s a tricky task, particularly in China, which accounts for 50% of global coal consumption. According to Yang, coal consumption in China’s northern Shandong province alone surpasses the total coal consumption of Europe.
“Whatever the challenges, this is something that needs to be done,” said Yang. But a former oil executive and a research professor in China both agree that officials must do more to wean the country off the fuel.
An issue with eliminating coal, at least in China, is getting the government to commit to the idea. Beijing has taken steps towards reducing carbon emissions nationally, such as piloting an emissions trading scheme (ETS). But critics say the policy has failed to achieve real results and that the government should push harder on industries to go green.
For the rest of this article: https://fortune.com/2019/09/05/china-coal-use-green-energy/