Coal fires burning bright – ‘Will China’s carbon dioxide emissions overwhelm the world?’
With promises to curb CO2 emissions by 2020, China will need more than blackouts to get there 
By David Biello
March 11, 2011 China has won international plaudits for its commitment to green goals. It has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by at least 40 percent per economic unit by 2020 and is also adding alternative energy sources such as wind farms and nuclear power plants faster than any other country. But the nation is also in the midst of unprecedented economic growth–and an unprecedented surge in the use of energy, which for China means coal. The country burns more coal than the U.S., Europe and Japan combined, the main reason why it is now the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. “Will China’s carbon dioxide emissions overwhelm the world?” asks Mark D. Levine, a senior staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who works in the country on energy-efficiency measures. “That’s the question.” China has won international plaudits for its commitment to green goals. It has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by at least 40 percent per economic unit by 2020 and is also adding alternative energy sources such as wind farms and nuclear power plants faster than any other country. But the nation is also in the midst of unprecedented economic growth—and an unprecedented surge in the use of energy, which for China means coal. The country burns more coal than the U.S., Europe and Japan combined, the main reason why it is now the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases. “Will China’s carbon dioxide emissions overwhelm the world?” asks Mark D. Levine, a senior staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who works in the country on energy-efficiency measures. “That’s the question.” In China, growth is winning out over any push to go green. A recent reporting trip showed that one of the main problems is a combination of conflicting policies from the central government and a lack of commitment on the part of local officials. Here is where China is falling short: Clean Coal. Much like the U.S. government and power companies, Chinese officials say the technology to capture carbon dioxide at coal-fired power plants is simply too expensive to add. And coal technologies that might make such carbon capture and storage deep below the ground feasible, such as turning the coal into a gas before burning it, are not favored by at least some of those in charge. “[Gasified coal’s] cost is no cheaper than nuclear power,” says Zhang Guobao, vice chair of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the government agency that sets Chinese energy and industrial policy. But unlike the U.S., China is continuing to build massive coal plants that will be pumping out greenhouse gases decades from now. ….
