Commentary: China is building 184 coal plants – Guess what that will do to carbon emissions?
By Mark Milke and Ven Venkatachalam on December 8, 2020, 8:10 am MST
A man drives his tractor past a coal coking factory at sunrise in Linfen, Shanxi Province, China. Getty Images photo
Some point fingers at Canada’s oil sands, or oil and gas more generally. They imagine if that industry disappeared, somehow carbon emissions would magically evaporate as well.
The reality is that Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are 1.6 per cent of the total world emissions (with the oil and gas sector’s emissions at 0.3 per cent and the oil sands at 0.1 per cent included in that 1.6 per cent Canadian total).
Moreover, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions intensity has fallen by 30 per cent since 2000. Between 2000 and 2018, GHG emissions intensity in Canada fell from 0.5 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT of CO2e) per billion dollars of GDP to 0.35 MT of CO2e per billion dollars of GDP.
Also, oil sands emissions intensity has been falling. Between 2011 and 2018, oil sands emissions intensity fell from 0.086 tonnes of CO2e per barrel to 0.067 tonnes of CO2e per barrel, a decline of about 22 per cent.
That’s the record in Canada. Meanwhile that progress on reducing carbon emissions is about to be wiped away, this by the dramatic increase in coal-fired electricity plants now being built worldwide.
As of 2020, 350 coal-fired power plants are under construction. They include seven in South Korea, 13 in Japan, 52 in India, and 184 in China with the rest underway in other parts of the world.
China is also building and financing hundreds of other coal-fired power plants in countries such as Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Egypt, and Bangladesh.
This matters (or should) to sensible discussions about how much pain — lost investment, killed jobs, lost incomes, and potential foregone tax revenue in the hundreds of billions of dollars — that Canadians should endure in attempts to squeeze reduced carbon emissions out of Canadians in the future.
After all, consider that Canada’s total energy-related emissions (just 0.6 Gt in 2018) were about one-half of the emissions from just India’s coal-fired power plants (never mind all other emissions). They are about one-eighth of just the emissions from China’s coal-fired electricity—never mind all of China’s emissions.
By Mark Milke and Ven Venkatachalam on December 8, 2020, 8:10 am MST
A man drives his tractor past a coal coking factory at sunrise in Linfen, Shanxi Province, China. Getty Images photo
Some point fingers at Canada’s oil sands, or oil and gas more generally. They imagine if that industry disappeared, somehow carbon emissions would magically evaporate as well.
The reality is that Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are 1.6 per cent of the total world emissions (with the oil and gas sector’s emissions at 0.3 per cent and the oil sands at 0.1 per cent included in that 1.6 per cent Canadian total).
Moreover, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions intensity has fallen by 30 per cent since 2000. Between 2000 and 2018, GHG emissions intensity in Canada fell from 0.5 megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MT of CO2e) per billion dollars of GDP to 0.35 MT of CO2e per billion dollars of GDP.
Also, oil sands emissions intensity has been falling. Between 2011 and 2018, oil sands emissions intensity fell from 0.086 tonnes of CO2e per barrel to 0.067 tonnes of CO2e per barrel, a decline of about 22 per cent.
That’s the record in Canada. Meanwhile that progress on reducing carbon emissions is about to be wiped away, this by the dramatic increase in coal-fired electricity plants now being built worldwide.
As of 2020, 350 coal-fired power plants are under construction. They include seven in South Korea, 13 in Japan, 52 in India, and 184 in China with the rest underway in other parts of the world.
China is also building and financing hundreds of other coal-fired power plants in countries such as Turkey, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Egypt, and Bangladesh.
This matters (or should) to sensible discussions about how much pain — lost investment, killed jobs, lost incomes, and potential foregone tax revenue in the hundreds of billions of dollars — that Canadians should endure in attempts to squeeze reduced carbon emissions out of Canadians in the future.
After all, consider that Canada’s total energy-related emissions (just 0.6 Gt in 2018) were about one-half of the emissions from just India’s coal-fired power plants (never mind all other emissions). They are about one-eighth of just the emissions from China’s coal-fired electricity—never mind all of China’s emissions.
