China's Coal Role in Global Warming

Hot and humid

I’m in Indonesia as I write this and yesterday the first mate and I visited a school so that the pupils could get some experience of listening to native English speakers (although I have a Welsh accent and as the World Cup is about to start they all knew who Gareth Bale is).

The weather is hot and humid — we’re just a few degrees of latitude from the Equator — and I discussed the weather with one of the teachers. Unprompted, he said that the weather pattern had changed in his lifetime and he ascribed this change to global warming.

Of course, Indonesia has played its part too in global warming, with the huge 1883 explosion of Krakatoa which is estimated to have been equivalent to 200 megatons of TNT. It sent an estimated 6 cubic miles of rock and ash into the atmosphere and coloured the sunsets in England.

And Indonesia still plays a part in Global Warming.

COP27

The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP27, was the 27th United Nations Climate Change conference, held from 6 November until 20 November 2022 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. (Wikipedia)

But today as I write, the COP27 nations have agreed to set up a fund to compensate those countries worst hit by climate change.

Setting up a fund sounds like a way to avoid the issue, just as the carbon emission trading scheme has been a nonsense. Just as politicians set up ‘committees of inquiry’ to deal with distasteful events.

This one will not go away.

China is a major polluter

Yes, I know it’s not the only country that’s a major polluter with coal burning, it’s just that the sheer scale of the problem there is breathtaking (and breath damaging too).

Facts:

• China is currently building more than 50% of the world’s new coal-fired power stations
• Construction of new coal-fired stations is occurring overwhelmingly in Asia, with China accounting for 52 per cent of the 176 gigawatts of coal capacity under construction in 20 countries last year [2021]. The global figure is barely changed from the 181 GW that was under construction in 2020, despite authoritative analyses showing that no more new coal projects can be built if climate goals are to be met. (New Scientist)

• In 2018, China had 3,476 coal-fired power plants, which produced 2,045 TWh of electricity, or about 62% of China’s total electricity production that year. (China Merchants Holdings (International) Co., Ltd)

• A 2021 report by the U.S.-based Global Energy Monitor (GEM) and Helsinki-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found that China had built over three times as much [sic] coal-fired electrical power capacity in 2020 as the rest of the world combined.

• As of 2019, 206 coal fired power plants were under construction in China, with a combined capacity of 1,055 GW. (China Merchants Holdings (International) Co., Ltd) (ibid.)

It’s easy to blame China, but other countries are feeding the Chinese power plants:

• China imports 62% of its coal from Indonesia! (China Merchants Holdings (International) Co., Ltd) (ibid.)

• In 2019, 38% of China coal imports came from Australia although a ban was in place because of a trade dispute between the countries. (CNBC)

Some of the numbers are inconsistent (it’s a rapidly changing picture), but this is what statista.com reports:

There are a total of 3,037 operating coal-fired power plant units in China. As of January 2022, the province of Shandong, which lies to the south of Beijing, houses the greatest number of coal power plants, at over 400 units.

It’s easy to blame China, but in the US, the world’s largest economy, there were 229 operational coal-fired power stations in 2021. Coal generated 23% of United States electricity in 2021. Coal was 19% of generating capacity. (Wikipedia). So, the US had less than 20% of the number in China.

Australian coal feeding Chinese power stations

Earlier this year as I sailed north along the Queensland coast of Australia, I became aware of the sheer scale of the Australian coal export business, with China as the main customer.

Australia is the world’s largest coal exporter, — accounting for 35 per cent of all coal exported — with the majority of the tonnages travelling to their nearby neighbours in Asia. — Australian Mining

Below is an image I took of my electronic chart as I sailed past Hay Point Coal Loader in Queensland. Every green triangle with a black circle is a ship at anchor waiting to load coal.

Further on, we passed Abbot Point Coal Loader with a similar number of ships lined up. These are just two of many coal loaders in Australia.

The Hay Point Coal Terminal is located at the Port of Hay Point — 38 kilometres south of Mackay, Queensland on the traditional lands of the Yuwibara people. The export capacity of the terminal is 55 million tonnes per annum.

It was an eye opener.

So what do I know about coal?

Not a lot — I was brought up in a West Wales town riven by mine workings in the South Wales Coalfield, an area of many mining disasters.

Bells of Rhymney: The lyrics to the song were drawn from part of Idris Davies’ poetic work Gwalia Deserta, which was first published in 1938. The work was inspired by a local coal mining disaster and by the failure of the 1926 General Strike. The Byrds had a hit with it, but I prefer the clarity and pace of the Judy Collins version. She’s prettier too.

Just outside my town was the one of the world’s deepest anthracite mines, Cynheidre Colliery.

I went to an elementary school which had been built on a tip of coal waste.

As a boy I played in derelict pitheads.

The rivers ran black.

I knew miners and watched them die of emphysema and pneumoconiosis.

The town had docks and exported coal.

It was a dirty business.

And yes, we had a coal-fired power station, half a mile from where I lived.

My family kept a boat in the old coal dock and we used the power station chimneys as a navigation mark — we could see them from Tenby, 16 miles away.

All gone now, and greened over, the dock a marina.

As is often the case, I have meandered down memory lane as I write and the links in my life spring into the story.

So, to get back to the original thrust of my story, we are wiser now, and I hope that other parts of the world come to their senses — China is funding coal-powered plants in a number of other countries, including South Africa, Bangladesh, Russia, and Turkey. And Ukraine (they have a lot of coal, but the power stations have been bombed).

And by the way, ‘Rhymney’ is a Welsh town and the name is properly pronounced ‘Rhumney’. The non-Welsh singers always get it wrong. And I don’t agree with Wikipedia’s suggested pronunciation either — the ‘Rh’ is a softer sound than the ‘R’, with more roll off the tongue.

Those memories are a long way from Indonesia but it seems I’m still close to coal.

And it’s getting hotter.

Author’s note: The concept, structure, style and creative content — as well as the experience — in this story are all my own and I hope that is obvious to a reader. I do not employ third party writers. However, I do occasionally use an AI assistant to research and present small sections of factual content and data. All facts are checked where possible and sources quoted.

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Canonical link: This story was first published in Medium on 22 November 2022