Global coal-fired power generation is up by around 2% to new highs so far in 2024
Like Groundhog Day, we have been misled by the media one more year....
Reuters published a report on December 10th with the following highlights:
Global exports and use of thermal coal will reach all-time highs in 2024.
Exports of thermal coal through the first 11 months of 2024 are up by 9 million metric tons from the same months in 2023, per Kpler ship-tracking data.
Global coal-fired power generation is up by around 2% to new highs so far in 2024.
However, climate advocates can take heart from the slowing pace of export growth, which at only 1% marks the smallest annual expansion since 2020, when COVID-19 lockdowns sparked a rare contraction in worldwide energy output.
Unfortunately for climate trackers, top coal consumer China - which accounts for 35% of all thermal coal imports - remains in the import growth category. China expanded imports by around 8% to a record 340 million tons from January 1st through the first week of December, according to Kpler.
2023 Coal Consumption by Country
Let us begin by reviewing the actual data from 2023 for the total coal consumed in the country. This information is derived from the 73rd edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy. Statistical Review World Energy
The following graph should help you appreciate the magnitude of the China coal consumption. China consumes over 4 time what India consumes, India consumes 3 times what the U.S. consumes, and the U.S. consumes twice what Japan consumes.
As noted in the Reuters article, China increased their coal imports this year by 8%. So, not much has changed for the largest coal consumer.
New York Times Article
I cannot complete this piece without bringing up one of my favorite sources of disinformation - the NYT. They ran an article in July of this year with the title “Why the Era of China’s Soaring Carbon Emissions Might Be Ending.” It opens with: “China, the world’s biggest source of planet-warming greenhouse gases for most of the past two decades, is seemingly on the verge of bending its emissions curve from years of steep growth into a flat plateau.” NYT - China
Perhaps the NYT will read the Reuters article and notice that the rate of increase in 2024 was only 1% and that is their victory.
The most honest paragraph in the article was: “We’ve been talking about whether there’s been a peak for almost a decade,” said Li Shuo, the director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “Peaking assumes persistent emissions decline after it is passed. That’s not an assumption we can or should make.”
The NYT refuses to show the reader the scale of the discussion. They tell us how renewables have increased by large percentages, but we still can barely see on the chart because they are so small. This information is derived from the 73rd edition of the Statistical Review of World Energy. Statistical Review World Energy
We Should Not Be the Colonizer
It is absurd that the U.S. is going into countries that consume a fraction what we do and then we tell them that we will loan them money if they reduce their emissions. China is now the largest energy consumer on a gross basis. However, if we look at the energy per capita, North America is at 230 Gigajoules per capita while Asia Pacific is at 67 GJ per capita. Africa is at 14 GJ per capita and the developed countries are doing everything that we can to discourage them from developing their natural gas resources.
Enter Chris Wright who states, “the world's poorest people need oil, gas and coal to realize the benefits of modern life that Americans and others in rich nations take for granted.”