CHINA

China has by far the most coal plants in the world, with over half of the world's operating coal power capacity. It is also the world's largest coal power generator and coal consumer. Most of the country's coal power has been built in the past two decades. In 2015, the central government issued a policy for coal “decapacity,” signaling its potential to wind down the country’s growing coal use. However, by 2016, the country’s economy was beginning to slow, leading the central government to introduce a large stimulus spending package, with emphasis on coal-intensive heavy industry and new coal plants. By 2017, China’s coal consumption and production were back on the rise, reaching 3,840 million tonnes of production and 4,040 million tonnes of consumption in 2020.

In April 2021, President Xi announced at the Climate Leaders’ Summit that the country will “strictly limit the increase in coal consumption over the 14th Five Year Plan period and phase it down in the 15th Five Year Plan period,” as part of the country's pledge to be carbon-neutral by 2060. The announcement suggests the country’s coal consumption – and thus its CO2 emissions – should peak by 2025 and phase down through 2030. With an acceleration of the country’s previous target of peaking its CO2 emissions “before 2030,” China’s planned increase in coal production through 2025 is still in stark contrast to the immediate 11% annual declines in coal production that the UN and leading research organizations have called for to meet the Paris climate agreement. In September 2021, President Xi announced that China will stop building new coal plants overseas at the United Nations General Assembly. This announcement was a necessary step for the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter and a major foreign financier of overseas coal projects. China has also committed to be more engaged with energy transitions and sustainable development in other developing countries and to shift the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) towards a low-carbon path. In 2023, 81% of newly proposed coal capacity and 96% of capacity that started construction was in China.