Beijing just announced that it will close the last of its four major coal-fired power plants in 2016, avoiding an estimated 30 million tons of carbon. This welcome step, carried out as part of China’s national Air Pollution Action Plan, is the latest evidence that China is putting teeth into its pledges to tackle air pollution and cap its carbon emissions. It is further proof that China is already starting to deliver on the commitments it made as part of the U.S.-China climate deal last November.
China’s efforts to shift away from coal, the largest source of its air pollution and carbon emissions, are part of a broader national effort to transition to cleaner energy and a more sustainable economy. According to Greenpeace, twelve of China’s 34 provinces, which burn a total of 44 percent of the country’s coal, are required or committed to control their coal use. In January, China ordered four of these regions to come up with concrete plans to reduce coal consumption, including the city of Shanghai and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong.
These efforts are already bearing fruit. As I explained here, China’s coal use and carbon emissions dropped in 2014 for the first time since 1998, while the economy continued to grow. Moreover, Shenhua, the largest coal producer in the world’s largest coal market, just announced that it expects its coal sales in 2015 to decline by 10 percent. Specifically, Shenhua’s 2015 year-to-date production and sales figures show that…
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