In China, Higher Coal Production, Raises For Miners; Coal Still Produces 75% Of Electricity

[hatrack]

JINCHENG, China — America’s uncertain stance toward global warming under the coming administration of Donald J. Trump has given China a leading role in the fight against climate change. It has called on the United States to recognize established science and to work with other countries to reduce dependence on dirty fuels like coal and oil. But there is a problem: Even as it does so, China is scrambling to mine and burn more coal.

A lack of stockpiles and worries about electricity blackouts are spurring Chinese officials to reverse curbs that once helped reduce coal production. Mines are reopening. Miners are being lured back with fatter paychecks. China’s response to coal scarcity shows how hard it will be to wean the country off coal. That makes it harder for China and the world to meet emissions targets, as Chinese coal is the world’s largest single source of carbon emissions from human activities.

Here in Jincheng, a smoggy city in China’s coal country, the about-face has led to a steady hum of activity. On a recent afternoon, other trains stopped to make way for two electric locomotives, their horns blowing, pulling more than 50 empty coal hopper cars ready to be filled. Large coal-carrying trucks now form half-mile lines. Allan Zhang, an electrician who works at a mine here, said his employer had raised monthly pay by nearly 50 percent since the summer. Two years ago brought “the autumn of coal, and 2015 and earlier this year were the winter of coal,” Mr. Zhang said. “Now is the springtime of coal.”

EDIT

Coal still produces almost three-quarters of China’s electricity, despite ambitious hydroelectric dam projects and the world’s largest program to install solar panels and build wind turbines. Coal use in China also produces more emissions than all the oil, coal and gas consumed in the United States. “I get a kick out of people in the West who think China is decarbonizing, because I see no sign of it whatsoever,” said Brock Silvers, a Shanghai banker who has previously served on the boards of two Chinese coal companies.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/29/business/energy-environment/china-coal-climate-change.html?_r=1

[NickB79]

1. I've said it before here: China supports coal because it's a work's program to maintain stability

Every year millions of Chinese leave farms to find better lives, better jobs, and climb the social ladder. And just like in America, while many can get jobs in factories, or go to school and get more advanced jobs, many of them simply can't. For these people, their only option is to turn to places like coal mines, where they trade back-breaking labor and dangerous conditions for the chance to get decent paychecks and provide a better life for their families.

Without another industry to support the millions of men employed by the coal mines, the government is loathe to significantly scale back coal because it would risk social destability at a time when the Chinese government is terrified of anything disrupting the social order they've created. Millions of angry, out of work miners would be a massive headache for them to deal with.

[hatrack]

2. Add gender imbalance, and China is facing any government's nightmare:

Millions of young men with no jobs and no girlfriends and all the economic expectations in the world - demographic and political nitroglycerine.

[NickB79]

3. Nothing a land war with the neighbors can't solve