China‘s coal production in 2020 reached its highest level since 2015, despite the Chinese Communist Party’s transparently dishonest promises to reduce fossil fuel use, Reuters reported.
China produced 3.84 billion tonnes of coal last year, the most of any nation, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics.
Production peaked this year because of increased commercial demand and limits on coal imports, which is aimed at protecting the domestic coal mining industry.
China produced 351.89 million tonnes of coal in December 2019, up 3.2 percent from December 2019 and up about 5 million tonnes from November’s haul of 347.27 million tonnes.
The CCP told coal companies to increase production to slow rising energy costs.
To further increase production, the National Energy Commission approved six new coal-mining sites in Xinjiang, a northwestern province.
The Chinese government expects the projects to produce an additional 15.3 million tonnes of coal per year.
The nation’s coal production peaked in 2013 at 3.97 billion tonnes per year.
The CCP allowed the coal mining industry to open first after the COVID-19 lockdowns were lifted in order to meet the nation’s energy needs.
Radical environmentalists in the Democratic Party want the United States to cripple its coal, oil, and natural gas industries to manage climate change. But China and India, which produce and consume more than a third of the world’s coal, do not intend on scaling back.
In 20019, China announced plans for 300 new coal plants, NPR reported.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the nation would escalate coal production and consumption.
“Today, we are not just launching the auction of commercial coal mining but are also pulling out the coal sector out of years in lockdown,” Modi said in June.
Democrat Joe Biden wants to work with China on climate change, but the nation’s Belt and Road Initiative does not align with the incoming president’s radical goals.
“Strong U.S. leadership for addressing climate change will make it harder for China to greenwash the Belt and Road,” Jonathan Hillman, a senior fellow at American think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, CNBC reported.
By “greenwash,” Hillman refers to the deceptive practice in which China feigns adherence to environmentalist policies while pursuing the cheapest energy available.
The CCP has spoken one way and acted another way regarding environmentalism for decades, but America’s elites—Biden among them—continue to be duped, perhaps because they can gain financially or politically by ignoring the deception.
Biden has criticized the CCP for expanding fossil fuel production as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, but he has not offered specifics about combatting these projects.
“Biden will not allow other nations, including China, to game the system by becoming destination economies for polluters, undermining our climate efforts and exploiting American workers and businesses,” according to Biden’s climate plan.
The CCP said it would implement 11 green energy projects, “all of which are voluntary, and none of which are binding or transparent,” Hillman said.
“The US approach is likely to continue involve a combination of sticks and carrots,” said Jonathan Wood, director and lead U.S. analyst at consultancy Control Risks.
