War on climate change is doomed if China turns back towards the coalface

It seems the battle to curb carbon dioxide emissions and keep global temperatures from spinning out of control is being lost before it has even gained traction. The battle is being fought and lost over coal – in China. 

The challenge is less the climate deniers around US President Donald Trump than the need to protect 4 million Chinese mining jobs and meet surging electricity needs across China and other parts of the world that are short of power.

It seems whatever reductions in carbon dioxide emissions we achieve elsewhere, if Beijing quietly fails to fulfil the promises it made at the global climate summit in Katowice, Poland, in December, then we are set to be hapless bystanders to the climate train wreck.

Research worldwide has, in recent months, converged around an alarming consensus – despite an encouraging slowdown in investment in coal mining and coal-fired power generation, with more banks and insurers promising to halt investment in coal, silent slippage, in particular among China’s power producers, has triggered a sharp rise in carbon dioxide emissions.

Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that global energy demand rose 2.3 per cent in 2018, the fastest pace this decade.