China’s power crisis ‘man-made’, and miscalculations by Beijing serve as ‘a very painful lesson’, coal insiders say
- While conceding that carbon-emission targets will ‘absolutely benefit’ China, critics allege there are problems with how those targets are implemented
- ‘Forced caps on supply’ of coal is not the answer, they say, adding that China must reduce its reliance on fossil fuels by using cleaner energy sources
China does not have a shortage of coal, and the nationwide power cuts were a “man-made crisis” and “a big mistake”, according to domestic coal industry insiders who blame Beijing for its miscalculations in coal-production planning and its antiquated national power pricing system.
Chen Weidong, the former chief energy researcher with the China Institute of Energy Economics at state-owned energy giant China National Offshore Oil Corporation, said at a virtual energy forum in Beijing that there was no basis for the coal-shortage argument.
Chinese authorities also excessively capped the amount of coal that China’s miners have been allowed to dig up, and producing less than full capacity has created a supply gap, Tao Guangyuan, executive director of the Sino-German Renewable Energy Centre, said at the same event.