Phasing out coal power and meeting climate goals by 2050 ‘totally doable’ for China
- Study suggests ‘low-hanging fruit’ be retired and operating hours of other plants gradually cut by 2050 to keep warming to within 2 degrees Celsius
- With financial support and careful planning it could be kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to researchers
China can achieve a sustainable phase-out of coal-fired power and keep climate warming to within 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, or even earlier, without a serious economic impact, according to a study of the energy sector.
Meeting a more ambitious goal of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius along with a coal-fired power phase-out was also feasible, the study found, but it would require meticulous planning and financial support to retire the plants.
“This report shows that a sustainable coal power phase-out in China is possible, by rapidly retiring the low-hanging fruit and gradually reducing the operating hours of the remaining [coal-fired power] plants,” said Jiang Kejun, a co-lead author of the study and senior researcher with the government-backed Energy Research Institute.
He said the study used bottom-up data from the plants and was the first of its kind in China.
“It turns out that phasing out coal-fired power generation is not as hard as we thought, and it is actually totally doable,” Jiang said.
