From the Daily Caller
Irving Klinsky
Contributor
According to Bloomberg, China’s top energy officials on Thursday dampened hopes that China’s carbon emissions had peaked, following a July report that China would stop increasing emissions after this year.
In July, it was reported that China's carbon emissions would fall or stabilize this year after data showed a decline in coal use and an increase in green energy production. However, Song Wen, director of the Legal and Institutional Reform Department of China's National Energy Administration, played down the rumors on Thursday, adding that even achieving China's original carbon emissions target of peaking in 2030 would require “huge efforts,” according to Bloomberg .
“We should not forget that China is still a developing country pursuing modernization for its huge population,” Wen told Bloomberg at a news conference on Thursday. “Achieving the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality still requires huge efforts.”
Wen's comments come a week after President Joe Biden's top climate aide John Podesta and China's top energy official Liu Zhenmin are expected to meet to discuss environmental cooperation efforts and reducing greenhouse gas emissions other than carbon dioxide, such as methane and nitrogen oxides. Both methane and nitrogen oxides are associated with coal combustion. (Related: Biden administration officials spur green plane plan to own an oil well)
China will account for two-thirds of the world's new coal-fired power plants in 2023, after approving an average of two coal-fired power plants per week in the previous year, according to research from The New York Times and the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research. As of February 2023, China's coal production and consumption accounted for approximately half of the world's coal production and consumption.
“When it comes to coal, given China's overwhelming dominance, whatever happens really determines the global trend,” Li Shuo, director of the China Climate Center at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told The New York Times in April.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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