China generated more than 50% of the world’s coal-fired power in 2020

China generated 53 per cent of the world’s total coal-fired power in 2020, despite climate pledges and the building of hundreds of renewable energy plants, a global data study showed on Monday.

China added a record 71.7 gigawatts (GW) of wind power and 48.2 GW of solar last year being the only G20 nation to see a significant jump in coal-fired generation.

China’s coal-fired generation rose by 1.7 per cent or 77 terawatt-hours, bringing its share of global coal power to 53 per cent, up from 44 per cent in 2015, the report showed.

China, which has promised to reduce its dependence on coal and bring emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gas to a peak before 2030 and become “carbon neutral” by 2060, has been unable to find enough clean energy to meet rapid increases in demand, with renewables meeting only half of China’s power consumption growth last year.

According to a research report in February, new coal-fired power installations reached 38.4 GW in 2020, more than three times the amount built by the rest of the world.

China slashed the share of coal in total energy consumption from around 70 per cent a decade ago to 56.8 per cent last year. But absolute generation volumes rose 19 per cent over the 2016-2020 period, Ember calculated.

In its 2021-2025 five-year plan, China vowed to “rationally control the scale and pace of development in the construction of coal-fired power”.