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China coal use may peak by 2020 at 3.2 bln T

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Publish time: 20th July, 2015      Source: www.cnchemicals.com
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Coal consumption in China’s urban areas may peak by 2020 at about 3.2 billion tonnes, a study released in Beijing on July 16 said.But if no specific measures were taken to rein in the growth in coal use, China may continue to see urban coal consumption to increase until 2030, according to the study on China’s coal consumption cap plan launched by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).This will aggravate public health risks and put pressure on China's already strained water supplies, it said."If the timeline for the peak is set in 2020, it will benefit water resources, environment, public health, the transition to new energy sources and the creation of new green jobs," the report said.The NRDC estimated that imposing a 2020 cap on coal use would save the country as much as 251 billion yuan ($40.4 billion) a year in environmental and power generation costs alone.It would also dramatically cut airborne emissions like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, while the annual number of coal-related fatalities would fall by 48,000 by 2020, and by 89,000 by 2030."Business as usual" policies would see total coal consumption peak to 4.4 billion tonnes by 2030, the report said.China's coal demand fell for the first time in over a decade in 2014, and production also dipped 5.8% in the first half of this year, largely as a result of a slowdown in major downstream sectors like power, steel and cement.Coal accounts for more than 75% of China's total power production. While some groups have forecast consumption could peak as early as 2019, both the China National Coal Association and the International Energy Agency have said that output would continue to rise well beyond 2020.China aims to cut coal consumption in Beijing and several surrounding provinces by 83 million tonnes over the 2013-2017 period, but experts have expressed concern that the failure to impose a nationwide cap will mean that production is merely shifted to western provinces.