From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
Despite the absurd Ambrose Evans-Pritchard’s repeated assertions over the years that China is cutting back on its reliance on coal, its coal output continues to hit record highs:
BEIJING, Jan 17 (Reuters) – China’s coal output reached a record high in 2023, data from the statistics bureau showed on Wednesday, amid an ongoing focus on energy security and a rise in demand after pandemic-related restrictions eased.
The world’s biggest coal producer mined 4.66 billion metric tons of the fuel last year, up 2.9% from a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
For December, output reached 414.31 million tons, nearly flat with November’s 414 million tons and up 1.9% from the year-earlier level.
Daily output over the month was 13.36 million tons, slipping from November’s record high daily average of 13.8 million tons.
The country’s overall power generation, which is dominated by coal-fired plants, rose 8% year-on-year in December.
Analysts are predicting another modest coal production increase in 2024. The rate of growth has slowed over the past year, following an energy security push that drove a ramp-up of output beginning in 2021.
Full story
Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal reports:
John Kerry has announced he’ll soon step down as President Biden’s climate envoy to join the 2024 re-election campaign, and maybe he’ll fare better in that job. If he doesn’t, Mr. Biden will be a one-termer.
For three years Mr. Kerry has been preoccupied with getting China to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. But excluding emissions from land use and forestry, China’s emissions rose 13% between 2015 and 2023, according to Climate Action Tracker estimates. U.S. emissions fell by some 9% over the same period.
You can’t say Mr. Kerry hasn’t tried to persuade China, including the use of green flattery. “China has produced more renewable energy, more solar and wind than any other country,” he said last year.
But China’s CO2 emissions have still soared as demand for electricity surged. In 2022 China accounted for 53% of the world’s coal generation, the Ember think tank says, and new permits for coal power plants in 2022 reached “the highest level since 2015.” That’s the year Beijing signed the Paris climate accord Mr. Kerry negotiated, promising to reduce its emissions starting in 2030.
Global Energy Monitor tracks worldwide coal-fired power plants of 30 megawatts or more and reports that as of July 2023 China had 305 coal-fired power stations announced or in the works. Together they’ll be able to generate some 391.7 gigawatts—about 70% of the world’s total coal-fired capacity currently announced, planned, permitted or under construction.
Or take coal mining. Reuters reported Wednesday that China’s coal output reached a record high in 2023 as it mined some 4.66 billion metric tons. Global Energy Monitor says China had plans in 2022 for 217 coal mines with a capacity of at least 900,000 metric tons, which would represent nearly 57% of all new coal mine additions in the works globally.
“It is unrealistic to completely phase out fossil fuel energy,” Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said in September. That follows President Xi Jinping’s declaration in 2022 that China’s carbon goals “can’t be detached from reality,” according the state-run People’s Daily.
Mr. Kerry’s problem has been a failure to recognize reality, which is typical of America’s climate lobby.
The Chinese are not self destructive loons like Kerry. Or more of a sadistic loon, as Kerry has shown no indication of imposing his green beliefs on himself.
Cheers to hoping Kerry is equally successful in both endeavors
Would it be wrong to suggest murder suicide?
Yes. Well done.
OK, I won’t then. Thanks, sometimes I have to calibrate my filter.
And anyway, it’s just not necessary. Putting Kerry and Biden together has got to be political suicide for the Democrat’s.
I might begin to believe Kerry if and only if he lowers his standard of living to the average American. And he’ll have to give up those $700 haircuts ’cause as an average American he won’t be able to afford one. He’ll have to go to Billy’s Barber Shop down in the ghetto. 🙂
Better still, Sweeney Todd’s
Is record coal output correlated to a lack of snow? Not this week.
There’s more on the way here in CO. A lot more…
Yes! I shall investigate friction between the snow and a couple of flat surfaces of polyethylene.
I heard that in the past few weeks snowpack went from 70% to 90% of “normal.”
Let me know if you’re going to have a yard sale 😅
Why not use tennis racquets? 🙃
Never occurred to me.
Kerry not realizing reality regarding coal by China is not important
The real issue is the West elite maintaining its control of the imagery of the expensive, climate fighting, scare-mongering agenda, which is dying, because of its uselessness
Adaptation would be soooo much better, and less costly
The West elite achieved nothing at COP28; it was an expensive flop
Farmers are demonstrating against the GW agenda in Germany, France, etc.
The EU and US will have to give up the GW agenda, because there is no scientific reason to continue it.
Turn to nuclear and energy efficiency and adaptation
To hell with impositions and subsidies for wind, solar, batteries, heat pumps, electric vehicles, electric stoves, etc.
When Trump enters the White House, he will give the GW agenda its
long-overdue coup de grace, and he will immediately seal the borders, using the US Army, and/or the nationalized National Guard
After the usual howling, sanity will slowly return to the US
China and BRISC are rising and growing. That is the real challenge for the West
Sadly if Trump wins, that isn’t likely to happen. Like the first term, the attacks will continue draining resources to defend himself. If he hadn’t had to deal with COVID, two impeachments and multiple investigations he would have accomplished much more. His biggest mistake was not having the time to dismantle the weaponized departments that contributed to his downfall. The lefts goal is to maintain power even if it causes the downfall of the country.
Maybe the house and senate will be controlled by the republicans but we have seen some on the right vote with the left against Trump. The left as also taken the battle to the state level and while he is somewhat immune by the office, there is more than one way to skin a cat and the left will try all of them.
Two-thirds of Republicans under 30 support the so-called “climate change” agenda and 61 percent of adult Americans overall support it. Politicians usually go where the votes are.
liar
… why?
The propaganda hasn’t spared young republicans who are on social media everyday.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/08/09/what-the-data-says-about-americans-views-of-climate-change/
We have adapted to the cold temperatures outside of the tropics. We have warm houses and apartments, warm transportation, warm workplaces, etc.
Probably we could invent air-conditioned jackets for less than a trillion using thermoelectric cooling instead of spending $US200 trillion trying to stop warming.
China’s coal output surged? Don’t worry, the ban on gasoline powered lawnmowers in California will offset it 😉.
Wonder what the coal imports were like, as an additional metric?
According to the IEA China produces half of the world’s coal but consumes more than half.
It expects China and India to account for 70% of global coal consumption in 2026.
IEA ‘Coal2023 Analysis and forecast to 2026’ (Dec 2023)
Two rules, don’t believe what China says and don’t believe what John Kerry says.
China is the best example yet of a pragmatic authoritarian nation doing what ‘it’ needs to do to satisfy its needs. It does that while stroking the egos of the political class in the West, using calming words, at it completely ignores the fixations of the Climate Crisis Alarmists.
I particularly like the choice of 2030 as their target year to reduce fossil fuel use. That ‘commitment’ was made knowing by 2030 China’s population would be in rapid decline. The loss of population down to around 700 million by 2100 will impact the entire energy need of the country so we look forward to the BBC/Guardian and other Alarmists celebrating the massive reductions in fossil fuel taking place in China at the end of 2030.
The one thing they won’t be mentioning is the cause of the upcoming reduction. It will be following the population down, not because of some faux Western climate concern.
Blazer GH 15s 1.24 (youtube.com) charging EVs with diesel generators
“Mr. Kerry’s problem has been a failure to recognize reality”
He failed to recognize he was losing his chance at the presidency.
He fails to acknowledge his hypocrisy in so many facets of his wasteful, extravagant lifestyle including moving his yacht to another state to avoid taxes, multiple large estates, and flying private jets – all contributing to one of the largest carbon footprints on the planet. (Not that carbon footprints are a reasonable indicator of anything other than wealth.)
His only talent is his ability to marry well. His only successful endeavor.
My hope is that he brings the same skills to helping Biden’s campaign that he has in most of his other endeavors.
China and Russia have hypersonic missiles and the U.S. has Kerry, Biden, Bernie, Markey, and Warren.
The UK has two aircraft carriers, with about eight planes each[!] I read today; and not only Rishi Sunak, but also [Sir] Kier Starmer.
I weep for my country.
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How much more Chinese diesel-powered train traffic to Europe and bunker fuel powered Chinese ship traffic to the U.S. was caused by Kerry-Biden energy policy damage?
This is just another reminder that the world’s main coal consumers, particularly China and India, ignore climate alarmists like Kerry and his ilk because they consider economic growth far more important than supposedly saving the planet.
And China burns 12,000,000 tonnes of coal a day.
Every day.
And that gives 44,000,000 tonnes of CO2 each and every day.
But I’ll turn the little light off on my monitor AND my speakers tonight – gotta cut CO2!
Gotta save the entire planet.
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