China reduced its coal consumption nearly 8% in the first four months of 2015 compared to the same period last year, “a reduction in emissions that’s approximately equal to the total carbon dioxide emissions of the U.K. over the same period,” Think Progress reported last week.
“The analysis, published by Greenpeace and Energydesk China, reviewed data from a number of sources, including China’s industrial output, and found that China had reduced its coal output by 6.1% in the first four months of 2015,” Phillips writes. “The research team calculated that the drop in coal use translates into a nearly 5% drop in domestic CO2 emissions.”
The report documents reductions in the country’s industrial output and thermal power generation, with hydro, wind, and solar growing fast, Greenpeace analyst Lauri Myllyvirta told Responding to Climate Change (RTCC). She said she had “a high degree of confidence in those statistics because in the current economic situation no government has an incentive to publish falling numbers for industrial growth.”
Phillips comments that “while China is rapidly pursuing clean energy technology—with solar growth that dwarfs any other country—and also closing hundreds of coal plants in response to domestic air pollution issues and a shifting fossil fuel landscape, the real reason for the dramatic fall in emissions is likely the country’s sluggish economy.”
