China promotes coal in setback for efforts to cut emissions

Smoke and steam rise from towers at the coal-fired Urumqi Thermal Power Plant in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)

China is promoting coal-fired power as the ruling Communist Party tries to revive a sluggish economy, prompting warnings that Beijing is setting back efforts to cut climate-changing carbon emissions from the biggest global source.

Official plans call for boosting coal production capacity by 300 million tons this year, according to news reports. That is equal to 7% of last year’s output of 4.1 billion tons, which was an increase of 5.7% over 2020.