![Historical coal production of different countries](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Historical_coal_production_of_different_countries.svg)
China is the largest producer and consumer of
coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when ...
in the world. It is also the largest user of coal-generated electricity, with over a thousand
coal-fired power station
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts Nameplate capacity, capacity. They ...
s. The share of coal in the
energy mix
The energy mix is a group of different primary energy sources from which secondary energy for direct use - such as electricity - is produced. Energy mix refers to all direct uses of energy, such as transportation and housing, and should not be c ...
declined during the 2010s, falling from 80% in 2010 to 58% in 2019.
China emits over
10% of global greenhouse gas. China's large demand was in part responsible for the delay in
peak global coal production,
coal production reached a record high in December 2021 and coal consumption in China is forecast to reach a record high in 2021.
Overall electricity consumption continued to rise in the 2010s, and new coal-fired power plants were constructed to help meet demand. But to curtail the pace of
coal-fired power station
A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts Nameplate capacity, capacity. They ...
construction, the
National Energy Administration
The National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China (NDRC), formerly State Planning Commission and State Development Planning Commission, is a macroeconomic management agency under the State Council, which has b ...
in 2017 canceled coal-fired power plant permits that would have amounted to 120 GW of future capacity.
However, local authorities seeking to create jobs resisted the efforts of central authorities to cut back.
Despite central government attempts to clamp down on construction and shifting demand in the market to renewable, nuclear and natural gas sources,
43 coal power units were announced in the first half of 2021 according to the
Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in August 2021.
Together with proposed
blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheri ...
s they would increase
greenhouse gas emissions by China
Greenhouse gas emissions by China are the largest of any country in the world both in production and consumption terms, and stem mainly from coal burning in China, including coal-fired power stations, coal mining, and blast furnaces producing ...
by an estimated 150 million tons a year.
During the
2021 energy crisis
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...
in China, this dependency on coal units, depletion of reserves, increasing import prices, and slowdowns of shipment and production lead to widespread shutdowns of
industrial energy use.
Chinese construction firms are also building coal-fired power stations in other countries. However, a 2021 commitment by
CCP general secretary
The general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party () is the Party leader, head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secr ...
Xi Jinping
Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...
at the
UN General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
pledged an end to the international funding.
History
Coal mines in pre-industrial China
Ancient people in current China started using coal around 6 000 years ago.
Historians suspects that the Chinese were involved in the surface mining of coal around 3490 BC, pioneering the pre-modern world.
Fushan mine uses to be pointed out as the earliest coal mine in the ancient world and started around 1 000 BC. In pre-modern China, coal was constrained both by the limitations of traditional technology and the weakness of demand.
In the 3rd century BC, Chinese people began burning coal for heat.
The spread of coal use was gradual until the late 11th century when a timber shortage in north China produced a fast-paced expansion in coal mining and consumption.
In 1000 AD, Chinese mines were ahead of most mining advancements in the world.
Coal mines in China faced similar problems to European ones. Both Chinese and European miners preferred to use
drift mines
Drift mining is either the mining of an ore deposit by underground methods, or the working of coal seams accessed by adits driven into the surface outcrop of the coal bed. A drift mine is an underground mine in which the entry or access is above ...
sunk horizontally into the hillside for drainage of water. In the 18th century, British observers realized that such mines in
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
were opening out directly on to a river.
Slope mines were the second most common type, as mines in
Leiyang
Leiyang () is a county-level city and the third most populous county-level division in Hunan Province, China. Leiyang is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Hengyang. Located on the south of the province, the city is bordered ...
, Hunan.
In the 19th century,
shaft mine
Shaft mining or shaft sinking is the action of excavating a mine shaft from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom. Shallow shafts, typically sunk for civil engineering projects, differ greatly in execution method from ...
s were predominant, especially in
north China
North China, or Huabei () is a List of regions of China, geographical region of China, consisting of the provinces of Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia. Part of the larger region of Northern China (''Beifang''), it lies north ...
. European observers interpreted that as a consequence of the lack of wood in the zone to hold up the roof in slope mines. Flooding was a constant problem, and several mines were abandoned for that reason.
Coal mines in China were as deep as those in Europe. In areas such as Shanxi with natural drainage, mines were as deep as 120 m. From Henan and Manchuria, mines had depths of 90 m or more.
Early coal consumption in China
Coal consumption in traditional China was substantial but low on a per capita basis. Main coal demand came from industry. The earliest references to coal are in the context of
smelting methods. The technology was spread from the central plain to outlying areas in China.
In the 11th century, the iron produced in north China was smelted in
coke-burning blast-furnaces.
Deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...
in that zone forced to turn to the use of coke, mushrooming ironworking centers along the
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
-
Hebei
Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...
border. Accounts of that period estimate that at least 140 000 tons of coal a year were used by the iron industry in that zone. Chinese scientist
Song Yingxing
Song Yingxing (Traditional Chinese: 宋應星; Simplified Chinese: 宋应星; Wade Giles: Sung Ying-Hsing; 1587-1666 AD) was a Chinese scientist and encyclopedist who lived during the late Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). He was the author of ''Tian ...
suggested that around 70% of iron was smelted with coal. Meanwhile, 30% used
charcoal
Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...
.
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
was the center of the iron industry in late traditional times. German scientist
Ferdinand von Richthofen
Baron Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen (5 May 18336 October 1905), better known in English as was a German traveller, geographer, and scientist. He is noted for coining the terms "Seidenstraße" and "Seidenstraßen" = "Silk Road(s)" or "Silk ...
accounted for the use of coal in several areas of the province.
Early descriptions of coal for household purposes go back until the 6th century when a writer pointed out that food tastes different according to whether it was cooked over coal, charcoal, bamboo, or grass. From the 11th century, coal was the main option in the household in the capital at Kaifeng. At the beginning of the 12th century, twenty new coal markets were established and coal replaced charcoal in the zone. Increasing demand led to the development of mining in areas of
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
and
Shandong
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
.
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
claimed that coal was "burnt through the province of Cathay" and pointed out that was used in bathhouses.
Production
Coalfields
China produces most of the thermal coal (both black and brown coal) it burns, but imports coking coal to make high quality steel.
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
,
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
and
Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
are the main coal-producing provinces,
and most coal is found in the north and northwest of the country. This poses a large logistical problem for supplying electricity to the more heavily populated coastal areas in the southeast.
Coal production
China is the largest coal producer in the world,
with 3.84 billion tonnes in 2020 and China National Coal Association forecasting an increase in 2021.
The coal production 1829
Mtoe in 2018 is more than the total aggregate of next nine top coal producers and 46.7% of the total global production.
In 2011, seven Chinese coal mining companies produced 100 million tonnes of coal or more. These companies were
Shenhua Group
Shenhua Group Corporation Limited was a Chinese state-owned mining and energy company. Shenhua Group was founded in October 1995 under the auspices of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It was the largest coal-producing compan ...
,
China Coal Group,
Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry,
Shanxi Coking Coal Group
Shanxi Coking Coal Group Co., Ltd. is a Chinese state-owned coal mining conglomerate and a holding company, as one of the seven coal conglomerates that had a production capability of over 100 million metric tons in China in 2011.
Shanxi Coking ...
,
Datong Coal Mine Group,
Jizhong Energy, and
Shandong Energy
Shandong Energy Group Co. Ltd. () is a state owned coal-mining company headquartered in Jinan, Shandong, China. It is among the seven largest Chinese coal companies.
The group was created in March 2011 by merging six existing coal mining compa ...
.
The largest metallurgical coal producer was Shanxi Coking Coal Group.
In 2015, official statistics revealed that previous statistics had been systematically underestimated by 17%, corresponding to the entire emissions of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
![Coal mine in Inner Mongolia 002](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Coal_mine_in_Inner_Mongolia_002.jpg)
China's largest open-pit coal mine is located in
Haerwusu in the
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
Autonomous Region. It started production in 2008, and is operated by
Shenhua Group
Shenhua Group Corporation Limited was a Chinese state-owned mining and energy company. Shenhua Group was founded in October 1995 under the auspices of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It was the largest coal-producing compan ...
. Its estimated coal output was forecast at 7 million tonnes in the fourth quarter of 2008. With a designed annual capacity of 20 million tonnes of crude coal, it will operate for approximately 79 years. Its coal reserves total about 1.73 billion tonnes. It is rich in low-sulfur steam coal.
Mines in Inner Mongolia are rapidly expanding production, with 637 million tons produced in 2009. Transport of coal from this region to seaports on China's coast has overloaded highways such as
China National Highway 110
China National Highway 110 (G110) runs from Beijing to Qingtongxia, via Hohhot, Baotou in Inner Mongolia, and Yinchuan. It heads northwest from Beijing to Zhangjiakou then heads straight west, and runs to approximately .
In October 2004 and Nove ...
resulting in chronic traffic jams and delays.
In 2021, the government ordered all coal mines to operate at full capacity at all times, including holidays; approved new mines, and reduced restrictions on coal mining.
Imports
China is the world's largest importer of coal: with big imports from Russia and Indonesia in the 2020s.
After boycotting Australian coal in 2020, coking coal imports from Mongolia and the US increased.
Use
57% of energy consumption was from coal in 2020, and 49% for coal-fired power. The coal consumption was 1907
Mtoe in 2018 which is 50.2% of the global consumption.
[ The ]National Development and Reform Commission
The National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China (NDRC), formerly State Planning Commission and State Development Planning Commission, is a macroeconomic management agency under the State Council, which has br ...
, which determines the energy policy of China
Ensuring adequate energy supply to sustain economic growth has been a core concern of the Chinese government since 1949. The country is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and coal in China is a major cause of global warming. How ...
, aims to keep China's coal consumption below 3.8 billion tonnes per annum.
The consumption of coal is largely in power production, aside from this, there is a lot of industry and manufacturing use along with a comparatively very small amount of domestic use in poorer households for heating and cooking.
Electricity generation
Coal power is distributed by the State Power Grid Corporation.
China's installed coal-based electrical capacity was 1080 GW in 2021, about half the total installed capacity. Coal generated 57% of electricity in 2020. Over half the world's coal-fired power is generated in China. 5 GW of new coal power was approved in the first half of 2021. Quotas force utility companies to buy coal power over cheaper renewable power. Carbon Tracker estimated in 2020 that the average coal fleet loss was about 4 USD/MWh and that about 60% of power stations were cashflow negative in 2018 and 2019.
According to 2020 analysis by Energy Foundation China, to keep warming to 1.5 degrees C all China's coal plants without carbon capture must be phased out by 2045.
Industrial use
One of the principal users is the steel industry in China
The steel industry in China has been driven by rapid modernisation of its economy, construction, infrastructure and manufacturing industries.
History 20th century
The steel industry was small and sparsely populated at the start of the twentiet ...
, which burns metallurgical coal
Metallurgical coal or coking coal is a grade of coal that can be used to produce good-quality coke. Coke is an essential fuel and reactant in the blast furnace process for primary steelmaking. The demand for metallurgical coal is highly coupled ...
.
Domestic use
In cities the domestic burning of coal is no longer permitted. In rural areas coal is still permitted to be used by Chinese households, commonly burned raw in unvented stoves. This fills houses with high levels of toxic metals leading to bad indoor air quality
Indoor air quality (IAQ) is the air quality within and around buildings and structures. IAQ is known to affect the health, comfort, and well-being of building occupants. Poor indoor air quality has been linked to sick building syndrome, reduced ...
(IAQ). In addition, people eat food cooked over coal fires that contains toxic substances. Toxic substances from coal burning include arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, but ...
, fluorine
Fluorine is a chemical element with the symbol F and atomic number 9. It is the lightest halogen and exists at standard conditions as a highly toxic, pale yellow diatomic gas. As the most electronegative reactive element, it is extremely reacti ...
, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. P ...
, and mercury
Mercury commonly refers to:
* Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun
* Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg
* Mercury (mythology), a Roman god
Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to:
Companies
* Merc ...
. These cause health issues such as severe arsenic poisoning, skeletal fluorosis
Skeletal fluorosis is a bone disease caused by excessive accumulation of fluoride leading to weakened bones. In advanced cases, skeletal fluorosis causes painful damage to bones and joints.
Symptoms
Symptoms are mainly promoted in the bone structu ...
(over 10 million people afflicted in China), esophageal and lung cancers, and selenium
Selenium is a chemical element with the symbol Se and atomic number 34. It is a nonmetal (more rarely considered a metalloid) with properties that are intermediate between the elements above and below in the periodic table, sulfur and tellurium, ...
poisoning.
China is now aware of the impact of coal on the environment and is taking steps to change it. Currently, China has started to implement natural gas as an alternative to coal for heating. But if rural areas lose government subsidies, no one will continue to use natural gas.
In 2007 the use of coal and biomass
Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms bi ...
(collectively referred to as solid fuels) for domestic purposes was nearly ubiquitous in rural households but declining in urban homes. At that time, estimates put the number of premature deaths due to indoor air pollution at 420,000 per year, which is even higher than due to outdoor air pollution, estimated at around 300,000 deaths per year. The specific mechanisms for death cited have been respiratory illnesses, lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissue (biology), tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from tran ...
, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. The main symptoms include shortness of breath and a cough, which may or may not produce ...
(COPD), weakening of the immune system, and reduction in lung function. Measured pollution levels in homes using solid fuels generally exceeded China's IAQ air quality standards. Technologies exist to improve indoor air quality, notably the installation of a chimney and modernized bioenergy but need more support to make a larger difference.
Carbon footprint
2019 carbon emissions from coal in China are estimated at 7.24 billion tonnes CO2 emissions, around 14% of the world total greenhouse gas emissions of around 50 billion tonnes. In 2021 the carbon price was about one-tenth of the EU carbon price.
It is believed that a continued increase in coal power in China may undermine international initiatives to decrease carbon emissions, such as the Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement (french: Accord de Paris), often referred to as the Paris Accords or the Paris Climate Accords, is an international treaty on climate change. Adopted in 2015, the agreement covers climate change mitigation, Climate change a ...
.
Efforts to reduce emissions
Air pollution in China
Pollution in China is one aspect of the broader topic of environmental issues in China. Various forms of pollution have increased as China has industrialised, which has caused widespread environmental health problems.Jared Diamond, '' Collapse ...
kills 750,000 people every year, according to a study by the World Bank. Issued in response to record-high levels of air pollution in 2012 and 2013, the State Council's September 2013 Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution reiterated the need to reduce coal's share in China's energy mix
The energy mix is a group of different primary energy sources from which secondary energy for direct use - such as electricity - is produced. Energy mix refers to all direct uses of energy, such as transportation and housing, and should not be c ...
to 65% by 2017. Amidst growing public concern, social unrest incidents are growing around the country. For example, in December 2011 the government suspended plans to expand a coal-fired power plant in the city of Haimen
Haimen (, Qihai dialect: , Shanghai: ) is a district of Nantong, Jiangsu province, with a population of approximately 1 million. It is located at the opposite side of the Yangtze River to Shanghai and is directly north of Chongming Island except f ...
after 30,000 local residents staged a violent protest against it, because "the coal-fired power plant was behind a rise in the number of local cancer patients, environmental pollution and a drop in the local fishermen's catch."
In addition to environmental and health costs at home, China's dependence on coal is cause for concern on a global scale. Due in large part to the emissions caused by burning coal, China is now the number one producer of carbon dioxide, responsible for a full quarter of the world's output.[Bawden, To]
"China agrees to impose carbon targets by 2016"
''The Independent'', 21 May 2013 The country has taken steps towards battling climate change by pledging to cut its carbon intensity
An emission intensity (also carbon intensity or C.I.) is the emission rate of a given pollutant relative to the intensity of a specific activity, or an industrial production process; for example grams of carbon dioxide released per megajoule ...
(the amount of produced per dollar of economic output) by about 40 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels.
China has said carbon dioxide from coal will peak by 2025. On average, China's coal plants work more efficiently than those in the United States, due to their relative youth.
In September 2011, the Chinese government's Ministry of Environmental Protection announced a new emission standard for thermal power plants, for and mercury, and a tightening of and soot standards. New coal power plants have a set date of the beginning of 2012 and for old power plants by mid-2014. They must also abide by a new limit on mercury by beginning of 2015. It is estimated such measures could bring about a 70% reduction in emissions from power plants.
The Chinese national carbon trading scheme
The Chinese national carbon trading scheme is an intensity-based trading system for carbon dioxide emissions by China, which started operating in 2021. This emission trading scheme (ETS) creates a carbon market where emitters can buy and sell emi ...
began in 2021.
Beijing
China decided to close the last four coal-fired power and heating plants out of Beijing's municipal area, replacing them with gas-fired power plant
A gas-fired power plant or gas-fired power station or natural gas power plant is a thermal power station which burns natural gas to generate electricity. Natural gas power stations generate almost a quarter of world electricity and a signifi ...
s, in an effort to improve air quality
Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...
in the capital. The four plants, owned by Huaneng Power International, Datang International Power Generation Co Ltd, China Shenhua Energy
China Shenhua Energy Company Limited, also known as Shenhua, China Shenhua, or Shenhua Energy (), is the largest state-owned coal mining enterprise in Mainland China, and in the world. It is a subsidiary of Shenhua Group. It mines, refines, and se ...
and Beijing Jingneng Thermal Power Beijing Jingneng Power Co., Ltd. (, ) is a Beijing coal power producer and district heating supplier listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.gigawatt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wat ...
s (GW). All of them have been closed as of March 2019.
Coal mine fires
It is estimated that coal mine fires in China burn about 200 million kg of coal each year. Small illegal fires are frequent in the northern region of Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
. Local miners may use abandoned mines for shelter and intentionally set such fires. One study estimates that this translates into 360 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, which is not included in the previous emissions figures.
North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has announced plans to extinguish fires in the region by 2012. Most of these fires were caused by bad mining practices combined with bad weather. 200 million yuan (29.3 million USD) has been budgeted to this effect.
Accidents and deaths
In 2003, the death rate per million tons of coal mined in China was 130 times higher than in the United States, 250 times higher than in Australia (open cast mines) and 10 times higher than the Russian Federation (underground mines). However the safety figures in the major state owned coal enterprises were significantly better. Even so, in 2007 China produced one third of the world's coal but had four fifths of coal fatalities. China's coal mining industry resorts to forced labor according to a 2014 U.S. Department of Labor
The United States Department of Labor (DOL) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for the administration of federal laws governing occupational safety and health, wage and hour standards, unemploym ...
report
A report is a document that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are almost always in the form of written documents. Usage
In ...
on child labor
Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such e ...
and forced labor
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
around the world, and that these workers are all the more exposed to the dangers of such activities.
Pulmonary disease
While not directly attributable, many more deaths are resultant from dangerous emissions from coal plants. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. The main symptoms include shortness of breath and a cough, which may or may not produce ...
(COPD), linked to exposure to fine particulates, SO2, and cigarette smoke among other factors, accounted for 26% of all deaths in China in 1988. A report by the World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
in cooperation with the Chinese government found that about 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year from air pollution. Later, the government asked the researchers to soften the conclusions.
Many direct deaths happen in coal mining and processing. In 2007, 1,084 out of the 3,770 workers who died were from gas blasts. Small mines (comprising 90% of all mines) are known to have far higher death rates, and the government of China has banned new coal mines with a high gas danger and a capacity below 300,000 tons in an effort to reduce deaths a further 20% by 2010. The government has also vowed to close 4,000 small mines to improve industry safety.
Accidents
As of 2009, the government has been cracking down on unregulated mining operations, which in 2009 accounted for nearly 80 percent of the country's 16,000 mines.
The closure of about 1,000 dangerous small mines in 2008 helped to cut in half the average number of miners killed, to about six a day, in the first six months of 2009, according to the government.
Major gas explosions in coal mines remain a problem, though the number of accidents and deaths have gradually declined year by year, the chief of the State Administration of Work Safety, Luo Lin, told a national conference in September 2009.["42 Reported Dead, and 66 Trapped, in China Mine Accident"](_blank)
by the Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
, via ''The New York Times''. November 21, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-21.
In the first nine months of 2009, China's coal mines had eleven major accidents with 303 deaths, with gas explosions the leading cause, according to the central government. Most accidents are blamed on failures to follow safety rules, including a lack of required ventilation or fire control equipment.
Unofficial estimates often estimate death tolls at twice the official number reported by the government. Since 1949 over 250,000 coal mining deaths have been recorded.[''International Herald Tribune.']
Chinese coal industry in need of a helping hand
However, since 2002, the death toll is gradually declining while the coal production is rapidly rising, doubling over this same period.
By year
Source: State Administration of Work Safety
Technology export
China is exporting technology, for example for coal mining in Turkey.
Just transition to phase out coal
According to BloombergNEF
Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a ...
excluding subsidies the levelized cost of electricity
The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), or levelized cost of energy, is a measure of the average net present cost of electricity generation for a generator over its lifetime. It is used for investment planning and to compare different methods ...
from new large-scale solar power has been below existing coal-fired power stations since 2021. Coal production employed 2.6 million in 2020 so a just transition
Just transition is a framework developed by the trade union movement to encompass a range of social interventions needed to secure workers' rights and livelihoods when economies are shifting to sustainable production, primarily combating climat ...
is important, but renewable energy creates more jobs per yuan invested. Almost half of tax revenue in Shanxi province is from coal. Energy storage and demand response
Demand response is a change in the power consumption of an electric utility customer to better match the demand for power with the supply. Until the 21st century decrease in the cost of pumped storage and batteries electric energy could not be ...
are important for replacing coal generation. In 2020 a group of experts said that China should stop subsidizing coal.
International opinions
In 2020 UN secretary general António Guterres
António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres ( , ; born 30 April 1949) is a Portuguese politician and diplomat. Since 2017, he has served as secretary-general of the United Nations, the ninth person to hold this title. A member of the Portuguese Socia ...
said that China should stop building coal-fired power stations, and such building was criticized by US climate envoy John Kerry
John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...
in 2021 as making it difficult to limit climate change.
See also
* :Coal companies of China
* Asian brown cloud
The Indian Ocean brown cloud or Asian brown cloud is a layer of air pollution that recurrently covers parts of South Asia, namely the northern Indian Ocean, India, and Pakistan. Viewed from satellite photos, the cloud appears as a giant brown sta ...
* Clean coal technology
Coal pollution mitigation, sometimes called clean coal, is a series of systems and technologies that seek to mitigate the health and environmental impact of coal; in particular air pollution from coal-fired power stations, and from coal burnt b ...
;Other countries
* Coal in the United States
Coal mining is an industry in transition in the United States. Production in 2019 was down 40% from the peak production of in 2008. Employment of 43,000 coal miners is down from a peak of 883,000 in 1923. Generation of electricity is the la ...
References
Further reading
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External links
;Organizations
Institute of Coal Chemistry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coal Power In China
Climate change in China
Mining in China