2020
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab5d99
|View full text |Cite
|
Sign up to set email alerts
|

Early transformation of the Chinese power sector to avoid additional coal lock-in

Abstract: Emission reduction from the coal-dominated power sector is vital for achieving China's carbon mitigation targets. Although the coal expansion has been slowed down due to the cancellation of and delay in new construction, coal-based power was responsible for over one third of China's energyrelated CO 2 emissions by 2018. Moreover, with a technical lifetime of over 30 years, current investment in coal-based power could hinder CO 2 mitigation until 2050. Therefore, it is important to examine whether the current c… Show more

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...
1
1
1
1

Citation Types

0
13
0

Year Published

2020
2020
2024
2024

Publication Types

Select...
7

Relationship

0
7

Authors

Journals

citations
Cited by 26 publications
(13 citation statements)
references
References 19 publications
0
13
0
Order By: Relevance
“…Continued coal expansion in the near term would largely increase the risk of stranded assets with the long-term climate goals 4,19 . However, we also recognize that in China, a total of 100 GW of coal plants are currently under construction and 106 GW planned 3 , in addition to the 160 GW of projects that have been suspended by the central government through a series of policies since 2016 20,21 .…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
See 2 more Smart Citations
“…Continued coal expansion in the near term would largely increase the risk of stranded assets with the long-term climate goals 4,19 . However, we also recognize that in China, a total of 100 GW of coal plants are currently under construction and 106 GW planned 3 , in addition to the 160 GW of projects that have been suspended by the central government through a series of policies since 2016 20,21 .…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…As a result, accelerated retirement of coal plants creates higher risks of asset stranding in China. Potential continued coal expansion in the near-term further exacerbates the lock-in effect, which leads to larger economic impacts 4 .…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…To this end, we looked for (1) the major emitters of greenhouse gases, since the policies and implementation experiences of such countries are of global importance; and (2) countries which have shown markedly different responses to climate mitigation, compared to one another; or (3) countries which have experienced dramatic shifts in implementationeither rapidly moving from a position of opposition or ambivalence regarding RE to strongly promoting itor shifting in the other direction, suddenly opposing RE and backing fossil fuels instead. With these criteria, we chose the following cases: (1) The United States, the world's second biggest annual emitter, whose governments flipped from providing cautious support to clean energy policies (under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama), to directly opposing them (under President Trump); and (2) China, the world's biggest annual emitter, which has shown strong and consistent support for cleaner energy, but whose projected expansion of coal power risks tipping the world beyond the Paris Agreement (Wang et al, 2020). 1 For Europe, which as a bloc is the world's third largest emitter, we selected two major economies which represent sharply opposing trajectories of European climate policy implementation: Spain, which moved from strongly supporting RE to strongly opposing it (Alonso et al, 2016), subsequently reinstating support following a change of government; and Germany, which moved from a low level of national support and strong dependence on fossil fuels to become Europe's most important advocate of the clean energy transition (Hake et al, 2015).…”
Section: Case Study Countriesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Nonetheless, extensive expansion of the coal industry is still anticipated. If China develops all of its projected new coal mines, the world is virtually guaranteed to exceed Paris Agreement temperature targets (Wang et al, 2020). However, China's recent announcement to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 (Mallapaty, 2020) implies the need to abandon both ongoing and projected new coal plants.…”
Section: Case Study 2: Chinamentioning
confidence: 99%