AlwaysFree: Global Coal Producers Soaring New Projects, Risking Climate Change Target

According to research by the US think-tank Global Energy Monitor, global coal producers are currently soaring new projects which could risk the climate change target.

Currently, coal producers around the world are planning up to 432 new mine projects with 2.28 billion tpa of output capacity, which means a 30% increase by 2030. China, Australia, India, and Russia account for more than three-quarters of the new projects.

China alone is preparing an additional 452 million tpa of production capacity. Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, and Shanxi account for nearly a quarter of all the proposed new coal mine capacity.

Bringing additional coal into the economy is putting the global climate change target at risk. 

For China, which pledged to bring its emissions to a peak by 2030 and to net-zero by 2060 while it plans to start to cut coal output after 2026, the additional output would be a leap backward.

Other than that, for the individual companies, the new projects would saddle them with up to USD91 billion in stranded assets.

Ryan Driskell Tate, Global Energy Monitor research analyst and lead author of the report, commented, "New mines and expansions of existing mines will be producing coal for a world in which coal is unviable economically, and untenable for the environment."

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