Crypto News: China's coal boom

Today's newsletter looks at a blow to global climate efforts: the world's biggest emitter used a record amount of coal power last year. You can also read this story and get the latest updates on the Southern California fires on Bloomberg.com. For unlimited access to climate and energy news, please subscribe.

China's coal boom

By Bloomberg News

China's fossil fuel power plants increased generation to a record last year, as the boom in clean energy failed to keep pace with surging electricity consumption in the world's second-biggest economy.

Output from thermal plants, predominantly powered by coal, rose 1.5% in 2024 from the previous year, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. The electricity sector is the largest contributor to China's greenhouse gas emissions.

Production of fossil fuels also hit new highs, with coal and natural gas at record levels, and crude oil climbing to its second-highest total ever.

The figures run contrary to hopes that China may have begun to reduce emissions last year, more than half a decade ahead of its 2030 target, after massive additions of wind and solar power and a rebound in output of hydropower.

But all that extra clean energy wasn't enough to cope with the expansion in electricity consumption, which was set to outpace overall economic growth for the fifth straight year in 2024 due to strong demand for computing, and as sectors from heating to transport electrify.

The trajectory of electricity demand will be key to determining whether fossil fuel generation begins its decline in 2025. At the same time, China is maintaining its world-leading pace of renewables deployment, and is spending more on power lines and energy storage equipment to ensure the clean energy isn't wasted.

It's increasingly possible that renewable sources can meet all of the country's new electricity consumption this year, and pave the way for China's power sector to achieve peak emissions in 2025, said Gao Yuhe, a Beijing-based analyst at Greenpeace East Asia.

Read and share this story on Bloomberg.com.

Smashing records

8.9 billion

This is the global demand forecast for tons of coal by 2027, about 1% higher than 2024 levels. The International Energy Agency had formerly expected demand to peak in 2023.

Setting the course

"China will need to either speed up renewable energy deployment even further or guide economic development in a less energy-intensive direction."

Lauri Myllyvirta

Lead analyst at Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air

Renewable power and electric vehicles are booming in China, but the country's rapidly growing energy consumption is limiting its ability to quickly reduce emissions.

More from Green

Severe drought conditions have helped fuel the Los Angeles wildfires. But a new study, released Thursday in the journal Nature comes with a warning: Climate change is making catastrophic, multiyear "megadroughts" much worse around the world.

Droughts are relative — a drought in normally rainy Seattle, for example, might register as an unusually wet period in a drier climate such as Phoenix, Arizona. But they can throw ecosystems out of whack, sometimes in dangerous ways.

"That's what we see right now in California," said Dirk Nikolaus Karger, a senior researcher at Swiss Federal Institute WSL and a paper author. "Over time, the vegetation dries out, and we have increased fire frequency, and houses burn down. In other areas, we will have agricultural failures."

Read the full story on Bloomberg.com.

A drought-affected corn field in Argentina in November 2023. Photographer: Sebastian Lopez Brach/Bloomberg

Biden makes a last-minute bid on drilling limits. The administration advanced a plan to limit oil drilling and infrastructure across more of Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, a bid to lock in land protections days before Donald Trump takes office.

The EU is aiming to boost use of recycled raw materials. The bloc is looking to improve access to critical raw materials like lithium, cobalt, and copper for its clean energy transition — and sees recycling as a way to boost the region's competitiveness.

Burning Teslas are adding to LA's toxic pollution. Lithium batteries from Tesla Inc., along with those from other carmakers, have added to the mix of toxic materials requiring specialized removal in the wake of the fires.

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Worth a listen

As the blazes in Los Angeles continue to burn, those who have lost their homes are contending with the immediate need for shelter– and difficult questions about whether or not to rebuild in the fire zone. Grist reporter Jake Bittle tells Akshat Rathi how California's housing market and insurance regulations will shape the recovery. And Nomad Century author Gaia Vince says that in this era of climate instability, everyone should think about how prepared they are to become a climate migrant. Listen now, and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube to get new episodes of Zero every Thursday.