Coal is back as China ramps up funding

Business & Technology

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Matthew Silberman
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At the UN General Assembly in late September, Chinaโ€™s leader Xรญ Jรฌnpรญng ไน ่ฟ‘ๅนณ pledged to end support for coal projects overseas. But at home, use of coal looks set to rise as China copes with cross-country energy shortages:

  • Beijing has ordered banks to โ€œprioritize lending to qualified mines and power plants so they can increase thermal coal and electricity output,โ€ per Bloomberg.
  • Perhaps more telling, regulators have decided (in Chinese) that accidents at one mine will no longer lead to inspections at nearby mines.

The lesson: When economic growth is at stake, coal is still king โ€” no matter what promises have been made about cutting emissions.

Matthew Silberman is Contributor, ChinaEdge and Manager, Business and Technology Research at The China Project. Previously, he studied Chinese as a Blakemore Freeman fellow at the International Chinese Language Program in Taiwan. He has also been a speechwriter at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C., a researcher for Evan Osnos, and an editor at the Korea JoongAng Daily in Seoul, South Korea. Read more

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