China is still building new coal-powered generation capacity abroad despite a pledge made in 2021 to stop it and focus on transition technology.
According to a new report by climate think tank Global Energy Monitor, China is involved in 88% of new coal power capacity projects in new BRICS members. “Chinese firms are backing 7.7 GW of new coal, virtually all found in Indonesia, despite President Xi’s pledge to end support for overseas coal projects,” Global Energy Monitor said.
Yet China is also backing a lot of transition capacity, accounting for about half of the solar power capacity under construction, or 947 MW, as well as close to 90% of wind power capacity, or 601 MW. The new BRICS members are Indonesia, Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Thailand, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Nigeria.
New power generation projects across the new BRICS members are mostly hydrocarbon forms of capacity, the climate think tank also reported, noting that total oil, gas, and coal capacity under construction across the 10 new members amounts to 25 GW. Wind and solar capacity under construction, on the other hand, stands at a measly 2.3 GW. Close to two-thirds of all the new capacity under construction in the new BRICS members, hydrocarbon and alternative, features Chinese state-owned companies, Global Energy Monitor also reported.
“There’s a real risk of sending these countries down the wrong path by investing in coal, gas and oil,” Global Energy Monitor’s project manager for the think tank’s Global Integrated Power Tracker told Reuters.
The report also acknowledged that China, Brazil, and India are among the global leaders in wind and solar, unlike the new members of the BRICS bloc, which are betting on coal, gas, and oil for power generation. BRICS as a whole has twice as much wind and solar under construction and in planning as it does hydrocarbon-based generation capacity.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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