Just a few days ago, at the Leader Summit on Climate convened (virtually) in New York by US president Joe Biden during Earth Day, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reaffirmed with conviction a number of climate commitments announced last September: reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and achieving climate neutrality by 2060. What the world's largest emitter has announced diverges from its actual plans, since on the path of economic growth it appears unwilling to abandon coal. But let us take things in order.

What are China's climate commitments

On the eve of the summit, in mid-April, during a three-way video conference with French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel, Xi Jinping expressed opposition to the introduction in Europe of a carbon tax, a measure on which both the European Parliament and the European Commission are actively working.

This term is commonly used to refer to a tax on energy services responsible for releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and is intended to put into practice the principle of "the (greater) polluter pays". In broad terms, the measure aims to limit the environmental damage caused by companies in the sector and to heighten their sense of social responsibility, without establishing a punitive mechanism. According to the Chinese president, however, it could create trade barriers with China, which applies less stringent climate standards.

A few days earlier, on 17 April, China issued a joint statement pledging to work seriously and urgently with the United States to combat the effects of climate change. Speaking at the climate summit, after expressing appreciation for the return of the United States to the Paris Agreement, Xi Jinping declared his intention to build fair and mutually beneficial global governance and called on all 40 political leaders present to play their part, albeit with differentiated contributions to CO2 emission reductions.

Xi Jinping also promised to monitor coal-related projects and to curb coal consumption over the next five years, in order to meet the need to return to living in harmony with nature. Against this backdrop sits the tightening in 2020 of restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions, a measure promoted alongside demands for production cuts at the steel hub of Tangshan.

Coal in China's energy mix

As noted, coal still accounts for a significant share of the Chinese energy mix, the engine of the planet's second-largest economy. Beijing also came through the year of the Covid-19 outbreak in positive territory and, at the beginning of last March, Chinese premier Li Keqiang announced a cautious GDP — gross domestic product — growth target for 2021 of at least 6 per cent, so as to retain sufficient margin for dealing with market uncertainty.

On the eve of the climate summit convened by Biden, Li Gao, an official at China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said at a press conference that China had cut greenhouse gas emissions by 48.4 per cent in 2020, ahead of the 45 per cent reduction target set in 2009. The country, he added, is working on further climate measures, including a dedicated law, so as to place its valuable experience at the service of a fairer global environmental governance.

China invests in coal beyond its borders

On the other hand, Li Gao himself told US television network Cnbc that China will continue to invest in coal-fired power plants in developing countries. Some of these states, he stressed, have been helped by Beijing "in the construction of coal-fired power plants" "in agreement with the local administration". Where electricity is still lacking, "if you don't use coal, what can you use?", he asked rhetorically.

Beyond statements, there are the figures. Beijing is the world's leading coal consumer, accounting for a share of 50.5 per cent. The figures from last August compiled by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a non-profit organisation founded more than fifty years ago by scientists and students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, leave no room for doubt: in 2020 China was the world's leading emitter of carbon dioxide, followed by the United States and India.

Investments in new coal projects

Last year the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China financed coal projects abroad, from Pakistan to Serbia, to the tune of 474 million dollars, with 260 million directed towards energy production and 214 million towards transmission and distribution. This was reported by the development policy centre at Boston University.

China continues to ramp up the construction of coal-fired power plants. Telling is the title "China dominates 2020 coal plant development" of the report published last February by the Global Energy Monitor, a group of journalists and environmentalists who have been documenting hundreds of sites around the world since 2007, and by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a new research body focused on the health impacts of air pollution.

The study reveals that in the pandemic year Beijing commissioned 38.4 gigawatts (GW) of new power plants, three times more than the rest of the world combined. Its net capacity increased, reaching 29.8 GW, compared to a global net capacity of 17.2 GW, which also declined. It launched new proposals for 73.5 GW, five times what the rest of the world did, and approved projects totalling 36.9 GW. It is developing a total of 247 GW, a 21 per cent increase in 2020 compared to the previous year.

"China's energy system is dominated by coal. This is an objective reality," Su Wei, deputy secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, commented recently, as reported by CNBC. "Precisely because renewable sources — wind and solar — are intermittent and unstable, we must rely on a stable source." "We have no choice," he reiterated, "for a certain period of time, we may need to use coal energy as a flexible regulatory tool."

Although a target of a 20 per cent reduction in the share of high-carbon fuels has been set for 2025, China's energy system does not appear willing to abandon coal. Given that official data estimate an increase in electricity consumption during the pandemic year of 3.1 per cent, and that the economy is set to grow, political support for new investment in sustainable projects will be indispensable to genuinely pursue the path of decarbonisation.