China accounted for half of coal-fired electricity in 2020: report

China accounted for a slight majority of all coal-powered electricity generated in 2020, according to a report released Monday by British research group Ember. Although China, the world’s top emitter, has pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2060, the report found it was the only Group of 20 nation to see a major increase in coal generation last year. Coal generation dropped or plateaued in all its fellow G20 countries but increased 1.7 percent in China. The country made up 53 percent of coal-powered electricity worldwide in 2020, 9 points higher than its 2015 share. “The transition towards a low-carbon electricity system is a mainstay of China’s bid to become carbon neutral by the mid-century. Making the country’s growth of electricity demand more sustainable is critical for facilitating this transition,” Ember senior electricity policy analyst Muyi Yang said in a statement. The country reduced coal’s share of overall energy consumption from around 70 percent to 57 percent over the course of the last decade, but the report indicated absolute coal-powered electricity generation increased about 19 percent between 2016 and 2020...MORE