Phasing Out Coal Power in China

04/30/22 • 28 min

Today, we’re looking at the issue of phasing out coal power in China, looking at a report issued recently by scholars at the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability and the California-China Climate Initiative at UC Berkeley.

Our guest is Dr. Ryna Cui, who is an expert in global coal transition and climate and energy policies in China. Her research focuses on climate change mitigation, and sustainable energy transition, and she is experienced in global and national integrated assessment modeling of China, India and the United States. She is a contributing author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report on the topic of global coal transition. And notably, she joined us on Podcast 84 in November 2019!

The report we're discussing today is: "A Decade of Action: A Strategic Approach to Coal Phase-Down for China."

It discusses a strategic plan to retire China's old or outdated capacity even as the country builds new coal plants. This is in line with government strategies, which posit that new coal should help meet peak loads and ensure stable electricity supplies even as clean energy should supply most incremental energy or electricity overall.

The report has three recommendations: 1. Conduct a plant-level review to identify an early retirement schedule and strategy. 2. Combine this strategy with an analysis of renewable energy, grid, storage and transmission investment to fund these investments and to replace any lost tax revenues. 3. Evaluate the job losses and their composition at the county level, and provide support for job training.

Questions we cover:

How does this study build on the work we discussed two years ago, with the five criteria for prioritizing retirements?
How do carbon prices and water come into the calculation?
How do you quantify/assess the benefits of the retirements, especially those related to human health?
How are the retirements distributed across provinces?
Are flexibility retrofits really necessary and economical?
Are you assuming that provinces will do a lot more trading of electricity?
How do you think the present push for energy security will affect coal plant retirements?
What types of jobs are lost when coal plants retire? What types of jobs would they qualify for retraining on? Or do they mostly end up taking buy-outs and just moving to completely different industries?
Do coal industry workers generally move in search of new work?
What’s new in the latest IPCC chapter you co-authored on energy systems?

For further reading:

Ryna Cui et al., “A Decade of Action: A Strategic Approach to Coal Phase-Down for China,” Center for Global Sustainability, 2022, at https://cgs.umd.edu/research-impact/publications/decade-act-policy-opportunities-china-begin-coal-phase-down-while.

Jiang Lin et al., “Large balancing areas and dispersed renewable investment enhance grid flexibility in a renewable-dominant power system in China,” Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, February 2022, DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2022.103749, at https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/publications/large-balancing-areas-and-dispersed.

IPCC AR6 Chapter 6 (Energy Systems): https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6wg3/pdf/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_FinalDraft_Chapter06.pdf.

The report we're discussing today is: "A Decade of Action: A Strategic Approach to Coal Phase-Down for China."

Questions we cover:

How does this study build on the work we discussed two years ago, with the five criteria for prioritizing retirements?
How do carbon prices and water come into the calculation?
How do you quantify/assess the benefits of the retirements, especially those related to human health?
How are the retirements distributed across provinces?
Are flexibility retrofits really necessary and economical?
Are you assuming that provinces will do a lot more trading of electricity?
How do you think the present push for energy security will affect coal plant retirements?
What types of jobs are lost when coal plants retire? What types of jobs would they qualify for retraining on? Or do they mostly end up taking buy-outs and just moving to completely different industries?
Do coal industry workers generally move in search of new work?
What’s new in the latest IPCC chapter you co-authored on energy systems?

For further reading:

IPCC AR6 Chapter 6 (Energy Systems): https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6wg3/pdf/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_FinalDraft_Chapter06.pdf.

Previous Episode

Chinese women working in sustainability - with Si Jialing and Zhang Miao

In today's Chinese language Environment China podcast episode, we turn to the topic of women working in environmental and sustainability fields. We join two professionals to talk about their unique and interesting experiences and stories, and explore what's new in their particular fields.

Today's guests are Si Jialing, who works on green finance at the British Embassy, and Zhang Miao, founder of R Cubic, who is sometimes known as the Walking Wastepedia. In terms of career paths, the two represent the extremes of having entered the field by chance, or having cultivated a topic on a straight line from academic study to professional career. We ask what challenges they face in their respective fields, and what advice they have for newcomers to the workplace.

实在是听过到太多次"环保和可持续圈还是女生多”(也确实是事实),我们萌生了一个想法:那为什么不干脆做一系列在"可持续议题工作的女性”播客,一起来聊一聊她们独特又好玩的经历和故事,探一探她们所在行业的新鲜事呢?

于是「环境中国」便有了个这期节目,在这次初尝试中,我们请到了在英国大使馆做绿色金融的佳灵和行走的“垃圾百科”张淼。她们或误打误撞入了圈,或从读书到工作一直在这个领域深耕,都逐渐在可持续议题的工作中找到了自己所关注和热爱的地方。她们在各自领域都有着什么样的挑战?对初入职场的小伙伴又有着什么样的建议呢?欢迎收听本期「环境中国」播客。

Next Episode

Certifying China: Seafood, palm oil, and tea standards - with Sun Yixian

Today, we’re looking at the topic of environmental standards for different industries in China, and in particular talking to Prof. Yixian Sun of the University of Bath in the U.K. about the findings of his new book published by MIT Press:

Certifying China: The Rise and Limits of Transnational Sustainability Governance in Emerging Economies

The book explores the potential and limits of transnational eco-certification in moving the world's most populous country toward sustainable consumption and production. Dr Sun identifies the forces that drive companies from three sectors—seafood, palm oil, and tea—to embrace eco-certification. The success of eco-certification, Dr Sun writes, will depend on the extent to which it wins the support of domestic actors in fast-growing emerging economies.

Yixian Sun is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in International Development at the University of Bath, UK. He has a Ph.D. and Master's degree in International Relations / Political Science, from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva. He’s a Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance (ESG) Project and a co-convener of the ESG taskforce on SDGs. He studies transnational governance, environmental politics, and sustainable consumption, and his research seeks to explain the changing role of China in global environmental governance, including sustainability transitions within China as well as sustainability impacts of China's overseas engagement.

For further reading:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/certifying-china

https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5271/Certifying-ChinaThe-Rise-and-Limits-of