Estimating the Potential Emissions from Chinese Power Plants that Use Coal Which Has Been Mined Illegally in Southeast Asia

Abstract

China is now the world's largest emitter of CO2. The main cause is the heavy reliance on coal to generate electricity. There is little doubt that coal will continue to dominate the power generation mix for many years and that ever increasing amounts of coal will be needed. Besides replacing old and inefficient coal-fired power plants with new, more efficient ones, the government is trying to reduce the emissions by establishing minimum quality standards for coal used in power generation. However, the demand for coal is such that some power plants have for many years been buying, both legally and illegally, lesser quality coals from Indonesia and Vietnam. The focus of this paper is the potential emissions from the illegally mined coal that ends up at Chinese power plants.