The future of coal in China

Abstract

The fast economic growth of China has been fueled by prodigious coal consumption. In 2013, coal consumption of China is equivalent to 2943 million tons standard coal (Mtce), accounting for more than half of global total. However, year 2014 and 2015 witnessed consecutive decrease in coal consumption in China. China’s coal use dropped to 4120 million tons, a decrease of 2.9% in 2014, and to 3963 million tons with another 3.6% decrease in 2015. The decoupling of economy and coal use has raised the important question of whether this is just a temporary dip, or a turning point that indicates that peak coal consumption has already arrived. Inspired by the proposition of peak coal in China, this special issue puts together a comprehensive set of articles including reviews, cutting-edge researches, and critical commentaries to explore the scientific understanding on coal use, resource implications, environmental challenges, and potential solutions in China. The editors have worked together with the reviewers to go through the peer-review process and select 16 papers to be included in this special issue, covering topics on the decoupling of coal and economic growth, coal flow modeling, coal pricing and economic regulation, environmental implications of coal consumption and future prospects of coal supply and demand in China. We hope that this issue will add to the ongoing discussions on the future of coal in China, a topic with widespread global climate change and energy policy implications.