Fossil fuels are starting to plateau in China, as renewables drive more power generation in a new phase for the country’s energy transition.
Coal generation has stopped growing in 17 out of 26 Chinese provinces and regions, and fossil fuel use is reaching its peak in eight out of 11 industrial sectors, according to a new report by energy think tank Ember. The decline is not a sign of deindustrialization, but rather of a rise in the country’s electrification, particularly in more demanding parts of the economy, Ember analysts said: China is now “building while breaking” — dismantling old energy systems while building new ones.
A peak in China’s fossil fuel demand also weakens the assumption on which some of global fossil fuel investment rests — that demand will keep climbing. For “those economies whose public budgets and development plans rest on fossil fuel export revenues,” the president of the International Society of Energy Transition Studies warned, “the time to plan [...] is now, while the revenues are still there.”
