Xi Jinping puts focus on ‘clean’ technologies during trip to China’s coal heartland Shanxi

President calls for efforts to strengthen energy production and ‘accelerate green and low-carbon technological breakthroughs’
He says it will be ‘no easy task’ to achieve peak emissions and carbon neutrality but it is ‘what we must do’

Xi Jinping

Holly Chik

Published: 3:05pm, 28 Jan 2022

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President Xi Jinping has called for more efforts to develop “clean coal” technologies during a visit to Shanxi, China’s biggest coal-producing province, according to state media.

“Our country is coal-rich but short on oil and gas. We should reinforce domestic energy production … and accelerate green and low-carbon technological breakthroughs,” Xi said when he visited a green coal technology company in the central province on Thursday, according to Xinhua.

“Achieving carbon peak and neutrality is what we must do – it is not something others asked of us,” he was quoted as saying. “But it is no easy task. We need to grasp the rhythm and make steady progress.”

Xi Jinping visits the ancient walled city of Pingyao on Thursday during his two-day trip to Shanxi province. Photo: Xinhua

China has pledged to reach peak carbon emissions before 2030, and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. However, Beijing was among the notable absences from an international agreement – signed during November’s UN climate change summit – to phase out coal use and stop building power plants fired by the fossil fuel.

As the world’s largest coal producer and consumer – and its biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions – China’s action will play a large part in whether the world realises its goal to cap global warming.

Coal accounts for 57 per cent of the country’s energy consumption and generates over 70 per cent of its electricity. China also has over half of the world’s operating coal-power generation and accounts for 55 per cent of global capacity in the pipeline.

On Thursday, the second day of his Shanxi tour, Xi urged major operators in the province, especially state-owned ones, to take the lead in maintaining a stable energy supply and prices over winter.

Energy supply is a key concern for Beijing after shortages last year that saw more than 20 provinces hit by power cuts at the peak of the crisis in September. In some areas, rationing was imposed on both industrial users and households.

There was widespread debate in China over the cause of the power crisis, with some blaming aggressive measures by local authorities to meet Beijing’s carbon-reduction targets and a shortage of coal that was made worse by a ban on imports from Australia.

Xi travelled to Shanxi after meeting International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach in Beijing on Tuesday, the first foreign dignitary he has received since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted two years ago. The Winter Olympics is due to begin in the capital next Friday.

The president made the trip to Shanxi ahead of the Lunar New Year, which falls on Tuesday. This has become something of a tradition for Xi over his past decade in power, according to Xinhua, which said he had made trips every year before the festival to reach out to the party’s grass roots.