How China changes could leave coal a stranded asset
6 Jun 2014
By ALEX KIRBY.- Analysts believe that China − the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, accounting for almost half of global consumption − could be close to making an abrupt and drastic change of tack.
A report by the Carbon Tracker Initiative and the Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investment in Asia (ASrIA) says that when China’s demand for thermal coal (cheap coal burned in power stations to generate electricity) peaks, this will leave up to 40 per cent of its coal-fired power generation capacity potentially useless − and that could be in barely five years’ time.
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