China to increase coal output by 30pc
The Canberra Times, 9/01/2009 1:00:00 AM
China is aiming to increase its coal production by about 30 per cent by 2015 to meet its energy needs, the Government has announced, in a move likely to fuel concerns over global warming.
Land and Resources Ministry chief planner Hu Cunzhi said the Government planned to increase annual output to more than 3.3billion tonnes by 2015.
That is up from the 2.54 billion tonnes produced in 2007, according to the ministry.
Figures for 2008 have not been issued yet.
Annual production of natural gas would more than double to 160billion cubic metres by 2015, while that of crude oil would increase by 7 per cent to more than 200billion tonnes, Mr Hu said.
The Government would set up reserves of oil and coal as part of its efforts to ensure national energy security, Mr Hu said at a news conference.
China began building four strategic oil reserve facilities on its east coast this decade, and two of these are now in operation.
The country's energy consumption expanded by an average annual rate of 5.4 per cent between 1979 and 2007, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday, which fuelled average annual economic growth of 9.8 per cent.
China depends on coal for about 70 per cent of its energy.
Its thundering growth has meant the country has become one of the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, alongside the United States.
China said coal, the cheapest and most plentiful source of fuel in the country, would remain its main energy source, despite the impact global warming had already had on the country.
China has repeatedly defended its use of coal, pointing to its efforts to develop renewable energies while blaming industrialised countries for the bulk of the greenhouse gases that are already doing the damage. It also emphasises the per capita emissions of greenhouse gases of China, the world's most populous country with more than 1.3 billion people, are far lower than those of the US and other developed nations. AFP
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