Coal to Take 40% Share in China's Energy Consumption by 2050

Oct 20, 2008 - SinoCast

The Chinese Academy of Engineering forecasts in its latest research that the share coal takes in China's energy consumption would go down to 40% by 2050, from two-thirds at now.

Du Xiangwan, deputy head of CAE, reveals that renewable energy is expected to contribute one-third of the country's energy consumption by that time and coal will play a less important role, although the total coal consumption volume will be larger than current level.

In a report, CAE believes that the total energy consumption of China will reach 5 billion tons of coal equivalent in 2050, while renewable energy will be equal to 1.7 billion tons. Impressively, the non-hydropower renewable energy sources, including wind, nuclear, solar, and biomass, will consume 1.27 billion tons of coal equivalent by that time, far higher than 29 million tons in 2006.

Coal brings huge power to the country but creates bad pollution at the same time. In 2006, China emitted sulfur dioxide of 25.89 million tons, 90% from coal burning.