China has sharply increased their coal-powered steel mill capacity in the first six months of 2021, showing Beijing’s hesitance to hamper industry-fueled growth in order to reach its climate goals, reports the FT.
Analysis of Chinese government approvals by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a Finland-based advocacy group, found that 18 steelmaking blast furnaces and 43 coal-fired power plants were announced in the first half of this year.
As steel prices surged, 35m tonnes of coal-dependent ironmaking capacity was announced in the first half of 2021, more than in all of 2020, CREA found. If built, the combined coal and steel projects would emit about 150m tonnes of carbon dioxide per year, equivalent to the total emissions of the Netherlands.
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