It feels like progress on clean energy is being made. But there are setbacks, for sure. Last month an article indicated that China seemed to be increasing reliance on coal, and an article today in the WSJ today affirmed that further here. China has more coal new powered plants underway than the US or EU’s existing coal generation.
And key chart from the BP 2019 Energy Outlook is below. You can see in that while EU and US will have reduced coal to a tiny sliver of overall consumption by 2040, in fact China’s consumption in 2040 will dwarf that of the US and EU combined in 2000.
While it might feel like China is making incredible progress on the energy front, it’s nowhere near what is needed.