The German Minister of Economy calls on China to abandon coal-fired energy

Maria Martinez

HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Sunday that China is essential to achieving global climate goals and must find a safe alternative to coal, which accounted for almost 60% of China’s electricity supply in 2023.

Officials told Habeck that China was increasing coal production for security reasons, the minister told reporters in the southern city of Hangzhou, a day after meeting Chinese officials in Beijing.

“China also imports large amounts of gas and oil, and China has already seen what happened in Europe and Germany in the last two years,” he added, referring to the energy crisis triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

He stated that cooperation with China should be strengthened and added: “Without China, it would not be possible to achieve climate goals around the world.”

“They don’t need to be taught that CO2 emissions are harmful to the climate. They have it,” Habeck said, adding that it should be possible to achieve the same level of safety with fewer coal-fired power plants.

Later, Habeck told Zhejiang University students that the difficulty was integrating variable forms of energy such as wind and solar power into a system built to run on more predictable fuels, adding: “That’s basically my job.”

He said doubling production capacity is the “old way” but not the most effective way.

China is increasing coal production, but it has also installed almost 350 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable energy capacity in 2023, more than half of the world’s total capacity.

Habeck said expanding the power grid and using batteries to store energy could reduce the number of traditional fuel plants needed to meet China’s needs, adding that economic growth and climate action are not opposed to each other.

“Transforming the economy to a climate neutral economy is not only good for the climate, it creates new opportunities for wealth and growth,” Habeck said.

(Reporting by Maria Martinez in Hangzhou; Editing by Kevin Liffey)