Wall Was/Is Wrong About Coal In China

“China will increase their coal use by 19% over 5 years.”
“Vietnam, India and many others Asian nations are ramping up coal to give more of their people electricity. The U.S. is now signalling a return to coal.”
-Brad Wall 17 November 2016 · 132,442 views
“Canada only accounts for 1.6% of global emissions. Even if a carbon tax reduced that significantly, and it won’t, global emissions would still be largely unaffected.”
Everything he said there is wrong.

“Coal production fell sharply in China in 2016 by around 320 million tonnes or 9% – a fall equal to more than the total production from South Africa, the world’s 5th largest coal exporter. Coal production also fell elsewhere, such as the US and Australia, leading to global output falling by 458 million tonnes.”
– IEA
“we assume that the Chinese economy is in a structural transformation and that its electricity intensity will decline over time, stopping further growth in coal power generation by 2020.” – IEA

Obama sounds so antiquated now, just like the Liberal Party of Canada’s rhetoric today that echos his words of 10 years ago.

“Statistics From China Say Coal Consumption Continues to Drop” – 2016

China’s coal consumption has peaked” – 2018

China’s coal consumption has steadily decreased by a few percentage points a year since 2013, prompting our pronouncement of a coal consumption peak in an article published in the summer of 2016 in Nature Geoscience.

Wall doesn’t mind being wrong, he just pushes on anyway.

“Macron Calls Climate Change a ‘Red Line’ Issue at G20, Rebuking Trump” – 2019

“America’s coal-burning power plants are shutting down at a rapid pace, forcing electric utilities to face the next big climate question: Embrace natural gas, or shift aggressively to renewable energy?” – NYT yesterday