IEA Global Coal Market Report (2018-2023) Released in Beijing

On February 25, the China release of Global Coal Market Report (2018-2023), co-sponsored by International Energy Agency (IEA) and China Energy Investment Corporation and organized by China Shenhua Energy Co., Ltd., took place in Beijing. More than 200 government officials, business leaders, university executives, and experts and scholars from the IEA, foreign embassies in Beijing, the Center on Global Energy Policy of Columbia University and China Energy Investment Corporation attended the event and shared views on hot issues such as global coal demand, prices and trade, as well as coal policies of different countries.

Today, according to the report, coal remains a centerpiece of the global energy system. Due to its reasonable prices, abundant reserves and easy transportation, coal still serves as the primary source of energy in many countries. In China, South Asia and Southeast Asia, in particular, coal largely contributes to energy security and energy popularization and fuels the development of local economy.

The report predicts that global coal demand will remain essentially stable over the next five years, and that coal demand in the United States and Europe is poised to drop—a decrease that will be offset by growing demand in India and other Asian economies. In the five years to come, coal’s contribution to the global energy mix is forecast to decline slightly from 27 percent to 25 percent, with renewable energy and natural gas emerging as alternatives.

China remains a towering presence in global coal markets and due to its economic restructuring, its coal demand will decrease gradually. IEA forecasts that China’s coal demand has entered “a slow but structural decline” at less than 1 percent per year on average. Coal is a high-carbon energy whose sustainable development depends on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). Without CCUS, coal use will be seriously constrained in the future, according to IEA.

Liu Baohua, deputy head of National Energy Administration, addressed the release, noting that aiming to improve development quality and benefits, the Chinese government attaches great importance to optimizing industrial structure, promoting environmentally friendly and efficient development, and strengthening technological innovation, and has set the goal of building an integral, safe, efficient and green modern coal industry system to make a historic leap forward in the development of the coal industry. At present, 70 percent of China’s coal fired generating units have achieved ultra low emissions, which marks the formation of the global largest supply system for clean coal-fired power, effectively eased the contradiction between energy supply and environmental protection, and set a model for clean coal utilization worldwide.

Li Dong, deputy CEO of China Energy, remarked that China is currently going through a period of energy transformation, but its coal industry still has a bright future. As long as the clean energy development concept is consolidated and clean energy technologies are innovated constantly, he believes, coal will be hopefully transformed one day into a clean energy source, leading to a “gorgeous turnaround” of the industry. As China’s largest producer of both primary and secondary energy, China Energy is making unremitting efforts in exploring the clean development, utilization and transformation of coal.