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11. Winter Coal Shortages Reveal Chinese Energy Vulnerabilities

Author:
Elizabeth Chen
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
Amid the coldest winter recorded since 1966, provinces across the People’s Republic of China (PRC) struggled with the worst electrical blackouts seen in nearly a decade (OilPrice, January 8). More than a dozen cities across Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Guangdong provinces imposed limits on off-peak electricity usage in early December, affecting city infrastructure and factory production. Analysts expect power shortages to persist through at least mid-February (SCMP, December 23, 2020). Officials have repeatedly assured the public that residential heating would not be affected and that China’s electrical supply remained “stable” and “sufficient,” even as energy spot prices continued to rise into the new year.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Services, Electricity, and Coal
Political Geography:
China and Asia

12. Ukraine’s Sanctions Against Pro-Russian Oligarch Medvedchuk—All About Oil and Coal

Author:
Alla Hurska
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
On February 19, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) imposed sanctions on Ukrainian tycoon and politician Viktor Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko (Pravda.com.ua, February 19). Medvedchuk is a leader and people’s deputy of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform–For Life, the largest opposition faction in the Ukrainian parliament. Moreover, he is a close acquaintance of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The NSDC sanctions list also includes five Russian nationals and Ukrainian national Nataliya Lavreniuk. The latter is Marchenko’s friend and the common-law spouse of Taras Kozak (already under sanctions), a people’s deputy from the same political party and Medvedchuk’s business partner. Apart from targeting those eight individuals, sanctions were imposed on nineteen associated businesses, including firms that own aircraft and operate direct flights from Kyiv to Moscow as well as a number of joint stock companies registered in Russia, Moldova and Portugal (Pravda.com.ua, February 20). These measures came two weeks after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered the shutdown of several television channels—ZIK, NewsOne and 112—connected to Kozak. The move was described by Zelenskyy as a necessary step to fight Russian propaganda. But according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the NSDC, these actions were motivated by more complex issues. Specifically, the three aforementioned TV channels were being financed by limited liability company trading house Don Coal (Rostov, Russia), which receives revenue from smuggling coal out of the Luhansk and Donetsk “people’s republics” (LPR/DPR) (Pravda.com.ua, February 4).
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Oil, Sanctions, and Coal
Political Geography:
Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe

13. When the wolf guards the sheep: confronting the industrial machine through green extractivism in Germany and Mexico

Author:
Alexander Dunlap and Andrea Brock
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Global Political Economy, University of Sussex
Abstract:
Deploying an anarchist political ecology approach, this paper compares coal mining in Germany with wind energy development in Mexico. The paper outlines some principles from green anarchy to develop important values for anarchist political ecology, illuminating neglected issues that highlight the colonial nature of the industrial system responsible for the present state of ecological and climate crisis. After highlighting the normalizing and self-reinforcing nature of industrial systems, we turn to examine RWE’s mining operations in the German Rhineland. Here, we discuss the example of RWE’s Hambach mine, the world’s largest open-cast lignite coal mine that—while strongly resisted—is slowly destroying large parts of the Hambacher Forest every year. This destruction is justified by RWE’s deployment of green economic recultivation or ‘offsetting’ initiatives and legitimized by their corporate social technologies that attempt to marginalize and pacify militant resistance in the area. After delving into RWE’s attempts at ‘sustainable’ mining, we then turn to explore wind energy development in one of the greatest wind energy generations sites in the world, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of Oaxaca, Mexico—known locally as Istmo. Regarded as a climate change mitigation strategy, wind energy in the Istmo is having similar impacts to traditional extractive industries, not only in how developers acquire land, but also how local indigenous groups that contest the construction of these operations are repressed. The following section will compare and discuss the similarities, differences and relationships between coal and wind energy extraction. Here, we coin the “renewable energy-extraction nexus” to describe how conventional and so-called renewable energy systems are dependent on each other, collaborate, and together expand and intensify industrial development and socio-ecological degradation in a rush to grab all the vital energies of the earth. We conclude by arguing that the green economy is renewing destruction, not only by ‘greening’— thus legitimizing — inherently unsustainable industrial activities but by expanding such activities and relationships at the cost of social health and ecological diversity.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Political Economy, Renewable Energy, Wind Power, Coal, Sustainability, and Anarchism
Political Geography:
Germany and Mexico

14. Thermal Coal in Colombia: Perspectives and Risks for the Economies of La Guajira and Cesar Departments

Author:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Publication Date:
04-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
The exploitation of thermal coal in Colombia faces great challenges despite the abundance and quality of the country’s reserves. The main challenges are due to the external context: the downward trend in prices due to the structural drop in consumption due to the rapid substitution of coal for less polluting fuels or renewable sources in the European market, coupled with the great distance to Asian markets, have raised doubts about the economic viability of coal exports from Colombia. Colombia could be one of the first countries to suffer from the contraction in global demand for thermal coal, because its main markets are Turkey (23 percent) and the Atlantic ports in Europe (19 percent), two markets where demand will likely diminish in the short term. The contraction in demand would have various effects on the country’s economy, as it is the second-most important export (after oil), an important source of royalties and one of the main axes of the economies of La Guajira and Cesar departments. This study analyzes the implications of the decline in coal demand for the national economy and for the main producing regions, such as La Guajira and Cesar, which are highly dependent on coal exploitation.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Natural Resources, and Coal
Political Geography:
Colombia and South America

15. Getting to 30-60: How China’s Biggest Coal Power, Cement, and Steel Corporations Are Responding to National Decarbonization Pledges

Author:
Edmund Downie
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), Columbia University
Abstract:
In September 2020, China announced its intentions to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The neutrality goal in particular was a breakthrough for global climate ambitions: a net-zero target from the world’s largest emitter, responsible for around one-quarter of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The two new goals—referred to in Chinese policy discourse as the “30-60” goals—are not China’s first public targets on GHG reduction. They are, however, the centerpieces of a new Chinese climate policy in which GHG cuts are a standalone goal rather than an ancillary benefit of more immediate priorities like energy efficiency and industrial upgrading. Prior approaches had required little engagement from firms in carbon management. Indeed, none of the largest Chinese firms in the coal power, cement, and steel sectors had publicized quantitative targets for reducing or controlling carbon emissions before the government announced the 30-60 goals. They faced little pressure to do so; authorities pressed firms in climate-adjacent areas like reducing air pollution rather than carbon management. The 30-60 announcement appears to mark a break from this era, forcing firms to adjust accordingly. This report, part of the China Energy and Climate Program at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, assesses how China’s high-emitting industries have responded to the 30-60 targets and the accompanying elevation of climate within national policy priorities. It focuses on corporate and sectoral emissions reduction targets through June 2021 among 30 major firms in three of China’s largest sources of direct emissions: coal power generation, cement, and steel.
Topic:
Energy Policy, Natural Resources, Infrastructure, Coal, Industry, and Decarbonization
Political Geography:
China and Asia

16. Domestic Coal: A Hindrance to Renewable Energy Development?

Author:
Margareth Sembiring
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
Abstract:
Low carbon transition is an important climate change mitigation measure. It entails a switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources. The presence of cost-competitive domestic coal in coal-producing countries like Indonesia is often cited as a major stumbling block to renewable energy development. This article aims to probe the cheap domestic coal argument. It does so by examining the changing share of renewable energy sources in electricity production over a certain timeframe. The study finds mixed observations across important coal-producing countries. It thus argues that there is a need to go beyond the low-cost domestic coal axiom and examine deeper underlying factors that support or hinder renewable energy development in coal-producing countries.
Topic:
Climate Change, Energy Policy, and Coal
Political Geography:
Asia and Southeast Asia

17. The heterogeneous impact of coal prices on the location of cleaner and dirtier steel plants

Author:
François Cohen and Giulia Valacchi
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
Abstract:
Climate policy will predominantly affect industries that primarily rely on fossil fuels, such as steelmaking. Within these industries, exposure may be different by country according to the energy-intensity of national plants. We estimate the effect of coal prices on steel plant location worldwide and production preferences for BOF, a polluting technology, and EAF, a greener one. A 1% increase in national coal prices reduces BOF installed capacity by around 0.37%, while it has no statistically significant impact on EAF capacity. We simulate the implementation of a stringent European carbon market with no border adjustment and find a non-negligible shift in steel production outside Europe, with a concomitant impact on the technologies employed to produce steel. If applied worldwide, the same policy would primarily affect production in Asia, which relies on BOF and currently benefits from lower coal prices than those expected to emerge in the future.
Topic:
Climate Change, Natural Resources, Green Technology, Fossil Fuels, Coal, and Price
Political Geography:
Europe