POLICY NEWS

Every year, the Chinese New Year holiday has a significant short-term impact on energy demand, industrial output and emissions in China, as most shops and industries wind down and the country comes to a temporary standstill. This year, however, this standstill was prolonged by the outbreak of COVID-19, with a

Coal power plant (Copyright: Shutterstock/Kodda)   With the release of its annual coal early warning system in February, China’s energy authority NEA has signalled increased scope for licencing new coal-fired power plants. On 26 February 2020, China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) published its ‘Circular on 2023 risk and early warning

On 27 December 2019, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) published the Notice on Emissions Data Collection for 2019. As in past years, this refers to companies that emit more than 26,000 t CO2 per year and that are part of the eight sectors that are to be included

Zhao Yingmin, Copyright MEE. For more than ten years, Xie Zhenhua headed the Chinese delegation in international climate negotiations, making him China’s leading climate negotiator and one of the world’s longest-serving climate diplomats. Whilst vigorously defending China’s right to development in earlier negotiations, Xie Zhenhua later became one of the

China’s capital follows the suit of another Chinese mega-city, Shanghai, and plans to unfold a full-scale mandatory municipal solid waste (MSW) segregation plan in May 2020. As expected, the measure will include fines of up to RMB 200 (approx. EUR 27) for individuals failing to distinguish between recyclable, organic, hazardous

Among several energy policies that have been announced during this reporting period, three are of particular relevance for the Chinese energy system. Firstly, the State Council has announced that China’s coal power prices will shift from fully government-regulated to partially market-based, although they will remain capped. Power generators, electricity retailers