Despite COP26 rhetoric, China’s coal output hitting all-time highs

WASHINGTON POST • November 15, 2021

Chinese officials reported Monday that their coal production surged to its highest level in years, the same day that officials in India’s capital readied a shutdown due to air pollution, a one-two punch from the developing world that showed the difficulty of combating global warming just after the end of a landmark U.N. conference. The burst of bad news for the climate coincided with a Monday virtual summit between President Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, where Biden was to ask China’s help in averting a drastic worldwide temperature rise. Spurred by high natural gas prices, Beijing appears to be readying to burn dirtier, cheaper coal.