14 DAY TRIAL // Liang Jiakun, the current vice president of China's National Coal Association, believes that the country's coal industry will continue to grow in the years to come.
More precisely, Liang Jiakun estimates that, by the year 2020, China will go through about 4.8 billion metric tons on a yearly basis.
This dirty fuel is already the country's chief energy source, meaning that 60% of China's annual power demands are met by coal. Thus, the country is estimated to burn about 3.5 million tons of coal each year.
Interestingly enough, the country's current coal consumption is about three times higher than it was just a few years ago, in 2000. Oil Price tells us that, according to a report issued by the Energy Information Administration in the United States, China is currently both the world's largest top coal producer and the world's largest coal consumer.
If the 3.5 billion tons of coal China now burns annually have turned out to be more than enough to bring about a so-called airpocalypse, there is little denying that, should the country up its use of this dirty energy source in the years to come, things will go from bad to worse.
The same source tells us that, by the year 2015, China plans to have 11.4% of its energy needs met by non-fossil fuel power sources.
What's more, the US Energy Information Administration estimates that, by 2035, coal's share of the country's total energy mix will drop to just 59%.
The problem is that, because the country is the world's most populous and its economy is rapidly growing, this does not necessarily mean that China's annual absolute coal consumption will be reduced.
“However, absolute coal consumption is expected to double over this period, reflecting the large growth in total energy consumption,” the Energy Information Administration warns.
If Liang Jiakun's prediction become reality, the environmental and health costs associated with burning coal for energy might prove a tad too much for China to handle.