According to reports, the General Office of the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration recently jointly issued a notice on increasing clean coal supply to ensure people stay warm during winter. The notice states that clean heating should be promoted according to local conditions, encouraging the use of clean coal to replace low-quality coal; accelerating the release of high-quality coal production capacity, further expediting the approval of increased production capacity for qualified high-quality coal mines; and increasing the supply of clean coal.
Clean coal and energy technology are undoubtedly beneficial technologies currently needed. An inevitable consequence of economic growth and improved living standards is a multi-fold increase in per capita fuel consumption. Precisely for this reason, pollution control has become one of the three key battles to be fought in economic work over the next three years.
There is a path to pollution control, but no shortcuts. Specifically, pollution control, especially tackling smog, is by no means as simple as "de-coaling." As stated in the aforementioned notice, since the beginning of winter last year, some regions have experienced structural, seasonal, and regional contradictions in natural gas supply and demand, affecting winter heating for some residents. Promoting the use of clean coal can effectively alleviate current winter heating pressure and is also an important way to advance loose coal governance and build a clean heating system.
The reality of structural, seasonal, and regional "gas shortages" highlights the severe fact that the existing natural gas import, transportation, and processing capacities, along with their systems, are insufficient to meet demand. China has become the world's largest importer of petrochemical products. Under a normal trade system, the volume of imports and import rankings primarily influence market prices. As a major country in coal reserves and production, from any perspective, "de-coaling" is not a comprehensive option for China. Especially with world clean coal technology having reached a considerably high level, China can fully introduce, follow up on, and develop clean coal technologies. This would enhance the efficiency of coal mining and utilization, thereby overall reducing the fuel cost and pollutant emissions per unit of GDP, improving economic efficiency and benefits, and elevating the quality of life for its citizens.
Unlike countries such as the United States and Russia, which are major holders of both coal reserves and fossil fuel resources, China is primarily a major country for coal reserves and production. If the energy strategic choices for the US and Russia mainly involve comparing the costs of clean coal technology with the extraction, processing, and use of fossil fuels, then China's energy strategic choices must more extensively consider risk costs stemming from domestic and international transportation, international market price fluctuations, and localized crises in import regions. These risk costs are precisely the economic rationale for China to use clean coal technology as an important means of pollution control.
With the existing clean energy technologies of developed industrialized nations, especially the clean coal technologies from Japan, a former major coal importer, the main technical obstacles to using coal as a clean energy source no longer exist. Although developed industrial countries, due to their large reserves of fossil fuel resources or the convenience and price of imports, have reduced or ceased R&D in clean coal technology after large-scale fossil fuel use, it is entirely necessary for China, a country rich in coal but lacking in fossil fuel resources, to further research, develop, and apply clean coal technologies based on introducing relevant technologies, thereby developing and promoting this immediately beneficial technology. With China's current scientific and technological capabilities, clean coal technology should be able to develop to a world-class level, benefiting not only China but also the rest of the world. (Source: China Energy Net)
