China fails to reduce its methane coal mine emissions
Surprise, surprise! Using satellite data, a new study has now shown that China has not only failed to reduce its methane coal mine emissions, it has allowed those emissions to increase.
China, already the world’s leading emitter of human-caused greenhouse gases, continues to pump increasing amounts of climate-changing methane into the atmosphere despite tough new regulations on gas releases from its coal mines, a study shows.
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, which accounts for approximately 72 percent of the country’s electricity generation. While data show that coal production has increased in China, it has been unclear until now much methane gas, or CH4, has increased. Methane that is released during coal mining is responsible for the majority of coal-related CH4 emissions and is likely the largest human-caused CH4 source in China.
“Our study indicates that, at least in terms of methane emissions, China’s government is talking the talk, but has not been able to walk the walk,” says Scot Miller, an assistant professor of environmental health and engineering and of earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
The truth is that while China might say it has imposed “tough new regulations,” its commitment under the Paris climate accords actually allowed it to increase its emissions significantly for years to come, even as those same accords required the U.S. to decrease its emissions. This unfair situation, which China has apparently taking full advantage of, is one of the major reasons Trump dumped the accords. It also illustrates how little the Paris Accords had to do with climate change. Its real goal was to shift the balance of power and wealth from the U.S. to other countries.
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Surprise, surprise! Using satellite data, a new study has now shown that China has not only failed to reduce its methane coal mine emissions, it has allowed those emissions to increase.
China, already the world’s leading emitter of human-caused greenhouse gases, continues to pump increasing amounts of climate-changing methane into the atmosphere despite tough new regulations on gas releases from its coal mines, a study shows.
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal, which accounts for approximately 72 percent of the country’s electricity generation. While data show that coal production has increased in China, it has been unclear until now much methane gas, or CH4, has increased. Methane that is released during coal mining is responsible for the majority of coal-related CH4 emissions and is likely the largest human-caused CH4 source in China.
“Our study indicates that, at least in terms of methane emissions, China’s government is talking the talk, but has not been able to walk the walk,” says Scot Miller, an assistant professor of environmental health and engineering and of earth and planetary sciences at Johns Hopkins University.
The truth is that while China might say it has imposed “tough new regulations,” its commitment under the Paris climate accords actually allowed it to increase its emissions significantly for years to come, even as those same accords required the U.S. to decrease its emissions. This unfair situation, which China has apparently taking full advantage of, is one of the major reasons Trump dumped the accords. It also illustrates how little the Paris Accords had to do with climate change. Its real goal was to shift the balance of power and wealth from the U.S. to other countries.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Evidently the paris people want them to flare the methane for electricity which turns it into…..CARBON DIOXIDE!
But…But..carbon?
I’m sure China is fully funding the paris people for their leading production of carbon, I mean methane, whatever. I’m sure it wasn’t just US carbon that was billable.
All due respect, the Paris Accords were not a treaty. If it had been, and the Obama administration had mustered the 2/3 senate approval that a treaty requires, then Trump would have had a much more challenging path to getting us out. As a simple “Executive Agreement” however he was able to nullify it using the same means.
MDN: Good point. I have revised the post to replace the word “treaty.”
Yep, live by the pen and phone, die by the pen and phone.
We have in our NM HOA, those who want to rule people’s lives through regulation they have absolutely no power to enforce. So be it with the Paris accord. The French politicians thought that the accord would make it easy to place a carbon tax on the French. Guess again. Too bad the Canadians put up with the carbon tax; to the great detriment to the Canadian economy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Good the the USA has an tough president. Other adjectives come to mind but those traits are needed; as I have argued for some time.
1. China produces about eleven times as much coal as the US
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_coal_production
2. China is the biggest importer of coal in the world
https://www.indexmundi.com/energy/?product=coal&graph=imports&display=rank
3, Shouldn’t the environmental costs of coal production be charged to the user, not the producer (the biggest destination for US coal is Europe and imports are almost negligible) ?
Personally, I do not worry about greenhouse gasses. To do so would put credence to a lie!
Phill O wrote: “Personally, I do not worry about greenhouse gasses. To do so would put credence to a lie!”
Despite all the talk, very few people worry about greenhouse gasses, otherwise they would stop using powered transportation, using power in their homes and workplaces, and buying goods that required power to make or transport.
Despite their apparent efforts against greenhouse gasses, very few world leaders worry about them either. Otherwise they would have done more in their various agreements and accords to prevent China, India, and other countries from being allowed to continue spewing greenhouse gasses, and they would have done more to require Brazil and other countries from burning down their rain forests.