China’s energy crisis

The absence of Xi Jinping from COP26 in Glasgow this weekend should strip away any illusion that China is a serious partner on climate change. It also points to another intriguing possibility – that we may be witnessing not Peak Carbon, but Peak China. The Communist party may be facing the sort of decline it wishes on the West, and as with the climate, the impact could be dangerous and unpredictable.

By staying at home China’s leader can concentrate on what has become an urgent priority for his government: massively ramping up the production and import of coal to solve the energy crunch his increasingly unsustainable economy is facing. That might have been a bit of a conversation stopper around the dinner table in Scotland.

Old coal mines are being rapidly brought back into production and output ramped up at existing ones. China is scouring the globe for coal, and ships are queuing to drop if off at the country’s clogged ports.