AFP

China has ramped up approvals for new coal power plants this year, Greenpeace said Wednesday, with authorities trying to lower the risk of economically painful electricity shortages.

China is the world’s biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases driving global warming, and President Xi Jinping last year vowed to phase down coal use from 2026 as part of an ambitious set of national climate commitments.

But campaigners fear those targets are under threat with the government focused on economic challenges, even as the deadly impact of climate change is felt around the world.

In the first quarter of 2022, Chinese regulators gave the green light to coal plants with a total capacity of 8.63 gigawatts, according to research conducted by Greenpeace.

That is nearly half of the entire coal-fired capacity approved last year, the environmental campaigners said.

“Building more coal-fired power capacity will not provide energy security for China,” said Wu Jinghan, climate and energy campaigner with Greenpeace in Beijing.

“China has an overcapacity of coal-fired power plants. Power inadequacies originate from poor integration of generation, grid, load and storage.”

The figure for new coal plant approvals dipped in mid-2021 but rebounded later in the year as China experienced widespread power outages due to a supply crunch.

Electricity consumption has surged this summer as China suffers through an intense heatwave, with air conditioning cranked up at homes and businesses to try and keep people cool.

China relies on coal for around 60 percent of its electricity, and has asked domestic miners to increase capacity by 300 million tons this year.

The State Council, China’s cabinet, in May announced 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) of investment in coal power generation, as coal producers were pressured to ramp up output before the 2025 threshold. 

“An overcapacity of this one energy source is a major hurdle for energy security, as well as China’s energy transition,” Wu warned.

Skyrocketing global commodity prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have renewed China’s focus on energy security.

As the Chinese economy stalls under strict Covid policies and prolonged supply chain disruptions, authorities are looking to boost growth through a massive infrastructure construction push — which relies overwhelmingly on coal power.

China is the world’s biggest coal consumer and producer, and analysts worry that economic targets will derail its pledge to peak carbon emissions by 2030.

British aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce is “championing” the energy transition and the decarbonisation of aviation, its outgoing chief executive Warren East told AFP on Tuesday at the Farnborough airshow.

This year’s Farnborough spectacle, returning from a four-year absence, is set against the backdrop of air travel’s nascent post-pandemic recovery but as economic turmoil hampers manufacturing.

Yet the airshow’s focus is on decarbonisation and sustainability in a sector often criticised for its impact on the climate, amid Europe’s blistering heatwave with record temperatures in England.

– Energy transition –

“The big theme is energy transition,” East told AFP in an interview at the company’s airshow chalet.

“This is the number one issue for the sector. We’ve been championing that for some time — and saying it’s absolutely necessary and we embrace that as an opportunity.”

East, 60, is retiring after more than seven years at the helm of the aerospace behemoth, with his tenure marked by historic corruption fines for the group, Trent engine troubles and Brexit.

Rolls, whose products power Airbus and Boeing aircraft, then axed 9,000 jobs and offloaded assets in a drastic restructuring after the Covid pandemic grounded jets and sparked a collapse air traffic.

East then guided it back to profit in 2021 from Covid-driven losses after slashing costs.

The titan, based in the city of Derby in central England, is now reaping the benefits of aviation’s post-Covid recovery, defence growth, a record power systems order book — and a long-standing focus on sustainability.

“I’m quite pleased with my time at Rolls-Royce,” added East, who took the reins in July 2015.

“We’ve really sort of modernised Rolls Royce in terms of culture.

“We’ve put in place a lot of efficiency and productivity improvements, which then crystallised during the Covid pandemic.

“And that’s created a very firm platform for the future (with) great operational and financial gearing now.”

– Cleaner fuel –

Aviation accounts for between 2-3 percent of the world’s total damaging carbon dioxide emissions, according to industry estimates.

Airlines and manufacturers alike have meanwhile committed to achieving net zero emissions — or carbon neutrality — by 2050.

Yet global air traffic is forecast to more than double by that point.

Rolls-Royce, which specialises in engines for long-haul aircraft, military jets and helicopters, is as a result ramping up its research into a wide range of technologies including electric and hydrogen power.

At the first Farnborough airshow since Covid, Rolls-Royce has announced a partnership, named H2ZERO, with British low-cost carrier Easyjet to test cleaner hydrogen engine combustion technology. 

Rolls also signed a deal with South Korea’s Hyundai to explore all-electric propulsion and hydrogen fuel cell technology for flying taxis of the future.

The company in addition unveiled a new research programme on hydrogen propulsion technology that emits no carbon dioxide.

Rolls is meanwhile working to develop a fuel-efficient future engine named UltraFan, which emits less damaging pollutants.

UltraFan aims for 25 percent fuel savings  compared with traditional long-haul engine.

“We are a group that is very focused on power and we do power across multiple sectors and one of the sectors in which we obviously have decades of experience in is aviation and aerospace,” said East.

– Cost –

The CEO cautioned however that it would take “decades” before hydrogen was deployed in aircraft engines.

The global aerospace industry would meanwhile need to harness technology such as sustainable aviation fuels derived from biomass, in order to curb its reliance on high-polluting kerosene.

SAF is however between three and four times more expensive than normal jet fuel. 

“I think as we go forward — maybe we’ll get to hydrogen in a gas turbine — but we’re not going to get there for at least a couple of decades,” East told AFP.

“There is a huge amount of work to do to make that practical, safe and economic and we need to have some transition technologies in the meantime and that’s why we talk about sustainable aviation fuel.”

He added: “Essentially, we’re just saying instead of kerosene we’ve got batteries, hydrogen, and synthetic kerosene.”

British aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce is “championing” the energy transition and the decarbonisation of aviation, its outgoing chief executive Warren East told AFP on Tuesday at the Farnborough airshow.

This year’s Farnborough spectacle, returning from a four-year absence, is set against the backdrop of air travel’s nascent post-pandemic recovery but as economic turmoil hampers manufacturing.

Yet the airshow’s focus is on decarbonisation and sustainability in a sector often criticised for its impact on the climate, amid Europe’s blistering heatwave with record temperatures in England.

– Energy transition –

“The big theme is energy transition,” East told AFP in an interview at the company’s airshow chalet.

“This is the number one issue for the sector. We’ve been championing that for some time — and saying it’s absolutely necessary and we embrace that as an opportunity.”

East, 60, is retiring after more than seven years at the helm of the aerospace behemoth, with his tenure marked by historic corruption fines for the group, Trent engine troubles and Brexit.

Rolls, whose products power Airbus and Boeing aircraft, then axed 9,000 jobs and offloaded assets in a drastic restructuring after the Covid pandemic grounded jets and sparked a collapse air traffic.

East then guided it back to profit in 2021 from Covid-driven losses after slashing costs.

The titan, based in the city of Derby in central England, is now reaping the benefits of aviation’s post-Covid recovery, defence growth, a record power systems order book — and a long-standing focus on sustainability.

“I’m quite pleased with my time at Rolls-Royce,” added East, who took the reins in July 2015.

“We’ve really sort of modernised Rolls Royce in terms of culture.

“We’ve put in place a lot of efficiency and productivity improvements, which then crystallised during the Covid pandemic.

“And that’s created a very firm platform for the future (with) great operational and financial gearing now.”

– Cleaner fuel –

Aviation accounts for between 2-3 percent of the world’s total damaging carbon dioxide emissions, according to industry estimates.

Airlines and manufacturers alike have meanwhile committed to achieving net zero emissions — or carbon neutrality — by 2050.

Yet global air traffic is forecast to more than double by that point.

Rolls-Royce, which specialises in engines for long-haul aircraft, military jets and helicopters, is as a result ramping up its research into a wide range of technologies including electric and hydrogen power.

At the first Farnborough airshow since Covid, Rolls-Royce has announced a partnership, named H2ZERO, with British low-cost carrier Easyjet to test cleaner hydrogen engine combustion technology. 

Rolls also signed a deal with South Korea’s Hyundai to explore all-electric propulsion and hydrogen fuel cell technology for flying taxis of the future.

The company in addition unveiled a new research programme on hydrogen propulsion technology that emits no carbon dioxide.

Rolls is meanwhile working to develop a fuel-efficient future engine named UltraFan, which emits less damaging pollutants.

UltraFan aims for 25 percent fuel savings  compared with traditional long-haul engine.

“We are a group that is very focused on power and we do power across multiple sectors and one of the sectors in which we obviously have decades of experience in is aviation and aerospace,” said East.

– Cost –

The CEO cautioned however that it would take “decades” before hydrogen was deployed in aircraft engines.

The global aerospace industry would meanwhile need to harness technology such as sustainable aviation fuels derived from biomass, in order to curb its reliance on high-polluting kerosene.

SAF is however between three and four times more expensive than normal jet fuel. 

“I think as we go forward — maybe we’ll get to hydrogen in a gas turbine — but we’re not going to get there for at least a couple of decades,” East told AFP.

“There is a huge amount of work to do to make that practical, safe and economic and we need to have some transition technologies in the meantime and that’s why we talk about sustainable aviation fuel.”

He added: “Essentially, we’re just saying instead of kerosene we’ve got batteries, hydrogen, and synthetic kerosene.”

When Sherry Rehman speaks it seems as though the world is ending. 

Perhaps that’s because Pakistan — where she serves as climate change minister — has a front-row seat for the cascading catastrophe of global warming.

To the north, rapid glacier melt is unleashing flash floods; in the south, savage heat is surpassing 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit); the west is speckled with wildfires, and the eastern city of Lahore is draped in suffocating perma-smog.

“It is apocalyptic,” the 61-year-old former diplomat told AFP. 

She was appointed minister after a tumultuous government change in April, which coincided with the onslaught of a nationwide heatwave.

“When you have an apocalypse in front of you… have you not watched Hollywood movies? You have to face it head on.”

– ‘Perfect storm’ – 

Pakistan is responsible for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but ranks eighth on an index compiled by NGO Germanwatch of nations most exposed to extreme weather events.

That leaves the country of 220 million people bailing out its own climate disasters whilst lobbying bigger polluters to turn the tide.

Rehman has launched a rhetorical offensive, hectoring the great and the good at global forums with unabashed descriptions of a doomsday-in-motion.

She framed the argument in the long arc of history: Pakistan, once part of the British empire, freed itself only to be gripped by “climate colonialism”.

“There has been so much climate denialism internationally, with the big polluters not wanting to give up their bad habits or to pay the price for going green,” she said.

“We’re being told ‘it’s a perfect storm in your neck of the woods, and you just have to do this by yourself’, which is absolutely not possible.”

“I don’t even sense empathy very often,” added Rehman, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States from 2011 to 2013.

Making matters worse, Pakistan is in an economic tailspin with runaway inflation, a debt crisis and dwindling foreign currency reserves.

Even Rehman’s home in the cloistered capital of Islamabad hums with the sound of a petrol generator. Heatwaves have exacerbated an energy deficit, and blackouts are on the rise.

Pakistanis could be forgiven for having more quotidian concerns than the end of all days.

“Communicating a science-based crisis in our lives, created probably very far away from our neck of the woods, is very hard to explain,” she said.

“We still have to speak in easily digestible terms.

“I’m going have to say, ‘This is why you’re able to breathe better. This is why you’re able to have an environment that is not overheating. This is why your water is drinkable’.”

– Fighting climate change and sexism –

Rehman’s role as a soothsayer of inconvenient truths is complicated in deeply patriarchal Pakistan.

The number of female parliamentarians has plateaued at around 20 percent for the past two decades, according to World Bank data.

Benazir Bhutto, the nation’s only female prime minister — and from Rehman’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — was slain in 2007, an assassination that deeply scarred the national psyche and which remains unsolved.

A pastel portrait of Bhutto has pride of place in Rehman’s library, more prominent, even, than a pop-art print of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah. 

Outside the door, a nude female bust is prominently placed — in a country where the bodies of women are rigorously policed by harsh modesty codes.

“There’s always a reaction to women taking their power and also speaking out,” said Rehman.

“It’s been two steps forward, one step backward.”

In public appearances, Rehman exudes unapologetic energy. Male co-panellists hogging the microphone are notified of their transgressions; those who cut short her answers are similarly chastised.

“I tell myself, ‘When men are competing with you, you’re in a good place’,” she said. “I don’t mince my words, and I don’t see any reason to.” 

“We pay the price daily in dealing with constant backlash, and with constant fiddling and quibbling over the gender issue.”

That is not her “daily challenge”, she said, but there is a stark intersection in the interests of countering sexism and global warming.

“As climate change unleashes its furies, women are at the forefront,” she said, picking up the fire and brimstone theme again.

“It’s women who are the nurturers of the soil, of the crops, of the water.”