China’s emissions pathway during the coming decades is probably the single biggest factor in determining the achievability of the climate targets agreed in Paris. This fact is due to the still growing size of the Chinese economy and its carbon intensity, based on its reliance on coal to fuel the power system.

After two decades of breakneck growth in coal-fired power generation, power generation from coal finally slowed down in 2011 and turned into a decline in 2013, as a result of booming clean energy and slowing power demand growth.

An updated Greenpeace East Asia report has found that in 2015 a total of 210 new coal fired power plants were granted environmental permits, in spite of the sector’s severe overcapacity problem.