Editorial Board
Ending Asia's Coal Addiction
With excess capacity rising and the price of renewables dropping, the region needs to stop building so many coal plants.
New rules haven't stopped plant-building in China.
Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty ImagesAsian nations lead the world in new investment in wind, solar and nuclear power. And all that clean energy should help them meet their commitments to cut greenhouse gases. Standing in the way, however, are ongoing plans to build thousands of new coal plants -- even though the market for coal power is shrinking fast.
In China, demand for coal appears to have peaked in 2014, far earlier than expected. In India, electricity from coal plants coming online in 2020 is expected to cost more than solar energy does today. Yet both countries -- and also Japan, the region's third big economy -- continue to add capacity.