British media say the rebound in China's greenhouse gas emissions may be good news for US LNG exporters. The decline in China's coal consumption for three consecutive years has raised hopes that China's carbon dioxide emissions may have peaked in 2016. But China's coal consumption has been rebounding so far this year, with the Global carbon Initiative (GCP) estimating that China's greenhouse gas emissions will increase by about 3.5 per cent in 2017 compared with last year.
The Financial Times website reported on November 14 that as long as methane leakage from mining to use is low, "coal to gas" is a useful way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. it also helps reduce local air pollution, which is a more urgent task. As a result, China is expected to become the world's most important market in terms of future gas demand growth.
American companies hoping to get a piece of the pie accompanied US President Donald Trump on a visit to China last week, and Trump may not be the best salesman when it comes to the environmental benefits of using US natural gas. because he announced plans for the United States to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement in June. Nonetheless, a number of U.S. energy companies used the visit to reach agreements, including Channier Energy, which exports LNG from Louisiana, and the state-owned Alaska Gas Pipeline Development Company, which hopes to export LNG from southern Alaska. Natural gas infrastructure is also a focus of China National Energy Investment Group's $83.7 billion investment in West Virginia.
A new component of China's climate strategy will help expand demand for US LNG, the long-planned national system for carbon emissions trading, which is close to being launched, the report said. The EU's emissions trading scheme has been widely criticised for failing to stimulate significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, but the European Parliament and the European Council last week reached what is considered a "landmark" agreement to cut subsidies after 2020. Germany's energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are expected to rise for the second year in a row in 2017, the result of generous subsidies and low carbon prices. The German government said last month that it was not expected to meet its emissions reduction targets by 2020.
There was also news of carbon trading in the United States last week, a result of the Democratic Party's success in state elections. Gregory Meyer of the Financial Times points out that New Jersey and Virginia are expected to join the carbon market of the Regional greenhouse Gas reduction Initiative, which is expected to unveil a new climate plan next week.
Delhi is envious of China's achievements in cleaning up Beijing's air, and pollution in Delhi last week "really exploded", reaching the highest level of the US embassy's air quality index, the report said. Shivam Vijay of Quartz called the deadly haze "a perfect example of all the ills in India". The IEA held a ministerial meeting in Paris and unveiled a new initiative to help emerging economies achieve a "transition to clean energy", as well as a carbon capture summit attended by government officials and energy industry leaders. But the most interesting news from the IEA last week was that it released an industry "digital" report, and as Tsvetana Paraskova pointed out, many technologies, including advanced data analysis, are already driving profound changes in energy companies.