IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v108y2017icp696-701.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decline in China's coal consumption: An evidence of peak coal or a temporary blip?

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Qiang
  • Li, Rongrong

Abstract

Chinese coal consumption declined 3.7% year on year in 2015. Is this evidence of China's “coal peak” or a temporary blip? In this paper, we use a time series model to explore if further China's coal consumption will be higher or lower than the level of 2014. Before the modeling, we undertake a comprehensive analysis of data reliability, because problems with the accuracy of Chinese data have posed the main challenge to calculating its energy use. Our results show that annual Chinese coal consumption during 2016–2020 will be lower than the level of 2014 if the annual average GDP growth rate is less than 8.2%/year. Given that Chinese economy has been adapting to a “new normal” (slower but higher-quality economic growth) since 2014, and GDP growth target of at least 6.5% during 2016–2020 set by 13th Five Year Plan, we conclude that Chinese coal consumption peaked in 2014, which could translate into a big change in the global coal consumption and carbon emission.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Qiang & Li, Rongrong, 2017. "Decline in China's coal consumption: An evidence of peak coal or a temporary blip?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 696-701.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:108:y:2017:i:c:p:696-701
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.06.041
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421517303919
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.06.041?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan Ivar Korsbakken & Glen P. Peters & Robbie M. Andrew, 2016. "Uncertainties around reductions in China’s coal use and CO2 emissions," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 6(7), pages 687-690, July.
    2. Kwiatkowski, Denis & Phillips, Peter C. B. & Schmidt, Peter & Shin, Yongcheol, 1992. "Testing the null hypothesis of stationarity against the alternative of a unit root : How sure are we that economic time series have a unit root?," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1-3), pages 159-178.
    3. Elliott, Graham & Rothenberg, Thomas J & Stock, James H, 1996. "Efficient Tests for an Autoregressive Unit Root," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(4), pages 813-836, July.
    4. Qiang Wang, 2013. "Nuclear safety lies in greater transparency," Nature, Nature, vol. 494(7438), pages 403-403, February.
    5. Wang, Jianliang & Feng, Lianyong & Tverberg, Gail E., 2013. "An analysis of China's coal supply and its impact on China's future economic growth," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 542-551.
    6. Wang, Qiang & Chen, Yong, 2010. "Status and outlook of China's free-carbon electricity," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 1014-1025, April.
    7. Wang, Qiang & Chen, Xi, 2015. "Energy policies for managing China’s carbon emission," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 470-479.
    8. Green, Fergus & Stern, Nicholas, 2016. "China’s changing economy: implications for its carbon dioxide emissions," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 65483, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wang, Qiang & Li, Rongrong, 2016. "Journey to burning half of global coal: Trajectory and drivers of China׳s coal use," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 341-346.
    2. Wang, Qiang & Jiang, Xue-ting & Li, Rongrong, 2017. "Comparative decoupling analysis of energy-related carbon emission from electric output of electricity sector in Shandong Province, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 78-88.
    3. Chen, Pei-Fen & Chien, Mei-Se & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2011. "Dynamic modeling of regional house price diffusion in Taiwan," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 315-332.
    4. Venus Khim-Sen Liew & Hock-Ann Lee & Kian-Ping Lim & Huay-Huay Lee, 2008. "Linearity and Stationarity of South Asian Real Exchange Rates," The IUP Journal of Applied Economics, IUP Publications, vol. 0(5), pages 48-58, September.
    5. Lucchetti, Riccardo & Palomba, Giulio, 2009. "Nonlinear adjustment in US bond yields: An empirical model with conditional heteroskedasticity," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 659-667, May.
    6. Isabel Cortés-Jiménez & Manuel Artís, 2005. "The role of the tourism sector in economic development - Lessons from the Spanish experience," ERSA conference papers ersa05p488, European Regional Science Association.
    7. Ewing, Bradley T. & Sari, Ramazan & Soytas, Ugur, 2007. "Disaggregate energy consumption and industrial output in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 1274-1281, February.
    8. Soto, Raimundo, 2009. "Dollarization, economic growth, and employment," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 42-45, October.
    9. Francis Ahking, 2003. "Efficient unit root tests of real exchange rates in the post-Bretton Woods era," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 6(7), pages 1-12.
    10. Pieters, Gina & Vivanco, Sofia, 2017. "Financial regulations and price inconsistencies across Bitcoin markets," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-14.
    11. Evan Lau & Koon Po Lee, 2008. "Interdependence of income between China and ASEAN‐5 countries," Journal of Chinese Economic and Foreign Trade Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 1(2), pages 148-161, June.
    12. Eleni Constantinou & Robert Georgiades & Avo Kazandjian & George Kouretas, 2005. "Mean and variance causality between the Cyprus Stock Exchange and major equity markets," Working Papers 0501, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    13. Drakos, Anastassios A., 2016. "Does the relationship between small and large portfolios’ returns confirm the lead–lag effect? Evidence from the Athens Stock Exchange," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 546-561.
    14. Diamandis, Panayiotis F., 2008. "Financial liberalization and changes in the dynamic behaviour of emerging market volatility: Evidence from four Latin American equity markets," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 362-377, September.
    15. Yuan, Di & Li, Sufang & Li, Rong & Zhang, Feipeng, 2022. "Economic policy uncertainty, oil and stock markets in BRIC: Evidence from quantiles analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    16. Derek Bond & Michael J. Harrison & Edward J. O'Brien, 2005. "Testing for Long Memory and Nonlinear Time Series: A Demand for Money Study," Trinity Economics Papers tep20021, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Economics.
    17. Guglielmo Caporale & Luis Gil-Alana, 2009. "Multiple shifts and fractional integration in the US and UK unemployment rates," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 33(4), pages 364-375, October.
    18. Hsiao-chuan Chang, 2004. "Budget Balance And Trade Balance:Kin Or Strangers. A Case Study Of Taiwan," Department of Economics - Working Papers Series 893, The University of Melbourne.
    19. Echavarría-Soto, Juan José & López, Enrique & Ocampo, Sergio & Rodríguez-Niño, Norberto, 2012. "Choques, instituciones laborales y desempleo en Colombia," Chapters, in: Arango-Thomas, Luis Eduardo & Hamann-Salcedo, Franz Alonso (ed.), El mercado de trabajo en Colombia : hechos, tendencias e instituciones, chapter 18, pages 753-794, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    20. Luis A. Gil-Alana & Juncal Cunado & Rangan Gupta, 2017. "Persistence, Mean-Reversion and Non-linearities in $$\hbox {CO2}$$ CO2 Emissions: Evidence from the BRICS and G7 Countries," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(4), pages 869-883, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:108:y:2017:i:c:p:696-701. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.