Capping coal

China tripled its solar energy generating capacity last year and notched up major increases in wind and hydropower, government figures showed this week, but officials are still struggling to cap the growth in coal burning, which comprises 79 percent of the energy pie.

After burning an extra 95m tonnes last year, China will soon account for half the coal burned on the planet. This has alarmed state planners concerned about the impact of air pollution and climate change. But can they do anything about it given the 9 percent growth imperatives?

Maybe. A meeting of China's National Energy Administration has called for energy use to be kept below 4.1bn tonnes of coal equivalent per year by 2015. In short, a cap. This will become one of the most important industrial targets in the world because it would largely determine how large a mountain of coal China burns and, as a result, how much CO2 it emits.

Its stride in renewables saw China register a rise of 47GW in wind power generating capacity, and the completion of an extra 12.6 gigawatts of hydropower, with almost twice that amount also likely to come on line this year. In comparison, the UK has 75GW of energy capacity, of all types.

The most spectacular growth, however, was in photovoltaic power generation, which rose threefold to 3GW.

Clearly that is the way ahead but not fast enough. An energy cap could help bolster such attempts. Will it go through? Will the growth soothsayers allow such a move which will decelerate their intentions? Can China become a true world leader? More important, will other nations follow suit?