Already the world’s biggest coal producer, China’s production is set to increase by 10 percent annually. The environmental and social costs of coal burning on this scale are immense. China will build 500 coal-fired power plants in the next decade,at the rate of almost one a week. This massive appetite for coal means equally huge greenhouse gas emissions.

With recent discoveries, Inner Mongolia is set to become China’s largest coal reserve with more than 500 billion tons of coal. Between now and 2020, China’s energy consumption will more than double, according to expert estimates. China has very little in the way of oil and gas reserves, so its future depends on coal. With 13 percent of the world’s proven reserves, China has enough coal to sustain its economic growth for a century or more.

China will soon overtake the United States as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, some say as early as this year. In November, the International Energy Agency projected that China will become the world’s largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in 2009, overtaking the United States nearly a decade earlier than previously anticipated. Coal is expected to be responsible for three-quarters of that carbon dioxide.

In addition to spewing out millions of tons of carbon dioxide, the power plants emit a steady stream of soot, sulphur dioxide, and other toxic pollutants into the air. A recent World Bank study found that 750,000 people die each year from pollution related illnesses in China. Just 1 percent of China’s city-dwelling population breathes air that is considered to be safe by the European Union.

The air pollution is being seen as a potential problem for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, especially for long-distance outdoor cycling and running events. Many of the pollutants that China’s coal power plants emit, fall as acid rain in South Korea and Japan, and account for particulate pollution in Los Angeles.