China’s coal use declining

Consumption of coal is dropping in China, continuing a decline that started last year, an environmental group said.

In an analysis of government data released Thursday, Greenpeace said China’s use of coal dropped by 7.7 percent in the first four months of 2015 when compared with the same period last year.

{mosads}Greenpeace estimated that the coal decline would lead to a 5 percent reduction in China’s carbon dioxide emissions, bringing them down by about the total volume of the United Kingdom’s emissions over that same time period.

“If the reduction continues until the end of the year, it will be the largest recorded year-on-year reduction in coal use and CO2 in any country,” Greenpeace wrote in a Thursday blog post.

The analysis from Greenpeace follows data from the International Energy Agency concluding that China’s coal consumption fell last year for the first time on record.

Last year also marked the first time on record that international carbon emissions fell while the global economy grew, showing that the two measures do not necessarily have to be linked.