China is the largest country in the world in terms of population. There are over 1.3 billion people that call the country home. This doesn’t include the number of tourists that visit the country each year. When a country is home to over 1.3 billion people, there is going to be a rather large demand for energy. This also doesn’t include the rather large number of companies, corporations, and factories that are located here. The majority of things that can be purchased in stores say “Made in China” on the back, which means there is an even larger demand for energy and resources than most might think. In order to keep their population happy, to keep up with the rest of the world, and to keep up with the demand for goods that the country exports, China has to do everything in their power to get the resources necessary to keep the country running. China is home to an abundance of natural resources, but, unfortunately, most of their energy comes from non-renewable energy sources. These include coal, petroleum, and natural gas. In fact, if you were to look at a list of countries with the most natural resources, China tends to often be #1. According to Investopedia.com, China is home to $23 trillion dollars’ worth of natural resources. Nearly 90% of these are coal and a combination of rare earth metals. China might have a large amount of coal, but they are still not the leading coal producer in the world. That title is held by the United States. An eye opening, but not surprising fact, is that China has to import coal in in order to keep up with the demand that the country faces. As stated, the country is home to the largest population and many factories. The energy consumption is borderline insane. This explains why, in 2018, the country imported nearly 282 million ton of coal. That, alone, was nearly 50 times its entire exports. Why is this such a large problem? A couple reasons stand out. The first issue comes from money and economy. The price of coal, natural gas, and oil, all of which are imported by China, tends to fluctuate. When the price is low, there isn’t much to worry about. However, if the price is high, there is a lot of concern. Also, China is very dependent on coal, but coal is one of the worst fossil fuels to burn. It creates a great amount of energy, which is great, but it also creates a great amount of greenhouse gasses, which is not so great. Because of this coal dependence and the large amount burned, the country has been heavily affected by climate change. This has led to a large number of problems elsewhere. Since the price of coal can become a problem very quickly, importing resources is not the most sustainable practice, and all of the effects of burning fossil fuels, China began to research and develop renewable energy sources. This will not only increase energy sustainability, but it will also help economically, environmentally, and with energy security. The last of which China has become very focused on in the past few decades.
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