Back in April, in the midst of a contentious trade spat and unofficial coal embargo between China and Australia, Oilprice speculated that the winner of the battle may not be either of the nations involved, but the United States. As China refused Australian coal imports, other coal-producing nations were all too happy to step up and fill the demand. Now, as the dust settles, it’s clear that the winner was not only the United States but some other less likely contenders, including India, Indonesia, Mongolia and Russia. While China has been talking a big game about decarbonizing, the nation still consumes gargantuan volumes of coal day to day, with coal accounting for more than half of the country’s energy mix . President Xi Jinping surprised the world with his unexpectedly lofty climate pledges in late 2020, when he promised that China would reach peak oil consumption by just 2030 […]