China will make full use of coal as a vital part of its energy strategy, leaders and officials said during the nation’s annual gathering of parliament this week, as it bids to balance economic stability with its longer-term climate goals. Following a speech by President Xi Jinping reiterating the importance of coal, delegates from across the country called for more investment in coal technology and new policies to shore up profits for coal enterprises. Xi told a National People’s Congress delegation from the top coal-producing region of Inner Mongolia that China, the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, was “rich in coal, poor in oil and short of gas” and “could not part from reality”. He said green transition was a process, and China could not simply “slam the […]