The Cost of China's Energy Boom: Miners' Lives

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China's coal-mining industry is among the most dangerous in the world, resulting in the deaths of more than 2,600 workers in the first half of 2005 alone. As accidents occur with alarming frequency, the country is boosting its coal production at the high price of miners' lives. While the government has devoted efforts to improving mine construction, safety equipment, and education, the underlying cause of these disasters remains: China's heavy dependence on coal as its top energy source.

As the world's largest coal producer and consumer, China produced 1.96 billion tons in 2004, accounting for 35 percent of the world total. It also has the world's worst safety record, registering 6,009 mining-related deaths in 2004—a fatality rate of nearly three persons per million tons. (Unofficial estimates are even higher.) In contrast, the United States, the world's second largest coal producer and consumer, produced 1 billion tons in 2004 but registered a death toll of 28, a rate of only 0.03 persons per million tons. Overall, the coal mining fatality rate in the industrial world averages 0.4. Thus, China's mining-related death rate is almost 100 times that of the United States and 7.5 times that of the average industrial country.

The immediate factors behind China's coal mining accidents include a lack of safety equipment, rampant collusion between local officials and mine owners, and poor education among miners. Yet the country's heavy dependence on coal is an underlying contributor. Currently, coal accounts for more than 70 percent of China's total energy consumption, compared with 22 percent in the United States and 24 percent worldwide. And domestic output continues to increase rapidly as energy demand soars: according to the National Development and Reform Commission, Chinese coal production jumped by 10.2 percent in the first nine months of 2005, to 1.3 billion tons, and is expected to exceed 2 billion tons by the end of the year.

Greater production volumes have contributed to higher accident risk, particularly when small collieries and pit mines, many poorly constructed, supply one-third of the nation's total coal output. China is home to 24,000 small coal mines, many of which are illegal and have abysmal safety records. Of the 6,343 miners killed in colliery accidents in 2003, 4,570 worked in small mines. Recognizing the contribution of these operations to miner mortality, the government has ordered a slowdown or suspension of many activities until safety measures improve. However, the absence of sufficient energy alternatives to meet surging energy demand has delayed implementation of a more comprehensive plan for mine safety.

To ease the demand for coal—and protect the lives of the more than 6.6 million workers in its mining sector—China must restructure its energy mix. In the United States, for example, coal only accounts for 22 percent of total energy consumption.

In the move to diversify its power sector, China considers renewables a top priority, as President Hu Jintao noted in a speech to the international renewable energy conference in Beijing on October 7th. The country aims to raise the ratio of renewables in its total energy consumption to 15 percent by 2020, equivalent to 400 million tons of standard coal. Already, China's renewables sector is the world's fastest growing, at more than 25 percent annually. China accounted for 80 percent of global additions of solar hot water collectors in 2004, reports Worldwatch Senior Fellow Eric Martinot in Global Status Report: Renewables 2005. As these alternative energy sources displace the nationwide demand for coal, it should become easier for the government to improve mine worker safety.