{"id":69989,"date":"2021-04-07T09:03:16","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T07:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/?p=69989"},"modified":"2021-04-07T09:03:17","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T07:03:17","slug":"chinas-bitcoin-mining-rush-risks-derailing-climate-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/en\/energy\/chinas-bitcoin-mining-rush-risks-derailing-climate-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s bitcoin mining rush risks derailing climate goals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China’s electricity-hungry bitcoin mines that power nearly 80 percent of the global trade in cryptocurrencies risk undercutting the country’s climate goals, a study in the journal Nature Communications<\/em> said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are minted by solving puzzles using powerful computers that consume enormous amounts of electricity\u2014much of it produced by coal plants<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nature Communications<\/em> study found that unchecked, China’s bitcoin<\/a> mines will generate 130.50 million metric tons of carbon emissions by 2024\u2014close to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from Italy or oil-rich Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese companies with access to cheap electricity and hardware handled 78.89 percent of global bitcoin blockchain operations as of April 2020, the study said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This involves minting new coins and keeping track of cryptocurrency transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 40 percent of China’s bitcoin mines are powered with coal, while the rest use renewables, the study said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the coal-guzzling rigs are so large they could end up undermining Beijing’s pledge to peak carbon emissions<\/a> before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060, it warned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The intensive bitcoin blockchain operation in China can quickly grow as a threat that could potentially undermine the emission reduction effort,” co-author Wang Shouyang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences told AFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government should focus on upgrading the power grid<\/a> to ensure a stable supply from renewable sources, Wang said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Since energy prices in clean-energy regions of China are lower than that in coal-powered regions… miners would then have more incentives to move to regions with clean energy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year the crypto-mining industry is expected to use 0.6 percent of the world’s total electricity production, or more than the annual use of Norway, according to Cambridge University’s Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The price of a bitcoin has surged fivefold in the past year, reaching a record high of over $61,000 in March, and is now hovering just below the $60,000 mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the profits available, Wang said imposing carbon taxes was not enough to deter miners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China banned trading in cryptocurrencies in 2019 to prevent money laundering, but mining is permitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal-rich regions are now pushing out bitcoin miners as they struggle to curb emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Inner Mongolia announced plans to end the power-hungry practice of cryptocurrency mining by the end of April after the region failed to meet annual energy consumption targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The region<\/a> accounted for eight percent of the computing power<\/a> needed to run the global blockchain\u2014a set of online ledgers to record bitcoin transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is higher than the amount of computing power dedicated to blockchain in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nasdaq-listed Bitmain, which operates one of the biggest cryptocurrency mining pools in the world, said they were shifting operations in Inner Mongolia to areas with more hydropower like Yunnan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n