China's declining coal trade could help climate push

Datong, China

ACROSS China's grimy coal heartland, mines have fallen silent, reduced production or shut down. Miners, owners and officials here wonder whether boom times will return for the "black gold" that has fed the nation's craving for cheap but dirty energy.

"I think it's finished," said Wang Jinwang, a longtime miner whose salary has been cut by one-fifth.

China's coal consumption weakened last year and through the first half of this year, largely because of a slowing economy, according to statistics from China's largest coal industry analysis group.

But the gloom pervading northern China's coal country could mean brighter prospects for worldwide efforts to slow global warming. Some experts say that if China's coal use continues to slow or even falls, its greenhouse gas emissions could peak years…