SHANGHAI, Sept 19 (Reuters) - China's total plannedcoal-fired power projects now stand at 226.2 gigawatts (GW),the highest in the world and more than twice the amount of newcapacity on the books in India, according to data published byenvironmental groups on Thursday.
The projects approved by China amount to nearly 40% of theworld's total planned coal-fired power plants, according to theGlobal Coal Exit List database run by German environmentalorganisation Urgewald and 30 other partner organisations.
The new China projects would be more than Germany's existinginstalled power capacity of around 200 GW by the end of 2018.
The environmental groups said in a press release on Thursdaythat worldwide 400 of the 746 companies in their database werestill planning to expand their coal operations.
The companies include miners and power generators, andaccount for 89% of the world's thermal coal production andnearly 87% of the world's installed coal-fired power capacity.
Of the total, 161 are Chinese. China, the world's biggestemitter of greenhouse gases, will be the focus of attention atnext week's United Nations summit on climate action in New York,with Beijing promising more ambition when it comes to tacklingglobal warming.
China has been under pressure to curb investments in coal,at home and overseas, but Chinese financial institutions havecontinued to support coal projects.
Beijing said on Tuesday, in a position paper ahead of theU.N. meeting, that it would remain on "the clean energy andlow-carbon development path" but stopped short of setting newtargets.
China has cut the share of coal in its total energy mix frommore than 68% in 2012 to 59% by the end of last year, butoverall consumption has continued to increase.
China had 1,020 GW of coal-fired power by the end of July,amounting to 55% of its total installed capacity. A Chineseindustry group has suggested total capacity could eventuallysettle at 1,300 GW.
(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Tom Hogue)