China, the shepherd in greening the world energy

Published: 2017-03-20 10:26:27
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China, the shepherd in greening the world energy

By Xu Qinhua

There are lots of common challenges to the energy development for the developing economies like China faces with, such as the electricity poverty, unsustainable energy supply, lack of clean energy, great fluctuation in energy price, bottlenecks in production and consumption, technologies compatibility with environment, connectivity and convertibility with other conventional and unconventional security issues and so on.

Being the world’s largest emitter of CO2, China has substantially scaled up its unilateral commitment to emissions reduction: by 2020 carbon intensity will have decreased to 40-45% below 2005 levels. Since this is such an ambitious target, the question from the international climate community is how this target can be achieved, the answer is “Yes”.

Chinese People have been working very hard to combat the challenges. The main endeavor to answer the environment concerns is to optimize its energy mix, which means decreasing as more as possible the carbon-intensive coal and increase the cleaner or renewable energy, for example natural gas, solar, wind and geothermal etc. We call such kind of endeavor to be greening the energy. 

Since the end of 2012, China has become one of the world’s largest energy producer and the largest energy consumer. Chin’s the greening its own energy will undoubtedly green the world energy. China has its own energy culture with distinct characteristics based on its specific cultural viewpoint, its stage of development, political system and institutions of ownership. Thus, Chinese have formed its own practice and become the shepherd of greening energy with the balance of economy development, energy security and environment protection to lots of extent.

The comparative successful practice is composed of two means the “economic” and “administrative”. The core of the socialist market economy is the harmonious combination of the “visible hand” of government with the “invisible hand” of the market. China’s energy policies follow the proportion of the combination of visible hand and invisible hand, changing with the degree of economic development. In the energy sector, it has changed with the development stages of successive Five-Year-Plans.

Traditional Chinese administrative structures are flexible enough to accommodate local contexts, and were constructed to seek compromise between top-down policy approaches, and local, social and business interests. The objectives of Chinese energy efficiency and conservation (EE&C) policy have been transformed, adapting to governing purposes, combining commitments to the general political and social goals with local interests and business incentives.

For example, technical improvements have been proceeding successfully over the past two decades, spread over hundreds of companies in China. The broader use and lower cost of investments in energy efficient developments will be decisive in achieving greater energy efficiency. Two sets of factors — the need to be competitive on a world level and the necessity to comply with the government-set energy intensity standards — are the impetus for Chinese firms to increase efficiency.

 

The author is a professor with the National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University of China.

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LU Xiankun Professor LU Xiankun is Managing Director of LEDECO Geneva and Associate Partner of IDEAS Centre Geneva. He is Emeritus Professor of China Institute for WTO Studies of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and Wuhan University (WHU) of China and visiting professor or senior research fellow of some other universities and think tanks in China and Europe. He also sits in management of some international business associations and companies, including as Senior Vice President of Shenzhen UEB Technology LTD., a leading e-commerce company of China. Previously, Mr. LU was senior official of Chinese Ministry of Commerce and senior diplomat posted in Europe, including in Geneva as Counsellor and Head of Division of the Permanent Mission of China to the WTO and in Brussels as Commercial Secretary of the Permanent Mission of China to the EU. Benjamin Cavender Benjamin Cavender is a Shanghai based consultant with more than 11 years of experience helping companies understand consumer behavior and develop go to market strategies for China. He is a frequent speaker on economic and consumer trends in China and is often featured on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Channel News Asia. Sara Hsu Sara Hsu is an associate professor from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She is a regular commentator on Chinese economy. Xu Qinduo Xu Qinduo is CRI's former chief correspondent to Washington DC, the United States. He works as the producer, host and commentator for TODAY, a flagship talk show on current affairs. Mr. Xu contributes regularly to English-language newspapers including Shenzhen Daily and Global Times as well as Chinese-language radio and TV services. Lin Shaowen A radio person, Mr. Lin Shaowen is strongly interested in international relations and Chinese politics. As China is quite often misunderstood in the rest of the world, he feels the need to better present the true picture of the country, the policies and meanings. So he talks a lot and is often seen debating. Then friends find a critical Lin Shaowen criticizing and criticized. George N. Tzogopoulos Dr George N. Tzogopoulos is an expert in media and politics/international relations as well as Chinese affairs. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre International de Européenne (CIFE) and Visiting Lecturer at the European Institute affiliated with it and is teaching international relations at the Department of Law of the Democritus University of Thrace. George is the author of two books: US Foreign Policy in the European Media: Framing the Rise and Fall of Neoconservatism (IB TAURIS) and The Greek Crisis in the Media: Stereotyping in the International Press (Ashgate) as well as the founder of chinaandgreece.com, an institutional partner of CRI Greek. David Morris David Morris is the Pacific Islands Trade and Investment Commissioner in China, a former Australian diplomat and senior political adviser. Harvey Dzodin After a distinguished career in the US government and American media Dr. Harvey Dzodin is now a Beijing-based freelance columnist for several media outlets. While living in Beijing, he has published over 200 columns with an emphasis on arts, culture and the Belt & Road initiative. He is also a sought-after speaker and advisor in China and abroad. He currently serves as Nonresident Research Fellow of the think tank Center for China and Globalization and Senior Advisor of Tsinghua University National Image Research Center specializing in city branding. Dr. Dzodin was a political appointee of President Jimmy Carter and served as lawyer to a presidential commission. Upon the nomination of the White House and the US State Department he served at the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria. He was Director and Vice President of the ABC Television in New York for more than two decades.