Towards a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system in China

China Plus Published: 2018-03-30 11:43:23
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By Kaare Sandholt

China's National Energy Administration (NEA) under NDRC has recently released its 2018 work plan. It is the first NEA work plan after the 19th CPC National Congress last year and it is certainly interesting reading.

Technicians check solar energy equipment on a roof in Cixi City, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 10, 2017.[Photo: Xinhua]

Technicians check solar energy equipment on a roof in Cixi City, east China's Zhejiang Province, May 10, 2017.[Photo: Xinhua]

A low-carbon energy system

The overall headline for the work plan is to “build a low-carbon, clean, safe and efficient” energy system, which matches very well with the global trends that de-carbonisation, clean energy and energy efficiency has become the main drivers for the energy system development. China’s strong commitment to the Paris agreement is thereby clearly reflected as a top-priority in the daily work for NEA. This is also in harmony with China's general commitment to establish an“ecological civilisation”- one of President Xi Jinping’s ways to promote the peoples need for a good, healthy life. 

The NEA work plan lists seven main guidelines for the work in 2018:

–More attention to a green and low-carbon development

–More attention to improve the quality of the energy supply 

–More emphasis on improving energy system efficiency

–More emphasis on innovation-driven development

–More attention to safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood

–More emphasis on openness and international cooperation

–More focus on energy governance by law.

Concrete actions

Under the umbrella of these guidelines the work plan has detailed actions for the activities.

To make the energy system more green, NEA will strengthen the planning for hydropower development, safely promote the development of nuclear power, continue the development of solar, wind and biomass, and promote the use of natural gas. Furthermore NEA will promote more clean coal mining, more efficient coal power plants and upgrade the quality of oil. Thirdly, NEA will have focus on the end-use sectors, promoting energy efficiency and shift from coal to electricity and clean energy sources.

On the supply side, excess capacity of coal production and coal power plant shall be eliminated, and the development of renewables shall be promoted. To ensure a steady integration of the variable power production from wind and solar, focus will be on measures to reduce curtailment and prioritise the deployment of distributed wind and solar in regions where curtailment is a minor problem. Also the development of a more flexible power system is in focus, regarding power plants as well as the power transmission system.

The energy sector reforms will continue in 2018. The comprehensive power sector reform pilots will be expanded, comprising retail markets, wholesale spot market and markets for ancillary services to support the operation of the power system. Also the reform of the oil and gas supply system is on the agenda for this year’s work.

One of the very interesting news in the work plan is the establishment of a “leading group” for setting up a coordinated energy legal system. Today China has a large number of independent laws within the field of energy, and the whole area needs to be cleaned and harmonised to work for the construction of the ecological civilisation and energy transition.

Also, NEA will strengthen the more strategic energy planning, setting the milestones and roadmaps for 2020, 2035 and 2050 as the major benchmark years in China’s economic and social development. This work also includes a mid-term evaluation of the thirteen five-year plan on energy.

Hidden gem

All-in-all the work plan is both an impressive and comprehensive. The “hidden gem” in the work plan is the possibility to combine the law-reform work with the development of a long term energy strategy, consistent with the overall goals for the Chinese society to develop an ecological civilisation and ensure that “people and nature live in harmony” as the work plan puts it. This is a necessary, although not an easy task to fulfil to ensure the success of the energy transition. For many years, the strategy for the energy system development has been “more of everything” to follow the urgent need for more energy to the rapid growing society. 

New paradigm needed

The recent year’s introduction of a “new normal” in the Chinese economy, putting quality before quantity and changing the economic sectors from energy intensive heavy industry to quality driven, low energy consuming industry and service sectors, significantly slows down the need for rapid expansion of the energy system. Furthermore, the prioritisation of the ecological civilisation as main development path for China requires a strong focus on the environmental impact of the energy sector - air pollution must be eliminated and low-carbon technologies must be promoted. 

In many ways this is a shift in the paradigm for the energy system development, which requires change of mindset, change of strategies and change of measures. The 2018 NEA work plan still has elements of the “old” energy strategy thinking, where shale gas, coal-to-oil and coal-to-gas are among the development priorities although these technologies hardly can be considered as low-carbon technologies. But apart from this, the work plan seems well suited for accelerating the energy transition in the right direction.

(Kaare Sandholt is Chief Expert at China National Renewable Energy Centre.)

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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.