China can achieve economic growth without degrading the
environment, by using renewable energy and raising energy
efficiency, an energy investigation report has said.
The report, Energy Revolution: A Sustainable China Energy
Outlook, was released yesterday in Beijing. It is part of a global
study called Energy Revolution being undertaken by Greenpeace and
the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).
"Our report shows that China can maintain economic growth and
stabilize its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions at the current level
by 2050," Sven Teske, an energy expert with Greenpeace
International, said.
"However this is only possible if industrialized countries and
developing countries work together to shift new investment away
from fossil fuels toward energy efficiency and renewable
energy."
China now releases about 5 billion tons of CO2 a year.?
The report took into account the development necessity of China
and highlighted its energy saving plan, which aims to cut energy
consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 by 20
percent of the 2005 level, as part of the world's efforts to
mitigate climate change.
The report said China's target is almost in line with the energy
revolution scenario set by Greenpeace, which asks for 23.7
percent.
On renewable energy, the report showed that China could be more
ambitious for the development of wind energy and a solar
photovoltaic (PV) system.
China has set a target that by 2020, 16 percent of the country's
primary energy will come from renewable sources.
To achieve that and other measures, China plans to develop 300GW
of hydropower, 30 GW of wind power, and 1.8 GW of solar
photovoltaic.
According to the energy revolution scenario, China has the
potential as well as the capacity to develop 118GW of wind power
and 25GW of solar PV power by 2020.
Yang Ailun, Greenpeace China climate and energy campaign
manager, said: "Greenpeace calls for the Chinese government to
introduce strong policies such as feed-in-tariffs to support the
development of wind and solar PV industries in China.
"China has to get rid of its dependency on coal. Fortunately
with the enforcement of energy-efficiency targets and also the
decision to close down the 50GW, its least efficient coal-fired
plants, the trend of massive plants will be slowed from 2008."
(China Daily April 26, 2007)
