CHINA     
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CHINA OVERVIEW

The United States and China are by far the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, jointly responsible for more than 40% of global carbon dioxide emissions and about 35% of total GHGs. China has become second only to the US in its national power-generating capacity - 792.5GW per year with an expected future 10% annual increase. While China has passed the USA in total GHG emissions, per capita they rank well below North America and Europe. There are many negatives opening China up to criticism, including inefficiency: China emitted four times as much CO2 as the U.S. and six times as much as the E.U. or Japan for every unit of gross domestic product. But in recent years there is much evidence that China views renewable energies as vital to its national security and economic leadership, expanding its efforts into wind, solar and clean coal ahead of other nations. Coal and oil currently account for 69% and 20% of the country's primary energy consumption respectively, with clean energy sources, including nuclear, wind and solar power, accounting for only 7.6%.

A security guard looks on as a slogan is projected onto Yongdingmen Gate in Beijing.

Latest news.

April 19 2013: Almost 500 new wind projects planned by 2015. China's National Energy Administration recently announced the inclusion of 491 wind power projects with a combined installed capacity of 27.9 GW into its approval plan for the 12th five-year period spanning from 2011 to 2015. China’s installed wind power capacity is expected to reach 100 GW by 2015, by which time distributed wind power will account for 30 percent of the country’s total wind power generation.  link

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          Below

• China's greenhouse gas emissions
• Dependence on coal
• Nuclear power
• Renewable energy 
• Other news
  

How bad are China's GHG emissions? China's population is 19.24% of the world total, but 2005 figures show that China's emissions per capita were about 6 tons, compared to the United States at 25 tons, and Russia at 15 tons. China’s emissions per capita are also below the world average of 7 tons.(Note: India's is just 2 tons.) link     

November 2012: China’s emissions expected to rise until 2030. Despite ambitious green policies, GDP growth is still the priority. Analysts say that barring any significant changes in policy, China’s emissions will rise until 2030 when the country's urbanisation peaks, and its population growth slows - and then begins to fall.  China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, responsible for about a quarter of all emissions. The country accounted for over 70% of the world's energy consumption growth in 2011. China's chief negotiator to the 2012 Doha climate change conference said that the country's greenhouse gas emissions, which rose 171% between 2000 and 2011, and by just under 10% last year alone, would continue to rise until its per capita GDP had reached $20,000 to $25,000. It currently stands at $5,000. Li Yan, the head of Greenpeace East Asia's climate and energy campaign, said China was now focused on decoupling its GDP growth from its emissions levels. Officials claim the country’s carbon intensity has dropped 19% since 2005, and plan on knocking it down another 17% by 2015. Yet China's environmental authorities are notoriously opaque and its progress difficult to assess.  In June, scientists from China, Britain and the US reviewed data from China's National Bureau of Statistics and found that the country's total emissions from 1997 to 2010 may be 20% higher than reported. link

July 2012: China’s per capita footprint close to Europe’s. The average Chinese person's carbon footprint is now almost on a par with the average European's. But the report only covers emissions from energy; the per capita emissions in China increased by 9% in 2011 to reach 7.2 tonnes per person, only a fraction lower than the EU average of 7.5 tonnes. The figure for the US is still much higher  at 17.3 tonnes. link

China has cause to respond to western claims that it isn't doing enough.
The energy bill now before the U.S. Congress proposes emissions targets that are far short of what China and other nations say they expect of the United States. China says the United States should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2020. The bill before Congress, which could be further weakened, now calls for less than a 4% reduction over that period. Compounding the difficulty is the fact that both countries are struggling economically and the Chinese and American publics appear far more interested in jobs than in tackling environmental problems, a task that would necessarily be costly.       

The West also owns some of China's emissions. 22.5% of China's emissions are generated during production of goods and services consumed overseas, and 7.8% are embodied in exports to the US alone. link 
According to a report by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) based at the University of York, England, the UK responsibility for GHG emissions is underestimated by as much as 49%. Under Kyoto rules, the pollution produced by Chinese factories making goods for the UK belongs to China. The protocol counts only the production, not the consumption, of greenhouse gases. China says this is unfair. Around half the recent increase in its emissions arises from the manufacture of goods for western markets. This pollution should, it says, belong to the consumer nations, not the producers and if the Copenhagen Conference did not recognise this, it would punish China for the west's   consumption. link

January 2012: Air pollution long-term challenge. China's city dwellers to breathe unhealthy air 'for another 20-30 years' The cautionary note comes at the start of a year when Beijing, Shanghai and several other Chinese metropolises will begin publicly releasing data on tiny particulates known as PM2.5, which account for more than half of the country's air-borne contaminants and have the most damaging impact on human health. The promise of more transparency has been welcomed as an important step towards a clear-up of the foul smogs that plague urban China, but environment officials stress that more time is needed to turn grey skies to blue. "It took the US and Europe 50 years to deal with their problem. Even if we cut that [PM2.5] in half, it will still take 20 to 30 years," said a haze expert. link

September 2011: China's pollution per capita rising faster than predicted. Due to its rapid economic development, per capita emissions in China are quickly approaching levels common in the industrialised countries. China already emits more carbon per person than France and Spain and on current trends will surpass the United States in per person emissions as early as 2017. The prediction comes in a report which shows that the country's carbon footprint is expanding far faster than predicted. link

In China coal provides 70% of total energy, with petroleum contributing 20%, gas 3%,  
and hydroelectric and nuclear the remaining 7%.  But coal is China's dilemma. With approximately 13% of the world's proven reserves, China has enough coal to sustain its economic growth for a century or more even though demand is currently outpacing production. Also China's coal mining industry is deadly and has the world's worst safety record where an average of 13 people die every day in the coal pits (compared to 30 per year in the USA). World demand for China's goods and China's own rapid growth lead to a largely unregulated industry - more 

January 2013: China’s coal conundrum. Coal has fuelled the country's economic boom, with consumption tripling in little over a decade. Currently, China burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined. But that is leaving many cities, including Beijing, choking on hazardous smog.Many people in the capital say the pollution this month has been the worst they can remember. Hospitals have been over-run by both the young and old suffering from respiratory problems as pollution levels soared passed levels considered hazardous by the World Health Organisation. link

February 2012: China is home to the world’s second largest proven coal reserves after the United States. In addition, prior to 2009, China was a net coal exporter. Coal is a cornerstone of the Chinese economy, representing 77% of China’s primary energy production and fueling almost 80% of its electricity. Moreover, China is the world’s top coal consumer, accounting for nearly half of global consumption in 2010. Over the past decade, China’s domestic coal output has more than doubled while its coal imports have increased by a factor of 60 - the country’s dependence on other nations’ coal exports is growing.  In 2009, the global coal market witnessed a dramatic realignment as China burst onto the scene, importing coal from as far away as Colombia and the United States. With 182 million tons (Mt) of coal sourced from overseas suppliers in 2011, China has overtaken Japan as the world’s top coal importer. Moreover, as the world’s top coal consumer, China’s imports could rise significantly again by 2015. link

Changes in coal production: 
Between 1979 and 2007, the Chinese economy grew at an average annual rate of 9.8%.
China’s frenetic construction of coal-fired power plants has raised worries around the world about the effect on climate change. China now uses more coal than the United States, Europe and Japan combined, making it the world’s largest emitter of gases that are warming the planet. But largely missing in the hand-wringing is this: China has emerged in the past two years as the world’s leading builder of more efficient, less polluting coal power plants, mastering the technology and driving down the cost. After relying until recently on older technology, “China has since become the major world market for advanced coal-fired power plants with high-specification emission control systems,” the International Energy Agency said in a report on April 20 2009.  link

October 2012: Nuclear power ban lifted. The Chinese government has released a new nuclear strategy, confirming that it has lifted the moratorium on new nuclear plants imposed in the wake of the Fukushima disaster and expects a "small number" of new coastal nuclear reactors to be approved before 2015. Plans allow for about 26 new reactors to move forward, increasing the country's nuclear power capacity from around 12.5GW currently to just over 40GW. link
March 2011: China suspends nuclear building plans. Following the accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, China has suspended approval for new nuclear power stations as it grows increasingly worried about the nuclear accident in Japan. China currently gets only about 2% of its electricity from nuclear power from 13 reactors, but it has launched an ambitious project to drastically increase those figures. China is currently building 27 new reactors, about 40% of the total number being built around the world, and according to the World Nuclear Association, China wants to build a total of 110 nuclear reactors over the next few years. link

January 2011: Nuclear breakthrough. Chinese scientists have claimed a breakthrough in reprocessing fuel from nuclear power plants so that a kilo of uranium could produce almost 60 times more power than currently possible. State media reported yesterday that techniques developed at the China National Nuclear Corporation, deep in the Gobi desert, would extend the lifetime of the country's uranium deposits from 70 to 3,000 years. China's nuclear capacity is expected to increase exponentially over the next decade and reduce the pollution pumped out by its vast number of coal-fired power stations. The new technology is likely to prove a key step in expanding China's nuclear sector and could spark a construction boom for plants and reactors. Russia, India, Japan and several European countries already reprocess nuclear fuel to separate and recover unused uranium and plutonium, reduce waste and close the nuclear cycle. China has so far failed to disclose whether its new technique differs from those already employed. link    
January 2011 - China joins Britain, France and India in the ability to reprocess spent nuclear fuel.  China has been working on this technology for 24 years, and has an ambitious program of building new nuclear power stations. link   

August 2012: China plans to spend $372 billion on energy conservation and anti-pollution measures over the next three-and-a-half years. The measures, meant to reduce China's dependence on fossil fuels and slow down its carbon emissions, are part of the so-called 12th five-year plan. They will center on energy-efficiency, emissions reduction and recycling projects. The investments will help the country get halfway toward its goal of cutting energy intensity by 16% below 2010 levels by 2015, says the China Sate Council. China is the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases; it plans to cut its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2020.Rapid growth in China has made it difficult for the country to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, China was responsible for 29% of the world’s total CO2 emissions. Despite that dubious distinction, China earned the No. 7 spot on a recent ranking of national energy focused on the world's top 12 economies. link

March 2012: China's spending on renewables soars.The remote, wind-blasted desert of northwestern Gansu has started to undergo a transformation as it moves to the frontline of government efforts to reinvent China's economy with a massive investment in renewable energy. Wind turbines, which were almost unknown five years ago, stretch into the distance, competing only with far mountains and new pylons for space on the horizon. Jiuquan alone now has the capacity to generate 6GW of wind energy, roughly equivalent to that of the whole UK. The plan is to more than triple that by 2015, when this area could become the biggest windfarm in the world. China is erecting 36 wind turbines a day and building a robust new electricity grid to send this power thousands of miles across the country from the deserts of the west to the cities of the east.
This is the other side of China's development. Although it is the world's biggest CO2 emitter and notorious for building the equivalent of a 400MW coal-fired power station every three days, it’s long-term plan is to supply 15% of the country's energy from alternative and renewable sources by 2020. Most of that will come from nuclear and hydropower, but the government is also tapping the wind and solar potential of the deserts, mountain plateaus and coastlines. Other regions are following. National planners have earmarked seven regions for huge wind projects, each at least 10GW in size. The state grid has struggled to keep up. Two years ago, almost a third of the turbines were wastefully unconnected. In 2012 China will, for the first time, account for half the coal burned globally, according to the World Resources Institute. In 2011 this dirtiest of fuels increased its share of national energy supply to above 72%. Link with video

August 2011: China tops 2011 index rankings for renewable energy. China overtook the US at the end of 2010 to become the world leader in wind power, having installed around 16 GW in 2010 or almost half of global installations, taking cumulative installed capacity to 42 GW. This is contrasted with an additional 5 GW installed in the US last year and a total of 40 GW. However, China ranks second globally in terms of grid-connected capacity; more than a third of wind capacity had yet to be connected to the national grid at the end of 2010. China's PV market also experienced strong growth in 2010, installing around 1 GW and taking cumulative capacity to 2.6 GW. link

January 2010: China leading global race to make clean energy.  China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. link  March 3 2010: A recent report by the Global Wind Energy Council found China to be the largest market in wind generation after a 100% growth in 2009, taking its installed capacity to 25.1GW. link  

March 2011: Next 5-year plan. Some of the key objectives and policy proposals have emerged during the two-year drafting process.The broad thrust of the Five-year plan is clear - to boost consumption by creating more socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth that will begin to re-orientate the Chinese economy after three decades of frenzied investment-led expansion. On environmental issues, China plans to introduce targets for energy efficiency and consumption that will see China finding 20% of its energy from non-fossil fuel sources by 2015 with the contribution of coal and oil falling from its current 90% to 80%. link

May 2011: China's production of green technologies has grown by a remarkable 77% a year, according to a report commissioned by the World Wildlife and has made, on the political level, a conscious decision to capture this market and to develop this market aggressively. Denmark earns the biggest share of its national revenue from producing windmills and other clean technologies while the United States ranks 17 in the production of clean technologies. link

May 2010: China to impose a carbon tax on industry from 2012 to curb carbon dioxide emissions it was reported late yesterday. The decision came after a recent survey conducted by officials in the Ministry concluded that a tax was the most efficient method of reducing carbon emissions from industry. Revenue from the tax would be used to fund energy-saving and environmentally friendly industries.  link 

China makes renewable power play to be world's first green superpower. 
June 2009: A game-changing moment could be upon us. In recent years, the world has grown used to condemning China as a climate criminal. But over the next few weeks and months, don't be surprised if you hear the same nation being hailed as the planet's first green superpower. The State Council, China's cabinet, will soon release the details of a staggeringly large "new energy" programme that could propel the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter past Europe and the US into a global leader in renewable energy and low carbon technology. This is a long-term investment aimed at making China a dominant force in the global low-carbon economy for decades to come. Power plays do not come much bigger. This is not being done because of international obligations, but as an investment in national security.  link

Solar Power 

China is to throw its economic might behind a national solar power plan that could result in it becoming one of the world's biggest harvesters of the sun's energy. The government body responsible for overseeing energy policy has ­finalised a proposal for billions of pounds of ­incentives for solar farms and rooftop panels, which will come from the government's £400bn ($645bn) economic stimulus fund. By 2020 the total installed capacity for solar power will be at least three times that of the original 3GW target. China generates only 120 megawatts of its electricity from solar power, so the goal represents a 75-fold expansion in just over a decade. Once approved by the state ­council, it is expected to give a boost to the ­domestic solar power market, which has lagged behind China's wind, nuclear and hydroelectric power investments. "This is extremely important. It's a milestone," said Chen Dongmei, director of climate change and energy at the WWF's China office. China is the world's leading ­manufacturer of photovoltaic (PV) panels, which turn sunlight into electricity. But 95% of these are exported.  link 

July 2012: China quadruples solar goals. China had planned 5GW of solar capacity in the five years through 2015 and 20GW by 2020. Now, China has quadrupled a domestic installation goal for sun- derived energy projects to 21GW by 2015 to help absorb excess supply of panels and support prices. link

Wave Power

April 2010: China proposes 10GW  wave energy project along its coastline. China may be fast establishing itself as the global leader in wind and solar energy, but to date it has made little progress in the sphere of marine energy. Now that looks set to change after an Israeli marine renewables firm announced that it will complete construction of a 1MW wave power plant in China by the end of the month. The plant, which cost around $700,000 to build, is in Guangzhou province, and is the first installation in a proposed 10GW renewable energy project to install wave energy systems along the coastline. link

March 2013: Desertification expands due to drought. Four years of drought in southern and northwest China have resulted in severe desertification, and water shortages, affecting the lives of 400 million people, according to The China Green Foundation, which says a total of 2.6 million square km of land has turned into desert – 27.4% of China’s land. On average 2,460 sq. km become desert each year, with the drought quickening the process.  link

November 2012: China planning ‘huge fracking industry’. With about 20% of the world's population and only 6% of the world's water resources, China is one of the least water-secure countries in the world. Its water shortages are made worse by pollution: According to the Ministry of Water Resources about 40% of China's rivers were so polluted they were deemed unfit for drinking, while about 300 million rural residents lack access to safe drinking water each year. If fracking takes off in China as planned, it will likely exacerbate the nation's existing water crisis. link
  
March 2010: Beijing's sandstorms. China's expanding deserts now cover one-third of the country because of overgrazing, deforestation, urban sprawl and drought. The shifting sands have led to a sharp increase in sandstorms, the grit from which can travel as far as the western United States. The government has spent millions of dollars on projects to rein in the spread of deserts, planting trees and trying to protect what plant cover remains in marginal areas. But the battle is being fought against a backdrop of rising average temperatures and increasing pressure on water resources after three decades of booming growth. link

(April 2009)  China vies to be world’s leader in electric cars - story

Suggested sources for further information  
Congressional Research Service (pdf)
The (U.K.) Guardian offers a regular compilation page of environmental items on China.

Footnote. Of 28 million electric bikes sold annually, 27 million are bought by Chinese.  link