Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Perhaps surprisingly, given international criticism, China's energy ei-
ciency ratio is comparable to many nations that are critical of China's energy
policy. In 2009, China consumed 19.5% of global TPE to generate 19.3% of
global GDP-PPP. By comparison, in 2009 the United States consumed 19.4%
of global TPE to generate only 17.7% of global GDP-PPP, and Canada con-
sumed 2.7% of global TPE to generate just 1.6% of global GDP-PPP.
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Although critics and indeed even prominent Chinese leaders would
agree that China's carbon-intensive energy proile is far from desirable,
eforts at decoupling energy consumption from economic growth should
not be lightly dismissed. Since 1990, CO
2
emissions as a percentage of GDP
(PPP) declined 51.6% in China, compared to a global average improve-
ment of 28.2%. China's carbon intensity, which has been estimated at
0.55 kilograms of CO
2
per US$ in 2009, is commensurate with nations
such as Canada (0.51 kg/US$) and Australia (0.56 kg/US$).
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Although
China's 2009 per capita CO
2
emission rate of 5.14 tonnes per person was
still about 20% higher than the global average of 4.29 tonnes per person,
this is considerably lower than average per capita emissions of 9.83 tonnes
found in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD) nations.
Clearly, China has a lot to be criticized for in terms of aggregate con-
tributions to global GHG levels; however, it also deserves recognition for
endeavoring to decouple CO
2
emissions from the economic growth process.
A review of recent government policies demonstrates the scale and scope of
the CPC's ambitions.
In 2006, the government released its Eleventh Five-Year Plan of National
Economic and Social Development (2006-2010). A key objective was to
reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20% from 1.22 tonnes of
carbon equivalent (TCE) to 0.98 TCE. Ofset by continued economic growth,
this meant that TPE consumption would rise 23% to 2.7 billion TCE by
2015. hese projections reairmed the need to decarbonize the electricity
grid in order to abate CO
2
emissions. To address this, the CPC also passed
a renewable energy law (REL), which came into efect on January 1, 2006.
he renewable energy law decidedly inluenced the pace of renewable
energy development. Prior to the passage of the law in 2005, installed
capacity for wind power and hydropower were 1,260 MW and 116,500 MW,
respectively.
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By 2010, installed wind power capacity had blossomed to
over 50,000 MW (about 5.1% of total electricity generation capacity) and
installed hydropower capacity had surpassed 200,000 MW (about 20.5% of
total electricity generation capacity). he main gist of this law was that it
forced utilities to purchase all generated renewable energy from approved
projects at favorable prices. It also established a foundation for renewable
