Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
China's recent development path, which is characterized by rapid economic growth and a
reliance on manufacturing for the export market, has created an ever-expanding demand
for electricity. In the early years of socialism after the establishment of the PRC in 1949,
China followed the Soviet model of development, with industrial production in the hands
of the central government and agricultural production controlled by a network of rural col-
lectives. With the death of Mao Zedong and the ascendance of Deng Xiaoping in the late
1970s, Chinese leaders began a series of liberal reform policies known collectively as Re-
form and Opening, which ushered in sweeping social and economic change. These reforms
have drastically altered the lives and livelihoods of one-fifth of humanity (more than 1.3
billion people), as the nation has seen a return of smallholder agriculture under the House-
hold Responsibility System (Jiating Lianchan Chengbao Zeren Zhi), the privatization of in-
dustry,greater integration into the global economy,andthe rise ofanurbanconsumer class.
China's GDP has grown nearly 10 percent annually over the past thirty years. Its economy
is expected to be the largest in the world, surpassing that of the United States, within the
next two decades (Tilt and Young 2007).
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Chinese leaders face critical challenges in the years ahead, including a global economic
slowdown that has scaled back demand for manufactured goods and rising social unrest
from the widening chasm between rich and poor. However, having emphatically arrived on
the global economic stage, China appears poised to stay for the long term. Nothing tells the
story of the nation's economic rise better than the upward trend of energy consumption that
hasaccompanied it.OntheeveofReformandOpeningin1978,Chinawasapoor,agrarian
country. Between 1980 and 2010, the nation's total annual energy consumption increased
by a factor of five, to reach the equivalent of 3.25 billion tons of coal being burned each
year. Even conservative projections suggest that China's energy consumption will continue
to rise in the coming years, if at a slightly slower rate, as its economy matures.
Thisisonepartoftheglobalgeographicalpictureofenergyconsumption,whichischan-
ging dramatically as new and dynamic economies emerge. In 1971, the Asia Pacific region
accounted for just 15.3 percent of global energy consumption; by 2010, it accounted for
38.1 percent, taking shares from Europe and North America (Liu 2012:5). China's rapid
rate of annual growth, coupled with its huge population, means that China accounts for a
lion's share of the growth in energy consumption in the Asia Pacific region. In particular,
access to reliable and affordable electricity has lifted countless millions of people out of
poverty by sustaining manufacturing jobs, improving the nation's transportation network,
and supporting China's integration into the global economy.
Energy production and consumption, of course, pose serious environmental challenges.
Whenitcomestotherelationshipbetweenenergyandtheenvironment,thesourcesofelec-
tricity generation are of crucial importance. But it can be difficult to trace the environment-
al costs of electricity generation, in part because each source has a unique set of advantages
and disadvantages related to its environmental impacts, operational costs, and long-term
