{"id":3518,"date":"2011-05-11T15:00:57","date_gmt":"2011-05-11T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unitedexplanations.org\/?p=3518"},"modified":"2011-09-24T11:37:05","modified_gmt":"2011-09-24T11:37:05","slug":"china-the-new-green-worldwide-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/2011\/05\/11\/china-the-new-green-worldwide-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"China is the new green global leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Chinese pragmatism<\/strong><\/h3>\n

“When you speak to the Chinese, climate change is not an ideological issue. It’s just a fact of life. While we debate climate change and the transition to a low carbon economy, the debate is passed in China. [\u2026] For them it’s implementation. It’s a growth sector, and they want to capture this sector”. Try to guess who said this. Obviously he or she is not from the US government. But he is from a worlwide known environmental NGO. The one who said this is Donald Pols, an economist with the WWF.<\/p>\n

But, Pols is not the only one who thinks this: \u201cChina <\/em>invested almost twice as much in clean energy projects last year compared with the US, and has emerged as the world\u2019s market leader in installed wind power capacity in 2009\u201d. An impressive opening by the\u00a0May 2010 issue of the\u00a0Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices<\/span><\/a>, released by\u00a0Ernst & Young, which placed China (and it still does) as the most attractive country in the world to invest in renewable energy.<\/p>\n

Just a few weeks ago the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) released the World Wind Energy Report 2010<\/em> which introduces the latest data on worlwide wind capacity. The report stresses that China became in 2010 number one in total installed capacity and the center of the international wind industry<\/strong>, and\u00a0 added\u00a0 18,928\u00a0 Megawatt\u00a0 within\u00a0 one\u00a0 year, accounting for more than 50 % of the world market for new wind turbines.<\/p>\n

But outside China a decrease in new growuth capacity was observed, which the report justifies, along with Pols statements, as a result of insufficient political support for wind energy utilisation. In a paradox situation, more and more policymakers are declaring their support for increased use of wind energy, but such statements do not go hand in hand with the necessary political decisions.<\/p>\n

Risks of a too agressive green growth<\/strong><\/h3>\n

China’s production of green technologies has grown by a remarkable 77 per cent a year, according to the new WWF\u2019s report. China is the largest producer in money terms, earning more than 44 billion of euros, or 1.4 percent of its gross domestic product. This is a direct result of a conscious decision to capture this market and to develop it aggressively, according to Pols.<\/p>\n

But, on its latest issue (February 2011) of the\u00a0Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices<\/strong>, Ernst &\"\"<\/a> Young, warns that while China continues to lead the way and is still experiencing growth in its wind and solar markets, \u201cits score remains static, amid concerns over the sustainability of its meteoric growth, falling stocks, inflationary preassures, and indications of an uneven supply chain. Its closest competitor, the US, has approved a one-year extension of the Treasury Grant Scheme \u2013 providing some much needed respite to its renewable energy market.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other side, Denmark, a longtime leader in wind energy, derives 3.1 percent of its gross domestic product from renewable energy technology and energy efficiency, or about euro6.5 billion ($9.4 billion). The U.S. ranks 17 in the production of clean technologies with 0.3 percent of GDP, or 31.5 billion euros, but those industries have been expanding at a rate of 28 percent per year since 2008.<\/p>\n

2010: lowest worlwide wind capacity increase since 2004<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Last year worldwide wind capacity reached 196,630 Megawatt, out of which 37,642 Megawatt\u00a0 were\u00a0 added\u00a0 in 2010, slightly less than in 2009 (38,147 MW). This means that wind power showed a growth rate of 23,6 %, the lowest growth since 2004 and the second lowest growth of the past decade<\/strong>. Investment in new wind turbines saw a decline in many parts of the world. For the first time in more than two decades, the market for new wind turbines was smaller than in the previous year.<\/p>\n

After major decrease in new installations can\u00a0 be\u00a0 observed\u00a0 in\u00a0 North\u00a0 America\u00a0 and\u00a0 the USA lost its number one position in total capacity to China.<\/p>\n

\n

Top wind markets 2010<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2010, the Chinese wind market became a class\u00a0 of\u00a0 its\u00a0 own, representing more than half of the world market for new wind turbines adding 18,9 GW,\u00a0 which equals a market share of 50,3 %. A\u00a0 sharp\u00a0 decrease\u00a0 in\u00a0 new\u00a0 capacity happened in the USA whose share in new wind turbines fell down to 14,9 % (5,6 GW),\u00a0 after 25,9 % or 9,9 GW in the year 2009.<\/p>\n

Nine further countries could be seen as major markets, with turbine sales in a range between 0,5 and 1,5 GW: Germany, Spain, India, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Sweden and\u00a0 the Eastern European newcomer Romania.<\/p>\n

In relation to its population, Denmark has the by far highest amount of installed capacity per person (0,675 kW per person), followed by Spain (0,442 kW\/person), Portugal (0,344 kW\/person) and Germany (0,334 kW\/person). In this perspective, world leader China only\u00a0 lands\u00a0 on\u00a0 place\u00a0 27\u00a0 (0,033 kW\/person), the USA reach number 9 (0,128 kW\/person) and India\u00a0 reaches only position 39 (0,011 kW\/person).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Obama\u2019s green new deal may be Jintao\u2019s green new deal<\/strong><\/h3>\n

About two months ago a news surprised and shaked the world: China would show down its economic growth to curb its greenhouse emissions. <\/strong><\/p>\n

As a consequence of that rapid industrialization in 2007, China\u00a0became the world\u2019s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Since then, not only the EU and the US, but also developing nations such as the alliance of small island states have put the government in Beijing under pressure to adopt binding emission cuts.<\/p>\n

As a result of that, at the 2009 climate summit in Copenhagen, China\u00a0announced that it would reduce its carbon intensity \u2013 the amount of\u00a0greenhouse gas<\/a> <\/strong>emissions per unit of economic output \u2013 by at least 40% by 2020. Achieving this ambitious goal has become an overriding political priority for the Chinese government. The draft of its new five-year plan, which was discussed by the National People\u2019s Congress in March, included an environmental tax and other carbon-cutting measures.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the most shocking and unexpected measures unveiled by Beijing is that China had set an annual growth target of 7% to ensure sustainable development during its new five-year plan<\/strong>. Hence, the new target (lowered from 8%, the initial expected economic growth rate) may mark the end of China\u2019s peak growth years as environmental constraints drive up the expense of resources and pollution control.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn China\u2019s thousands of years of civilization, the conflict between humanity and nature has never been as serious as it is today,\u201d the environment minister Zhou Shengxian wrote on his ministry\u2019s website. \u201cThe depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the deterioration of the environment have become serious bottlenecks constraining economic and social development.\u201d<\/p>\n

In words of the premier, Wen Jiabao, this decisions responds to the will \u201cto raise the quality and efficiency of economic growth\u201d. He said: \u201cWe absolutely cannot again sacrifice the environment as the cost for high-speed growth, to have blind development, and in that way to create over-capacity and put greater pressure on the environment and resources. That economic development is unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Between 2000 and 2010 China\u2019s energy demand has surged by 220%, compared to a world average of 20%.<\/strong> Since 2006, the country has accounted for 75% of the global increase in coal consumption and 60% of the increase in oil use.<\/p>\n

Some skeptics say that China is in a hurry for cooling its economy to prevent its collapse, and that the economic slow down responds to entirely this fact (where the \u201cgreen side\u201d would just be a matter of aesthetics). But some other are optimistic about China\u2019s green intentions. Whatever it is the real reason the planet may take a cleaner breath in the future.<\/p>\n

This is a nonprofit explanation<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China’s production of green technologies has grown by a 77 per cent last year, according to the new WWF\u2019s report. China is the largest producer in the world in money terms, earning more than 44 billion of euros, or 1.4 percent of its gross domestic product. Is China the new global green leader?
CONTINUE READING<\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83,63],"tags":[562,563,564,565,566,567,568,569,570,571],"class_list":["post-3518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-environment","tag-china-and-renewables","tag-china-green-production","tag-china-green-technology","tag-china-new-global-green-leader","tag-china-new-green-global-leader","tag-china-new-green-leader","tag-china-new-green-worlwide-leader","tag-china-renewables","tag-china-the-most-attractive-country-to-invest-in-renewables","tag-china-wind-energy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/wind_turbine_china.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5666,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518\/revisions\/5666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitedexplanations.org\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}