Framework for a low-carbon future
- By Lan Xinzhen
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Beijing Review, November 30, 2011
However, developing the low-carbon economy also brings many new job opportunities. According to a report released by the China Renewable Energy Industry Association, there are 6,000 solar energy enterprises nationwide, creating 200,000 job openings.
Liu said for energy saving and emission reduction, China has made large investment in technology development and marketing of renewable energy, which has brought worldwide contributions. "As a developing country, China faces tasks of both developing the economy and reducing emissions. Despite its impacts on our economic development, we have tried hard in reducing emissions," Liu said.
Research by the Climate Policy Initiative at Tsinghua University shows that affected by the GDP-oriented concept, local governments in China have strong incentives to expand economic scales. This may adversely affect the performance of low-carbon economic development of the whole country.
Future challenges
Qi Ye, Director of the Climate Policy Initiative at Tsinghua University, said local governments face a number of challenges in low-carbon development: To reach the goal of energy saving and emission reduction. The Central Government assigns binding targets to local governments, but many local governments have not done their best in implementing the policies and even approved projects of high energy consumption. Some local governments even had to fulfill their energy saving targets by switching off power supplies at the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).
All local governments have set GDP growth targets higher than the 7-percent target set by the Central Government during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, and accumulated energy consumption targets set by various localities were 500 million tons of coal equivalent higher than the national target, therefore the country's target of energy saving in the next five years is not easy to reach.
Zhang Guobao, Director of the Expert Consulting Committee of the National Energy Commission, said there are many uncertainties for China to realize the target of energy consumption in the next five years.
Qi thought the market-oriented approach to reducing carbon emissions needs to be improved. Research by Climate Policy Initiative found that diversified policies and massive government inputs are basic characteristics of China's low-carbon development, and administrative measures and incentives have played a leading role in saving energy and reducing carbon emissions.
In the past five years, China reduced 473 million tons of carbon emissions with administrative measures and another 777 million tons with incentive measures. However, only 15 million tons of carbon dioxide were eliminated with market-oriented measures. "Market and taxation measures have not played their due roles in resource allocation; a long-effective mechanism for energy saving and emission reduction has not been set up; and in the future the government should strengthen coordination of policies and make further use of market-oriented measures," Qi said.
According to Qi, with low-carbon development in the past five years, China is catching up with developed countries in the capability of technology innovation, and the proportion of domestically developed low-carbon technologies and equipment is remarkably increased. However, low-carbon technologies have not yet been widely used in the country and China still has not mastered some core technologies.
