【澳大利亚广播公司】China shoots for world leadership on renewable energy

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China shoots for world leadership on renewable energy
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2597049.htm

PM - Friday, 12 June , 2009  18:32:00 Reporter: Stephen McDonell

MARK COLVIN: China is now the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

Eighty per cent of its electricity comes from coal-fired powered stations.

The air in many of its industrial cities is filthy enough to see, let alone breathe.

Locals regularly complain of respiratory problems because of this.

Less known is China's plan to become the world's leader in renewable energy.

The country is throwing massive amounts of money into wind, solar and other environmentally friendly forms of electricity, as China correspondent Stephen McDonell reports.

(Sound of wind turbines)

STEPHEN MCDONELL: In a poor rural part of China's north eastern Jilin Province, massive
wind turbines tower over the small village of Shuangliao.

Here high-tech 21st Century technology meets ancient farming practices as donkeys pull carts past spinning blades as big as semi-trailers.

If you drive down the picturesque coast in wealthy Shandong Province it's the same story. The hills behind what were once quiet fishing villages are becoming covered in wind turbines.

The Government in Beijing knows it has a massive problem with greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution in general, and in China there's no solution like an engineering solution.

This country plans to build the biggest wind farms in world and it's not stopping there.

China has already poured money into renewable energy and the Government is hinting at even further increases in investment in this area.

According to Zhang Xiaoqiang, the vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, China will easily surpass its targets for wind and solar power by 2020; so it is now considering targets three times higher.

He told the Guardian newspaper that while the current goal for wind power over the next 11 years is 30 gigawatts the new target could be more like 100 gigawatts over the same time period.

He also said that the total installed capacity for solar energy would be at least three times the original target of three gigawatts.

China could have a massive one fifth of all its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Yang Ailun is climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace China.

YANG AILUN: What we understand is, right now is not yet the official position or formal announcement, however we do notice that more and more Chinese officials come out to state it as their personal opinion.

And it seems to be a general agreement now that the renewable energy target for China is too low and that's why that we see China's officials come out and say that 20 per cent should be the target right now.

However Greenpeace think that even 20 per cent is not ambitious enough. We really believe that China can do 30 per cent by the year 2020.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: When it says 20 per cent does this include, for example, nuclear power and other I suppose types of power that some would say is not necessarily renewable?

YANG AILUN: This target should include hydro, wind, solar and it does not include nuclear, but in general we do believe renewable energy as defined here, which include wind, solar, hydro, if it's done in a correct way it is definitely a big help for the climate problem.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: This week representatives from the world's two greatest emitters of greenhouse gases; China and the United States, are meeting to try and agree on a global warming policy between them. No breakthrough has been made, as there are major differences of opinion.

China, despite huge increases in renewable energy, is not prepared to sacrifice economic growth; that means it won't accept any cap on its greenhouse gas emissions. It wants the developed world like Australia, the United States and Europe to bear the brunt of the pain, because it's already enjoyed the economic benefits of environment destruction.

China wants the US to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 per cent below 1990 levels within the next 11 years. Washington sees this reduction as far too great. It's only six months until the United Nations sponsored talks on climate change in Copenhagen. If China and the US can't agree, then not much will come of this meeting.

US Democrat politician Edward J. Markey, left no-one in doubt as to how hard this will be. He said this is going to be one of the most complex diplomatic negotiations in the history of the world.

This is Stephen McDonell in Beijing for PM.

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http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2008/s2597049.htm

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