China plans $265 billion renewables spending - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

China plans $265 billion renewables spending
Tue Sep 4, 2007 12:29PM EDT

By Emma Graham-Harrison

BEIJING (Reuters) - China plans to invest 2 trillion yuan
($265 billion) in renewable energy by 2020, most of
it corporate cash, to wean itself off polluting coal as
it aims for cleaner growth, a top energy planner said on
Tuesday.

Chen Deming, vice-chairman of the National Development
and Reform Commission, added that China aimed to be
using domestically made and designed equipment by then,
which could cut prices for clean energy worldwide.

-snip-

The cash would help China meet its target to boost the
portion of its energy that comes from renewable sources
to 15 percent by 2020, up from 7.5 percent in 2005, as it
wrestles with the legacy of decades of promoting growth
at any cost.

-snip-

Over half the proposed investment will go into large dams,
which environmentalists criticize and some scientists
believe are a significant source of greenhouse gas methane.

But Chen said the benefits of dams outweighed their costs.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK32556820070904

[hatrack]

1. OK, $265 billion divided by 12 years and change comes to . . . .

Hmm, about $21.6 billion per year . . .

Nice start, but not nearly enough not nearly fast enough.

[kestrel91316]

2. Well, it's a step in the right direction. At least the Chinese government

isn't deeply in denial, unlike Bushco.

[David__77]

3. I think China is serious about combatting polution. Here's why:

Severe pollution impedes economic growth in the long run. The position of China's leaders is to do everything possible to assure continued large-scale growth over the long term. They do not view this as a short term project.

[GliderGuider]

4. I've seen this "China takes a long term view" meme repeatedly

I am skeptical, however. Chinese managers and mid-level politicians, the ones who plan and implement the actual industrial program instead of just writing strategic policy, have consistently shown themselves to be more in favour of meeting quarterly economic quotas than taking any kind of a long-term perspective. The environmental results speak for themselves.

Some of China's senior leaders may have a multi-decadal strategic perspective, but even they have immediate fish to fry (such as providing material goods for a population that has slipped its consumerist leash) as well as being subverted at every turn by the implementors. The Chinese are every bit as much victims of the growth paradigm as Americans, and are just as trapped by its remorseless catabolic requirements.

[hatrack]

5. The leadership of a de-legitimized party now rides the tiger of exploding expectations

The overwhelming majority of China's citizens want a better life, which for most of that majority means more stuff. Over a billion people want beef and refrigerators and computers and plasma TVs and (eventually) cars and houses.

Who will tell them that these are no longer options in the face of massive threats from climate not blatantly obvious at the moment of any such pronouncement? And who will tell them that their investment in such things, particularly cars and all that automobile culture implies, was a mistake and they must not exercise the privileges which come with ownership? Not apparatchiks well aware of China's long history of cultural and economic booms followed by rebellion, revolution and massive collapse.

Chinese citizens already tolerate massive, inescapable pollution in water, air and food. While these problems have indeed caused substantial low-grade unrest, particularly in the countryside, these incidents have yet to show any sign that ordinary Chinese have even begun to question the fundamental assumptions of continuous growth. They may picket or riot against the factory that poisons their water or air, but that doesn't mean that more than a few have begun to think through what their hard work and ambition and understandable desire for a better life may bring them to.

[NickB79]

6. A friend of mine just spent a month in China with her family

She returned two days ago and was showing us her pictures of Beijing and the Forbidden City last night. I asked why it was so foggy the day she took pictures, and she said it wasn't fog, but smog. My jaw hit the floor. Then, it gets worse. Apparently, the days she was there they were implementing a new program where cars with an even-numbered license plate could drive one day, and odd-numbered ones the next. It was a test of reducing air pollution before the Olympics next year. So, the days that I thought looked like hell were actually GOOD days there! She stated that 2000 new cars are sold every day in Beijing. Again, my jaw dropped. "That's over 700,000 cars per year in just ONE city in China!"

Another thing I noticed was, in the pictures, they eat just as much meat as we do here in the US (mostly pig). At her cousin's wedding, each of the 20 tables had an entire roast pig on it.

The last thing I noticed, but didn't mention to anyone else in the room, was that her complexion was horrible. She always had beautiful, clear skin for as long as I've known her. Last night, her face looked like hell. Her pores were so clogged you could see the blackheads across the dining room table. She was breaking out with acne everywhere. I credit it to the air pollution, though I obviously wasn't comfortable asking about it.

[razzleberry]

7. I'm tired of dams, being called 'renewable'

the Chinese are building dams, so what?
........................................

calling hydro, as 'renewable',

gives unearned credibility to
fringe sources of energy