EAST-WEST CENTER WORKING PAPERS Economics Series No. 109, February 2010 China in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy ZhongXiang Zhang WORKING PAPERS WORKING The East-West Center promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through coopera- tive study, research, and dialogue. Established by the U.S. Congress in 1960, the Center serves as a resource for information and analysis on critical issues of com- mon concern, bringing people together to exchange views, build expertise, and develop policy options. The Center’s 21-acre Honolulu campus, adjacent to the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, is located midway between Asia and the U.S. mainland and features research, residential, and international conference facilities. The Center’s Washington, D.C., office focuses on preparing the United States for an era of growing Asia Pacific prominence. The Center is an independent, public, nonprofit organi zation with funding from the U.S. government, and additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and governments in the region. East-West Center Working Papers are circulated for comment and to inform interested colleagues about work in progress at the Center. For more information about the Center or to order publications, contact: Publication Sales Office East-West Center 1601 East-West Road Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96848-1601 Telephone: 808.944.7145 Facsimile: 808.944.7376 Email: [email protected] Website: EastWestCenter.org EAST-WEST CENTER WORKING PAPERS Economics Series No. 109, February 2010 China in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy ZhongXiang Zhang ZhongXiang Zhang is a Senior Fellow at the East-West Center. Currently, he is a co-editor of International Journal of Ecological Economics and Statistics, and serves on the editorial boards of seven leading international journals and one Chinese journal. Eleven of his publications are cited by IPCC Climate Change 2001: Mitigation and IPCC Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change, making him one of the most cited authors in that two extremely compre- hensive and authoritative publications on mitigating climate change and the associated costs. Invited presentation at the Second International Colloquium on Sustainable Growth, Resource Productivity and Sustainable Industrial Policy, Wuppertal, Germany, September 10–12, 2009. East-West Center Working Papers: Economics Series is an unreviewed and unedited prepublication series reporting on research in progress. The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Center. Please direct orders and requests to the East-West Center's Publication Sales Office. The price for Working Papers is $3.00 each plus shipping and handling. This version: September 2009 China in the Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy1 ZhongXiang Zhang,2 Ph.D in Economics 张中祥 美国东西方中心研究部资深研究员、经济学博士 Senior Fellow Research Program East-West Center 1601 East-West Road Honolulu, HI 96848-1601 United States Tel: +1-808-944 7265 Fax: +1-808-944 7298 Email: [email protected] 1 Invited Presentation at the Second International Colloquium on Sustainable Growth, Resource Productivity and Sustainable Industrial Policy, Wuppertal, Germany, September 10-12, 2009. 2 ZhongXiang Zhang (张中祥) is Senior Fellow at East-West Center. He also is an adjunct professor at Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Peking University. He is co-editor of International Journal of Ecological Economics & Statistics, and is serving on the editorial boards of eight international journals including Climate Policy, Energy Policy, Energy and Environment, Environmental Science and Policy, International Environmental Agreements, and Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change. He authors The Economics of Energy Policy in China (Edward Elgar, 1997), International Rules for Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading (United Nations, 1999) and other 170 publications, and edits “An Economic Analysis of Climate Policy” (special issue of Energy Policy, 2004), “Energy Economics and Policy in Mainland China and Taiwan” (with Jeffrey Bor, China Environmental Science Press, 2006), “Trade and the Environment in North America” (special issue of International Environmental Agreements, 2007), “An Economic Model-Based Analysis of Climate and Energy Policy” (special issue of Journal of Policy Modeling, 2009), “Sustainable Growth and Resource Productivity: Economic and Global Policy Issues” (with Raimund Bleischwitz and Paul Welfens, Greenleaf Publishing, 2009), and “Services, the Environment and the NAFTA” (special issue of International Environmental Agreements, 2010). His papers at the web site of Social Science Research Network have been downloaded over 12,200 times, with their abstracts reviewed over 100,000 times. He is among the most cited authors by the IPCC Climate Change 2001: Mitigation and IPCC Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change, and by Trade and Climate Change: WTO-UNEP Report (2009). Abstract China, from its own perspective can not afford to, and from an international perspective, is not allowed to continue on the conventional path of encouraging economic growth at the expense of the environment. The country needs to transform its economy to effectively address concern about a range of environmental problems from burning fossil fuels and steeply rising oil import and international pressure to exhibit greater ambition in fighting global climate change. This paper first discusses China’s own efforts towards energy saving and pollutants cutting, the widespread use of renewable energy and participation in clean development mechanism, and puts carbon reductions of China’s unilateral actions into perspective. Given that that transition to a low carbon economy cannot take place overnight, the paper then discusses China’s policies on promoting the use of low-carbon energy technologies and nuclear power and efforts to secure stable oil and gas supplies during this transition period. Based on these discussions, the paper provides some recommendations on issues related to energy conservation and pollution control, wind power, nuclear power, clean coal technologies, and overseas oil and gas supplies, and articulates a roadmap for China regarding its climate commitments to 2050. JEL classification: Q42; Q48; Q52; Q54; Q58 Keywords: Energy saving; Renewable energy; Clean development mechanism; Nuclear power; Power generation; Oil and gas; Post-Copenhagen climate negotiations; China 2 1. Introduction Since launching its open-door policy and economic reform in late 1978, China has experienced spectacular economic growth. Hundreds of millions of the Chinese people have been raised out of poverty. In this course, China has been heavily dependent on dirty-burning coal to fuel its rapidly growing economy. This gives rise to unprecedented environmental pollution and health risks. On top of these environmental stresses, projected global climate change is expected to pose the additional threats to China. Given the fact that China is already the world’s largest carbon emitter and its emissions continue to rise rapidly in line with its industrialization and urbanization, China is seen to have greater capacity, capability and responsibility. The country is facing great pressure both inside and outside international climate negotiations to exhibit greater ambition. There are renewed interests in and debates on China’s role in combating global climate change. Clearly, China, from its own perspective can not afford to, and from an international perspective, is not allowed to continue on the conventional path of encouraging economic growth at the expense of the environment. Instead, China needs to transform its economy to effectively address concern about a range of environmental problems from burning fossil fuels and steeply rising oil import and international pressure on it to exhibit greater ambition in fighting global climate change. These concern and pressures have sparked China’s determination to improve energy efficiency and increase the use of clean energy in order to help its transition to a low carbon economy. Improvements in energy efficiency are particularly important in reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions as they offer win-win options at a relatively low cost compared to other options. Figure 1 and Table 1 show the historical contributions of inter-fuel switching, energy conservation, economic growth and 3 population expansion to China’s CO2 emissions during the period 1980-2007. China achieved a quadrupling of its GDP with only a doubling of energy consumption between 1980 and 2000 (Zhang, 2003). As a result of energy conservation, a reduction of 576 million tons of carbon (MtC) were achieved in 2000. In other words, without efforts towards a reduction in energy intensity, China’s CO2 emissions in 2000 would have been 576 MtC higher, or about 38% higher, than its actual CO2 emissions. On the trends of the 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. EIA (2004) estimated that China’s CO2 emissions were not expected to catch up with the world’s largest carbon emitter until 2030. However, China’s energy use had surged since the turn of this century, almost doubling between 2000 and 2007. Despite similar rates of economic growth, the rate of growth in China’s energy use during this period (9.74% per year) has been more than twice that of the last two decades in the past century (4.25% per year) (National Bureau of Statistics of