China needs huge flows of clean technology investment to maintain hope of keeping greenhouse gas emissions below levels that could help push the planet deep into dangerous global warming, a Beijing energy think tank has said.
China is the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas from fossil fuels, and the nation’s Energy Research Institute said in a new study that with enough money and the right policies, emissions could peak around 2030 to 2035 and then by 2050 fall to the same level as 2005.
Such steps would help the world to avoid greenhouse gas concentrations likely to stoke worsening droughts, floods and sea-level rises caused by these gases retaining growing levels of the heat in the atmosphere.
But the institute, which advises Chinese energy and climate change policymakers, stressed such an undertaking would come with a big bill, one that it said rich nations should help pay.
“If China is to achieve the development path described in the low-carbon scenario, the funding outlays will be massive, even if we set aside considering whether a new generation of energy technology can even be developed and applied on a wide scale,” said the report that was released yesterday in Beijing.
Spending on energy-saving technology would bring its own savings through reduced bills for consuming coal, oil, gas and other energy. But such efforts will need to be backed by sustained infrastructure investment, the report said.
A low-carbon growth path would cost about 1.7 trillion yuan (US$249 billion) extra a year by 2030 for energy-efficient industry, transport and buildings, and similar levels in 2050, a graph and data in the study indicated.
“If the government promotes fiscal policy incentives, that would also be another enormous outlay,” the report said.
China’s current growth stimulus package amounts to 4 trillion yuan, including bank loans, spent across two years.
Governments are deep into negotiations seeking to agree on a new global pact on fighting climate change by the end of this year, and China with its bulging greenhouse gas output is a key player.
The latest analysis does not amount to government policy, but coming from influential researchers advising officials, it highlights Beijing’s key concerns and policy options. The report, China’s Low Carbon Development Pathways by 2050, builds on another recent report from the institute that gave slightly different emissions estimates.
The latest one, supported by the US Energy Foundation and the WWF, explores in number-packed detail the policies, technologies and lifestyle changes needed to achieve growth with low emissions in the world’s third-biggest economy.
One of the chief authors of the new report, Hu Xiulian (胡秀蓮), said estimating costs far into the future is laden with uncertainties. But the estimates showed the immensity of the task, she said.
“An enhanced low-carbon trajectory [for China] will be totally unreachable without major international help after 2020,” she said in an interview.
Also See: Week of meetings could spell fate of climate work
Also See: Why cutting carbon dioxide emissions will not be enough
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF WAR: Ursula von der Leyen said that Europe was in Kyiv because ‘it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It’s Europe’s destiny’ A dozen leaders from Europe and Canada yesterday visited Ukraine’s capital to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion in a show of support for Kyiv by some of its most important backers. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau were among the visitors greeted at the railway station by Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha and the president’s chief of staff Andrii Yermak. Von der Leyen wrote on social media that Europe was in Kyiv “because Ukraine is in Europe.” “In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is
RSS