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China's Carbon Emissions May Peak by 2030, NDRC Researcher Says
2010-07-23 09:58:53.796 GMT
By Bloomberg News
July 23 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world's biggest polluter,
may see its carbon-dioxide emissions peak around 2030 as the
country taps cleaner sources of energy, a researcher at a think
tank run by the National Development and Reform Commission said.
Emissions may reach almost 9 billion metric tons in 2030,
from about 7 billion tons currently, Jiang Kejun, director of
energy and market analysis at the NDRC's Energy Research
Institute, said in an interview in Beijing today.
China has pledged to reduce its carbon-dioxide output per
unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent from 2005
levels by 2020. The country overtook the U.S. as the world's
biggest energy user last year and relies on coal as fuel for 80
percent of its power plants, according to the International
Energy Agency.
"The emissions target is not something easy to achieve,
but we believe China has the ability to do it," Jiang said.
China will have to raise the efficiency of burning coal and
increase the share of cleaner sources including nuclear power in
its energy mix, said Jiang, whose team helped the government
draft the 2020 emissions-reduction target.
The nation's energy consumption may rise to as much as 4.3
billion tons of coal equivalent by 2020, Jiang said, citing data
from his institute. That's equal to about 8.4 billion tons of
carbon-dioxide emissions, he said. Energy use was 3.07 billion
tons last year, according the National Bureau of Statistics.
To reduce China's reliance on polluting fossil fuels, the
government has been subsidizing renewable energy including wind
and solar power. China spent $34.6 billion on clean-fuel
projects last year, almost double the $18.6 billion invested by
the U.S., estimates from Bloomberg New Energy Finance show.
China may spend about 5 trillion yuan ($738 billion) in the
next decade developing cleaner sources of energy, Jiang Bing,
head of the National Energy Administration's planning and
development department, said on July 20.
For Related News and Information:
Stories about pollution in China: TNI CHINA ENV BN <GO>
Environment top news page: GREEN <GO>
China economic statistics: ECST CH <GO>
Most-read stories about China: MNI CHINA <GO>
Top oil stories: OTOP <GO>
--Ying Wang. Editors: Ryan Woo, Jane Lee.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Ying Wang in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7562 or
ywang30@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Amit Prakash at +65-6212-1167 or
aprakash1@bloomberg.net.
