To further promote natural gas consumption, China pledged to source 10 percent of its energy demands from natural gas by 2020. In 2019, natural gas made up 8.1 percent of China’s total energy consumption, a notable increase from a decade earlier, when just 3.5 percent of China’s energy consumption was from natural gas. Natural gas is less carbon-heavy than coal when efficiently combusted, emitting up to 60 percent less CO2. Over the past two decades, new extraction techniques have made shale gas-a type of natural gas trapped in sedimentary rock-into a viable energy source. Concerns about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which is a critical player in global solar energy supply chains, have also raised the prospects of weakening China’s prominence in the industry. Due to an over-saturated domestic market, Beijing halted all new solar projects and lowered tariffs on imported clean energy in June 2018. The future development of China’s solar industry, however, has been called into question. Due to rapidly decreasing costs, aggressive policy incentives, and low-interest loans from local governments, China is home to two-thirds of the world’s solar-production capacity. In solar PV, China is both the leading supplier and consumer. As a result, China accounted for roughly 28.4 percent of global wind-energy production in 2019. By 2019, however, China’s wind-energy generation surged to 406 TWh, well ahead of the United States (298 TWh). China’s electricity generated by wind power accounted for just 2.1 percent of its total consumption in 2012, compared to 3.7 in the United States and 9.4 percent in Germany. Over the past decade, China has also emerged as a global leader in wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) energy. Chinese President Xi Jinping expanded on that commitment in a speech to the United Nations in September 2020 when he announced that China aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. In accordance with the 2016 Paris Agreement, China committed to make non-fossil fuel energy 20 percent of its energy supply by 2030 and to peak CO2 emissions by 2030. Powering China's FutureĬhina is increasingly looking to secure its future energy needs with sustainable alternatives. During this period, China’s global carbon input was larger than that of all other developed countries. Between 19, China and the United States were responsible for 22 and 19.5 percent of total global emissions, respectively. In 2020, an estimated 36 percent of China’s population was exposed to harmful emissions from the household burning of coal and other solid fuels like wood.Ĭhina’s cumulative carbon emissions are the largest in the world. While urban household CO2 emissions predominantly come from natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas, coal contributed over 65 percent of China’s rural household emissions in 2015. Households also contribute to China’s emissions problem. As part of efforts to clean up coal production by renovating old coal-burning facilities, ultra-low emissions technology was incorporated into 80 percent of China’s coal-fired energy capacity by 2019, and more lower-emission plants continue to be built. In 2019, manufacturing accounted for about 55 percent of China’s total energy consumption, and 59.6 percent of the manufacturing sector’s energy came from coal.Ĭhina’s heavy use of “subcritical” coal plants has exacerbated the issue, since such plants are notorious for burning coal in a dirty and inefficient manner. In particular, manufacturing drives a large proportion of China’s energy demand, with much of the energy coming from burning coal. China is now the world’s largest consumer of energy, the largest producer and consumer of coal, and the largest emitter of carbon dioxide.Ĭhina’s industrial sector accounts for two-thirds of the country’s total energy consumption. Fueling China’s Riseĭecades of rapid economic growth have dramatically expanded China’s energy needs.
Sudden shifts in the energy market and overseas political instability may also diminish access to foreign energy sources or dramatically increase the cost of energy imports, further compromising the ability of import-dependent countries to pursue their national objectives. Conversely, dependency on foreign resources-such as energy-restricts policy options, thereby reducing the avenues through which a country can cultivate its national power. Power can be derived from a country’s ability to leverage its resources toward economic and political gains.
0 kommentar(er)
