NRDC: The China Challenge

Q & A with NRDC's Jingjing Qian

NRDC's China program was launched in 1996. Based in Beijing, Jingjing Qian directs the organization's work on smart growth and advanced energy technologies.

China's goals for renewable energy development are quite ambitious. but are they realistic?

The target is to supply 15 percent of China's energy needs in 2020 from renewables, including hydropower. So far the plan looks likely to achieve its goals. China has three main strategies. First, boost investment in renewables, which has already risen from $6 billion in 2005 to $15.6 billion in 2008; second, provide incentives such as subsidies for solar photovoltaics and above-market rates (known as feed-in tariffs) for electricity from solar and biomass; and third, promote local manufacture of renewable energy hardware to cut capital costs. For example, at least 70 percent of the equipment used in wind farms must be made in China.

What else is China doing to address climate change, now that it has become the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG)?

Indeed China's unprecedented economic growth has led it to join the US as the world leaders in GHG emissions, although it is still much lower in terms of historic cumulative emissions and per capita emissions. The Chinese government has recognized the potentially serious impact that climate change will have on its citizens, its economy and the environment. In addition to the renewables push, it has instituted several major programs to improve the energy efficiency of China's industries, buildings, appliances and vehicles. The central government has set a goal of reducing its energy intensity (energy consumed per unit GDP) by 20 percent from 2005 levels by 2010, particularly by improving the efficiency of its top 1000 energy consuming industrial enterprises. It has also adopted more stringent energy efficiency standards and labels covering most home and office appliances and national building codes. It has stricter automobile fuel efficiency standards than the US, and is investing in electric vehicle development and the world's largest high-speed rail network. However, compliance with environmental and energy standards in China is often a challenge; that is why NRDC has been working with China's government agencies and local NGO partners on building stronger capacities in monitoring and reporting of environmental and energy efficiency standards, as well as on improving information disclosure and public participation.

What can we expect from China at the Copenhagen climate talks in December?

Still a developing country, China has both a modern, urban side to it and over 20 million people living in absolute poverty and twice as much with very modest means. Thus, the Chinese government has made economic growth a continued priority for the coming decades. But China has now understood that it needs to balance economic development with environmental protection and to do more to address climate change. China feels its aggressive efforts on renewables and energy efficiency offer a significant contribution to the fight on climate change, and it will be willing to take more steps short of a cap on its emissions if sufficient financial assistance and technology transfer from developed countries are forthcoming to help it and other developing countries pursue a low-carbon development path. China has openly expressed that it wants a successful climate agreement to come out of Copenhagen as much as the US.

What scope exists for U.S.-China cooperation on climate, energy, and environmental issues in general?

There are many ways that the U.S. and China could cooperate to address climate, energy and environmental pollution. We recently suggested four potentially fruitful areas for cooperation on building energy rating and labeling systems, carbon capture and storage demonstration projects, energy efficiency resource standards that require investing in efficiency as a resource, and sharing best practices on collecting and reporting energy and emissions data. Because the U.S. has had a few decades head start to build up its environmental protection system, China could also learn from the U.S. approach to regulating air and water pollution, both the good and the bad.

The conclusion of Mara Hvistendahl's story is that much of the impulse for change in China comes from the local level. Do you agree with that? And do you see examples of that in NRDC's work in China?

In China, the central government sets the overall targets for renewables, energy efficiency, pollution reduction, etc., in its Five-Year Plan, and provides major policy frameworks for achieving these targets. Line ministries and provincial governments then formulate their respective five-year plans based on and consistent with the national one. Local officials are judged based on their performance not only in increasing GDP, but also more and more on their performance in reaching efficiency and emissions reduction targets. So change can certainly come at the local levels, and experimentation by local governments -- for example, in developing "eco-cities" or programs that improve efficiency such as the demand side management industrial efficiency program we have been working on with Jiangsu province and California -- can serve as the basis for national level policies.