Others News
- More clean energy spending promised
Date: 28-Dec-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
THE government promised yesterday to develop renewable energy for its fast-growing economy but warned that coal consumption would grow dramatically and avoided embracing binding limits on its greenhouse gas emissions.
In its first white paper on energy, the government announced no new initiatives but said it wanted to curb reliance on oil and gas to drive an economy that is the world's second-biggest energy consumer after the United States.
'China gives top priority to developing renewable energy,'said the report, released by the State Council's press office.
It also said that China's booming demand for fuel would not pose a threat to world energy security.
'China did not, does not and will not pose any threat to the world's energy security,'said the report.
The report said the government would promote hydroelectric, nuclear, solar and wind energy, as well natural gas extracted from garbage dumps and coal mines.
China's economic boom has sharply increased its need for imported oil and gas. According to the International Energy Agency, China's overall energy demand will grow by 3.2 percent per year between 2005 and 2030.
The country's leaders worry about the mounting damage to China's environment from fossil fuel use and see mounting reliance on imported energy as a strategic weakness.
The share of renewable sources and nuclear power in China's energy consumption rose from 4 percent in 1980 to 7.2 percent last year, the report said.
'China will pay more attention to the clean utilization of energy resources, especially coal, and make it a focus of environmental protection,'the report said.
It said the government took greenhouse gases seriously and some of its measures would reduce its emissions. But there was no mention of whether the government might agree to demands by the United States to sign up to binding limits.
China has rejected such limits, arguing that developing countries such as China are not to blame for current pollution levels and need to increase energy production to fight poverty.
The report said China would expand measures to exploit its abundant coal reserves, a step that will help to reduce reliance on imported fuel but could sharply raise greenhouse gas outputs.
'The energy structure with coal playing the main role will remain unchanged for a long time to come,'the report said. 'China will step up its efforts in prospecting coal resources,'the report said. Coal currently makes up about 70 percent of the energy needs of China.
It said the government would reorganize its coal industry by closing smaller, less efficient mines while creating conglomerates with bigger production capacity.
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