Chinas 13th Five-Year Plan for Energy - Case Study Example

China’s 13th Five-Year Plan for Energy Institution Course Date China’s 13th Five-Year Plan for Energy Introduction Climate change is one of the major environmental issues affecting the world today. Scientific studies indicate that the world has experienced increased temperatures, otherwise called the global warming effect over the last few years. A study conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that the global average temperatures have increased by more than 1.8 degrees Celsius since the 1970s and projects the temperatures to increase by about 2.5 degrees to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century if the trend is allowed to continue unabated1. Presently, the planet is already experiencing adverse effects of climate change that includes loss of sea ice, increased droughts and flooding, rising sea levels and increased heat waves among other effects. However, scientists have linked the climate change to human activities coupled with increased emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. However, China happens to be the world’s number one emitter of greenhouse gases and pressure has been growing on this most populous country in the world to take measures to combat climate change. Recently, Chinese lawmakers passed the 13th Five-Year Plan for Energy (Energy 13FYP) that is an ambitious document that details how China intends to tackle carbon emission2. This report details the measures that China has taken to deal with its move to renewable energy in the next five years to address climate change. China’s Emission Level It is widely acknowledged that climate change is a reality and that world leaders must come together to address this environmental scourge. The climate change problem has been linked largely to the excessive emission that happens across the globe. Since the industrial revolution, the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere has increased at a level never seen before and this has resulted in the global warming effects that the planet experiences today. Although the United States remained the leading emitter of carbon for many years, China has since overtaken the United States in terms of greenhouse emissions. According to Vidal and Adam 2007 report, China emitted 6,200 m tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2006 compared to only 5,800m tons produced in the United States while Britain produced only 600m tons3. In 2005, China’s emission level was 2% below that of the U.S., but is now more than 8% that of the U.S. The high greenhouse emission in China is linked largely to China’s overreliance of coal as a source of energy. Vidal and Adam reveal that China burns more coal than any other country in the world and this has increased the emission level in the country4. Besides, like most other countries, China’s high level of carbon emission is attributed to the country’s heavy reliance on non-renewable sources of energy that includes fossil fuels, such as diesel, petrol and natural gas. China’s Measures to Deal with Climate Change For many years, China has for many years been branded a stumbling block in the fight against Climate Change. In most of the Climate Change agreements that world leaders have been involved, such as the Kyoto Protocol, the Copenhagen Agreement on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement 2015, China has often been blamed for not doing enough to deal with climate change. However, world’s leading emitter recently came up with a 13th Five-Year Plan for Energy commonly referred to as Energy 13FYP that it hopes will help the country minimize its carbon emission over the next years5. The document details China’s ‘green’ energy development plan up to 2020. Out of the 25 priority areas identified in the Energy Plan, 10 are related to the environment and are biding and must be achieved by 2020. To address climate change, China has focused on reducing the amount of coal consumed. As earlier stated, the high emission level in China has been linked mainly to the country’s high coal consumption. By the close of 2015, coal accounted for about 64.4% of China’s energy source6. However, in an effort to address the problem of climate change, the Chinese government intends to cut the amount of coal consumed to about 62.6% by 20177. To achieve this, the Chinese government recently ordered the closure of several coal-fired power plants. Recently, the Chinese government announced that it has allocated $4.65 billion for use in facilitating the closure of approximately 4,300 coal mines in the next few years and to minimize domestic coal production by 700 million tons8. The government of China is also working to ensure that coal consumption is reduced by minimizing the amount of coal imports into China, as well as barring the approval of coal mines for the next three years. The Chinese government through the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and government ministries has also been working to minimize coal consumption by setting coal consumption reduction targets for cities with the largest emissions9. For instance, the document that is titled the Provisional Methods for Key Region Coal Consumption Reduction and Substitution requires that a city such as Beijing that has one of the largest emissions is required to reduce its coal consumption by at least 13 million tons by 2017 in comparison to 2012 level. The same applies to provinces, such as Hebei and Shandong that are required to reduce their coal emission level by 40 million and 20 million respectively by 201710. Chan indicates that, reducing coal consumption in the three places are detailed with minimize China’s consumption of coal by amount equals to total amount consumed by Canada in 201211. These efforts that have been taken by the Chinese government has saw Chinese reduce its coal production by 3.5% in 2015 compared to 2.9% in 2014. China also seeks to deal with the climate change problem by scaling up its renewable energy production. In particular, China has focused its efforts in increasing the amount of wind, solar, nuclear and hydro power as its source of energy. Solar is regarded as a green source of energy12. As such, the Chinese government plans to power the nation by harnessing solar power as a source of energy. From 2015 to 2020, China intends to increase its solar power by 150 GW and by 325 GW by 203013. In 2015, China reportedly added about 15 GW of solar power into its power grid enabling it overtakes Germany as the world’s number one solar plant market. In total, China currently has 43.2 GW of solar power capacity, which is far above the German and the U.S. solar capacities that stands at 38.4 GW and 27.8GW respectively14. Under the Energy 13FYP, China expects to triple its solar capacity by the year 2020. To achieve this, China intends to add from 15 to 2o GW of solar capacity every year for the next five years. China also plans to tackle the climate change by focusing on harnessing more wind power in replacement of fossil fuel. In 2015, China increased its wind power capacity by installing 30.5 gigawatts of wind power. According to the IEEFA 2015 report, China’s wind power capacity is projected to have reached 145 GW by the close of 201515. This is about double the U. S. and the German capacities that stand at 75GW and 43GW respectively. This makes China the leading wind power plant market in the world. According to the Energy 13FYP, China plans to increase its wind power capacity to 200 GW16. By 2030, China hopes to see its wind power capacity reach 345 GW, which will make it the largest than exist in the world. These would help China reduce its dependence on coal and fossil fuels as sources of energy. Hydroelectric power is another source of renewable and green energy that China has focused on in line with the Energy 13FYP to address the climate change situation in China. China believes that, by investing more on hydro power, this would enable it reduce its dependence on coal and other forms of fossil fuels that are a nuisance to the environment. To achieve this, China has been increasing its hydro power capacity in the recent years. In 2014, China installed about 282 GW of hydro power up from the capacity of 172 GW in 2009 (Chan 2016). The increase now means that hydro power now constitutes about 17.3% of power in China total power production. Additionally, China seeks to address the emission problems by increasing its nuclear power generation capacity in the next few years. Conclusion Climate change is a serious environmental problem that the world needs to address. China is currently the leading emitter of greenhouse gases that are responsible for global warming and climate change after overtaking the United States. However, China has demonstrated its commitment to addressing climate change by coming up with a blueprint plant dubbed the Energy 13FYP, which details the strategies that China intends to adopt to tackle climate change. Most of these measures focus on environment. As indicated in the report, China has put in place a raft of measures aimed at addressing climate change. They include reducing coal consumption, and moving towards the use of renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power sources. Bibliography Chan, Cherie. A Look at China's Efforts to Reduce Coal Use. DW 26 Jan. 2016. http://www.dw.com/en/a-look-at-chinas-efforts-to-reduce-coal-use/a-19002640 Finamore, Barbara. Good News: China's Dropping Coal Consumption Is Putting The Brakes On Global Carbon Emissions, 27 Jan. 2016. Web. 2 November 2016 https://www.nrdc.org/experts/barbara-finamore/good-news-chinas-dropping-coal-consumption-putting-brakes-global-carbon Martin, Richard. China Is On An Epic Solar Power Binge, 27 March 2016. Web. 2 November 2016 https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601093/china-is-on-an-epic-solar-power-binge/ Tianjie, Ma. All eyes on China’s 13th Five-Year Plan for energy, 25 July 2016. Web. 2 November 2016 https://www.chinadialogue.net/blog/9113-All-eyes-on-China-s-13th-Five-Year-Plan-for-energy/en Vidal, John and David Adam. China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter. The Guardian 19 June 2007 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/jun/19/china.usnews Read More