LinBoqiang:Morecleanlyenergized
2020-01-21 21:14阅读：
More cleanly energized
By Lin Boqiang | China Daily Global
China needs to make more scientific plans for its low carbon, clean
energy transition and choose optimal approaches in terms of
balancing the costs and benefits
China's environmental problems such as high energy consumption,
pollution and carbon emission are prominent. Carbon emissions
generated by the use of fossil fuels are considered the main cause
of global climate change. To cope with environmental pollution and
carbon emissions, the Chinese government has promoted a low carbon
and clean energy transition in recent years through subsidies and
supporting policies to promote new technologies and products such
as photovoltaics, wind power, nuclear power and electric
vehicles.
From 2013 to 2017, China's photovoltaic power generation rose from
8.37 billion kilowatts per hour to 96.7 billion kWh. In the same
period, its wind power generation increased by 109 percent and its
nuclear power genera
tion by 122 percent. The government has also imposed restrictions
on industries that are highly energy consuming and polluting and
cut 800 million tons of coal capacity as well as 170 million tons
of steel capacity. For industries that consume large amounts of
energy such as cement and sheet glass, customized plans for phasing
out the outdated capacity have been developed. Meanwhile,
environmental inspections have forced local governments to squeeze
outdated capacity out of the market. Also by September last year,
nearly 2.5 million electric vehicles had been sold in the Chinese
market.
But the low carbon and clean energy transition has to conform to
the country's economic development. China is still a developing
country with relatively low per capita capital accumulation and
insufficient productivity development. Since the growth of capital
accumulation is closely linked with energy consumption, energy
demands will continue to increase by a large margin. The experience
of Western countries shows that rapid capital accumulation is often
accompanied by rapidly rising energy demands, especially for large
countries with fast economic growth. Since unpractical goals and
approaches may enhance energy costs and hinder a smooth low carbon
transition, relevant strategies need scientific evaluations.
While China's low carbon energy transition has made achievements,
many problems still loom large. The government has shouldered an
increasingly heavy subsidies burden to promote clean energy. The
country's current subsidy policies are also unsustainable as the
subsidies are mainly derived from cross subsidization of
electricity and fiscal transfer payments. Cross subsidization can
increase the overall price of electricity and undermine the
competitiveness of manufacturing industries. Fiscal transfer
payments come ultimately from consumers and the government could
also suffer 'dead weight losses' when providing subsidies through
fiscal revenue. The burden caused by fiscal subsidies could reduce
expenditure on improving people's well-being and also increase the
burden on enterprises.
Moreover, environmental pollution is a regional issue but climate
change is a global one. As technological progress often carries
spillover effects, China's low-cost clean energy technologies can
benefit the world. Therefore, restrictive measures such as imposing
anti-dumping tariffs on China's wind power and photovoltaic
products are unfavorable for global environmental governance
system.
To facilitate the low carbon and clean energy transition, China
will need to change some development policies. China needs to
balance the relations between economic growth, the demand for
energy and the transition to clean energy. Because of the current
economic structure, China's economic growth depends largely on
energy consumption, and the transition policy needs to be adjusted
according to its economic performance.
The costly transition also calls for a balance between costs and
benefits. The costs of transition to clean energy are often covered
by consumers instead of fiscal expenditure, leading policymakers to
be unaware of the changes. As a result, the costs may weigh on the
whole society and drag on economic development. In addition, the
transition requires favorable external conditions. China has seen
its manufacturing industry develop rapidly for a long time by
participating in the global industrial division of labor.
Globalization has begun to recede in recent years, in which the
most notably influences are from the trade war initiated by the
United States. Therefore, a proactive fiscal policy is needed to
reduce the short-term external pressure, in which one of the main
approaches is to expand government spending on infrastructure
construction and that could lead to an increase in the demand for
energy.
The current energy transition policy focuses on reducing coal
consumption, for it emits far more pollutants and carbon than other
energy sources. However, China has a sufficient supply of coal
while lacking oil and gas. At present, 70 percent of its crude oil
and more than 43 percent of its natural gas are imported.
Considering its low-cost advantages and advantages for China's
energy security, coal will continue to play a major role for a long
time to come. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand the
difficulty of reducing coal use.
The government's strategy should therefore address the following
points:
First, it is not necessary for China to consider pollutants and
carbon emissions separately. Since China's clean energy transition
is mainly about reducing coal consumption, reducing pollutants is
equivalent to cutting carbon emissions. The environment can be
improved through developing clean energy, electric vehicles and
rail transit.
Second, a good transition to clean energy requires international
cooperation. The advances in clean energy technologies can benefit
the world, while no country can really monopolize a clean energy
technology. Therefore, domestic industries and the government need
to promote global cooperation in the development and application of
clean energy technologies with inclusiveness.
Third, China needs to make more scientific plans for its
low-carbon, clean energy transition and choose optimal approaches
in terms of balancing the costs and benefits. The policy design in
the future should pay more attention to the innovation and
coordination of the industrial chain and should seek to balance the
development of renewables, national security and economic
development.
The author is dean of China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy
at Xiamen University. The author contributed this article to China
Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not
necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
(China Daily Global
06/05/2019 page13)
