China reports sharp drop in carbon intensity |
2011-11-11 06:14 |
At the same time, Yet, the report, which was compiled by the university's Climate Policy Initiative and is called the Annual Review of Low-carbon Development in It says central authorities' goal of controlling coal use in the next five years will be unattainable so long as local governments remain reluctant to use less energy while they pursue economic growth. "Local authorities still have a strong desire for economic expansion," said Qi Ye, editor-in-chief of the report. "If you consider their growth targets together, you can see they are significantly higher than the annual growth goal of 7 percent set by the central government for the country's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period. "As a result, by 2015, the annual consumption of energy is expected to be equivalent to burning 4.6 billion tons of coal a year, according to the provincial targets," Qi said. "That's 500 million more tons than would be entailed by the amount of energy consumption called for in the central government's estimates." The State Council, or During the past five years, the country has gone from getting 68 percent of its energy from coal to getting 70 percent, despite its heavy investment in renewable energy, Zhang said. "The growing demand for coal will put From 2006 to 2010, "Investments on such a scale - equal to about $80 billion a year - are the largest ever in the country's history and have made As a result, the country has seen its energy use for each unit of its economic growth decrease by 19.1 percent. Even so, the country has continued to release more carbon, taking the place of the If By 2020, The report is not an official announcement from the Chinese government. Even so, the editors of the report include members of the national expert committee on climate change, a think tank charged with considering the country's climate policy. Su Wei, a leading climate negotiator for |