Opinion: "For energy enthusiasts, China has become the main event"

Li Hongmei in the Xinhua Business China Weekly: “Canada’s widely criticized exit from Kyoto Protocol might act as a timely reminder that a toothless words involving just diplomatic censure can hardly prevent countries from walking away from their commitments. This will really dismay negotiators at the Durban climate conference who burned the midnight oil over the weekend to agree on an accord leading to a legally binding deal to cut emissions after 2020. Canada’s environment minister, Peter Kent, formally announced Monday that Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol, saying the accord “does not represent a way forward for Canada”, and his country would face crippling fines for failing to meet its targets. The protocol, initially adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, is aimed at fighting global warming.

Several countries have since lashed out at Canada for evading its commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the international accord. Countries including India expressed their worry that Canadaís exit from the binding Kyoto agreement will jeopardize future conferences. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry told reporters that the decision was “regrettable and flies in the face of the efforts of the international community”. Japan’s environment minister, Goshi Hosono, also urged Canada to stay in the protocol. Kent, however, claimed that Canada would have to pay billions to meet its Kyoto protocol target. Canada was meant to cut emissions by 6% by 2012 on 1990 levels, but instead they have risen by around a third. “To meet the targets under Kyoto for 2012 would be the equivalent of … the transfer of $14bn (£8.7bn) from Canadian taxpayers to other countries — the equivalent of $1,600 from every Canadian family — with no impact on emissions or the environment,” Kent was cited as saying.”

S.Julio Friedmann in Foreign Affairs: “For energy enthusiasts, China has become the main event. The country uses more energy and emits more greenhouse gas than any other on earth. Its production of power is booming, too. Every year, China generates nearly 100,000 megawatts more than the previous year — more than the total generated by California or Texas. The scale of the accompanying infrastructure change is staggering: every week, a new large coal plant opens somewhere in China. This has led to widespread pollution, health problems, and environmental degradation — to the cost to the Chinese economy of about 11 percent of GDP. But this is not the same old cautionary tale of dirty development: China has taken these challenges, and the need for energy and 20 million new jobs per year, as an spur to invest in clean technology. Indeed, with the government putting over $50 billion into clean energy R&D every year, China has become a global hub for energy innovation.

To all this, China’s twelfth five-year-plan, introduced earlier this year, added goals for developing clean technology indigenously. Mostly these innovations will be for domestic use, although there is growing interest in international export markets for clean tech. Many state-funded projects now require that 80 percent of the technology used be indigenous. Two agencies are responsible for overseeing compliance. First is the National Energy Administration (NEA), which approves the financing and construction of virtually every large energy project. Second, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) runs the more than 100 Chinese academies that conduct clean tech research. In 2010, China funneled tens of billions for green innovation through these two organizations.”

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