Kina storsatsar på energieffektivisering

Kina satsar 2000 miljarder (!!) kronor på energieffektivisering "Encouraged by the governments aim of raising the energy efficiency of the economy overall by 20 percent by 2010, Chinese business has a major opportunity to carve out significant global business in energy efficiency products and services. ... Chinas Premier Wen Jiabao has estimated that the country will spend as much as 2.1 trillion yuan by 2012 on energy efficiency products and services. ... The first priority for Chinas companies is to raise their own standards of energy efficiency to mitigate the competitive disadvantage posed by todays volatile energy prices. In the case of State-owned enterprises and other nonmarket institutions, including energy productivity in performance evaluations is a strategy that we are already seeing in China. Not only can businesses save significantly on their energy bills; they can build on innovation in energy-efficient solutions in their home markets to carve out a leading position in the global market for green products and services before this market matures." Kina kan bli en stor aktör på clean-tech marknaden just därför att man kan kombinera en stor hemmamarknad med aktivt statligt stöd. Exempelvis produceras redan i dagsläget 1,7 miljarder lågenergilampor i Kina. Ett annat exempel är kylskåp: "Annual production of energy-efficient refrigerators (Klass A) increased from some 1 million in 1999 to more than 14 million in 2005. During the same period, production of superefficient refrigerators (Klass A++) - those at least 60 percent more efficient than the energy efficiency standard - increased from 400 units to more than 3 million." Se även http://fourfact.com/index.php/webloggen/kina_satsar_drygt_2_000_000_000_000_kr_pa_effektivisering/

Dagens mest hoppingivande nyhetsrubrik: "China considers setting targets for carbon emissions" Läser man vidare i artikeln så mattas entusiasmen något, men det är ändå ett långt steg åt rätt håll. "The Chinese government is for the first time considering setting targets for carbon emissions ... Su Wei, a leading figure in Chinas climate change negotiating team, said that officials were considering introducing a national target that would limit emissions relative to economic growth in the countrys next five-year plan from 2011. "It is an option. We can very easily translate our [existing] energy reduction targets to carbon dioxide limitation" said Su. "China hasnt reached the stage where we can reduce overall emissions, but we can reduce energy intensity and carbon intensity." ... Last month, the Chinese Academy of Science reported that the countrys carbon dioxide emissions relative to GDP should be reduced by 50% by 2020, and that total CO2 emissions should peak between 2030 and 2040 if the country introduced more stringent energy-saving policies and received more financial support and technology from overseas."

Klotet i P1 följer upp The Guardian-artikeln ovan om Kinas kvantifierade utsläppsmål.

Kinas ovilja att binda sig vid kvantitativa utsläppsreduktioner får tung kritik från Paul Krugman i en krönika i NY Times. Krugman erkänner visserligen att det är "orättvist" att Kina inte får utvecklas obehindrat på samma sätt som de rika länderna i väst. Men han menar samtidigt att klimatsituationen är så pass allvarlig så att Kina, och andra länder som är i snabb utveckling, inte kan klara sig undan kvantitativa restriktioner på utsläppen så värst länge till. "So what is to be done about the China problem? Nothing, say the Chinese. Each time I raised the issue during my visit, I was met with outraged declarations that it was unfair to expect China to limit its use of fossil fuels. After all, they declared, the West faced no similar constraints during its development; while China may be the world’s largest source of carbon-dioxide emissions, its per-capita emissions are still far below American levels; and anyway, the great bulk of the global warming that has already happened is due not to China but to the past carbon emissions of today’s wealthy nations. And they’re right. It is unfair to expect China to live within constraints that we didn’t have to face when our own economy was on its way up. But that unfairness doesn’t change the fact that letting China match the West’s past profligacy would doom the Earth as we know it. ... The good news is that the very inefficiency of China’s energy use offers huge scope for improvement. Given the right policies, China could continue to grow rapidly without increasing its carbon emissions. But first it has to realize that policy changes are necessary. ... As the United States and other advanced countries finally move to confront climate change, they will also be morally empowered to confront those nations that refuse to act. Sooner than most people think, countries that refuse to limit their greenhouse gas emissions will face sanctions, probably in the form of taxes on their exports. They will complain bitterly that this is protectionism, but so what? Globalization doesn’t do much good if the globe itself becomes unlivable."