The good news: China aims to have 15 per cent of its total energy needs met by renewables within the next 12 years. It will soon become the world’s biggest manufacturer of wind-energy equipment and – already one of the top three countries manufacturing solar photovoltaics – it has now installed more solar heating systems than the rest of the world put together. A proposed 30,000 energy-saving and alternative-energy-powered vehicles are to be on the streets of Beijing by the end of this year.
The bad news: To generate every dollar of GDP, China uses three times more energy than the global average.1 Despite its leading role in the development of alternative energy, more than two-thirds of this energy supply comes from coal – a higher ratio than either Japan or the US. This is expected to more than double by 2025. As a consequence, the country is, and will continue to be, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases such as sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide: both of which come from burning coal.2
