Envisioning a national energy policy: China’s energy strategy to 2015

While Washington debates about whether to get serious on our climate and energy policies, Beijing this week released China’s five-year energy development plan, laying out an ambitious “all of the above” strategy that where lacking in specifics more than makes up for in vision (the plan, in Chinese; and Google translated). The wide-ranging proposal builds on a number of previous plans and targets designed to ramp up renewable energy and transition fuels, aggressively consolidate the coal industry, scale up large hydropower, and build a coastal nuclear development zone. I was struck by this map of projected energy bases and import lines:

Boom-bust cycles in U.S. and Chinese wind installations, in two charts

The Washington Post’s recent article on the “The rise and fall of the U.S. wind industry, in one chart” showed the correlation between the federal wind production tax credit (PTC) and annual installations of wind. When the credit is allowed to expire, installations plummet. When it is renewed, a boom period ensues. This has resulted in an uneven, “saw-tooth” pattern of wind growth that among other things generates anxiety about the future of the market. How, might you ask, does this compare to China – where wind capacity doubled for four of the last six years? Here’s one chart:

Debunking the Myths and Miracles of Chinese Energy Policy

This week, MIT will host a presidential energy debate with senior advisors for the two candidates — Joseph Aldy (Obama) and Oren Cass (Romney). This post is part of a Science Wonks series to raise awareness of the debate and critical issues facing our nation’s energy future.

Rhetoric about “getting tough” with China on trade is heating up during this election season as both parties try to articulate credible strategies for kick-starting the struggling U.S. economy. Not surprisingly, some of the most prominent recent examples of U.S. administration trade actions against China have been in the increasingly profitable clean energy sector, which totaled $263 billion globally in 2011. The U.S. is right to watch what China is doing on energy policy – and should continue to advocate for a level playing field – but perhaps in China’s impressive support for this industry there are also some lessons for a comprehensive U.S. national energy strategy. In this post, I will debunk some of the myths and miracles of China’s energy policy, making a case for U.S.-China cooperation (and healthy competition).

What’s in a five-year plan, anyways?

China-watchers get really giddy one or two times every five years. The first is the opening of the Chinese Communist Party Congress in years that end in 2 (coming up soon), at which the next leader serving a 10-year term is announced. The second is the National People’s Congress in March of years that end in 1 or 6, at which the country’s main planning document – the “five-year plan” – is released. This document guides a host of economic and political activities during the five-year period and is the product of several years of negotiation. In the last two (11^th and 12^th), we have witnessed a concerted increase in high-level focus on addressing energy and environmental issues, most notably with the inclusion of nationwide energy intensity and carbon intensity reduction targets.

“Cloud” Records over 200 Commitments to Sustainability at Rio+20 Earth Summit

Government leaders, representatives from the private sector and the NGO community have returned home after the two-week long set of activities marking the Rio+20 Earth Summit. This once-in-a-generation meeting of world leaders marked a critical time for our planet as we struggle with persistent problems related to our climate, oceans and forests. While the agreed-on document does not live up to this challenge – and, arguably, could never have – countries, communities and companies worldwide used this historic opportunity to announce hundreds of individual commitments to instigate real change. These are the real legacy of Rio.

Based on over two years of advocacy related to this gathering, we launched the first-ever aggregation and tracking tool for these and many more commitments on sustainable development. We called it the Cloud of Commitments (www.cloudofcommitments.org).

New Platform to Track the “Cloud of Commitments” from Rio+20 Earth Summit

Ninety-eight heads of state and government are addressing the world from Rio de Janeiro over the next three days about how we are going to protect our planetary home for the next three generations and more. Will our leaders commit to take action now…while they are still in office…and while there is still time to avoid dangerous tipping points? Or will they embrace the general instead of the specific, lofty promises instead of concrete actions? This week, NRDC has launched the first-ever aggregation and tracking tool for these and many more commitments on sustainable development. We are calling it the Cloud of Commitments.

(screenshot on June 20 at 12:45pm)

What Can Premier Wen Do For the Climate at Rio+20

This post is co-authored with Dr. Yang Fuqiang, Senior Advisor on Climate and Energy at NRDC, Beijing. It originally appeared on Switchboard.

In less than two weeks, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will join as many as 135 heads of state and 50,000 participants at the Rio+20 Earth Summit. The first historic Earth Summit in 1992 was a turning point in China’s environmental awareness, catapulting sustainable development to a national priority. Now, as the twentieth year reunion nears, we need to capture this unique opportunity to make progress on a variety of issues, in particular climate change. Premier Wen should look past the contentious fight over the ballooning outcome document and focus on what matters most: action.

Rio+20 is set to be one of the “largest and most important conferences in the history of the United Nations”, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. NRDC has been calling for over a year now that concrete actions and commitments should be the main outcome of this conference. A lengthy document without action does little to help move forward on important priorities for China and the rest of the world. We need to speed up deployment of renewable energy; make good on promises to phase down fossil fuel subsidies; mobilize investments in off-grid renewable energy; and much more.

From Webcam to World Leaders: A New Voice at Rio for the Facebook Generation

We can’t make the future with what we did in the past. I mean that is ridiculous, isn’t it? The past actions are what caused the problems in the first place. We need innovation and imagination.

So says 17-year old Brittany Trilford from New Zealand, winner of the Date With History video contest. She will join as many as 50,000 people, including over 110 heads of state, in Rio de Janeiro in less than a month to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first historic Earth Summit. Her job? To remind our leaders why we hold these international gatherings: to get things done.

http://www.citizenglobal.com/embed/submit/scpvid

The summit comes at a time when our planet is facing unprecedented peril. We have exceeded three of our nine planetary boundaries; we are over-exploiting three-quarters of our fish stocks, like many other natural resources; and poverty continues to exact a grievous toll on the health and safety of billions of people. Clearly, the status quo is not working.

You Can’t Make Sushi with Lasagna: A Potluck Approach to Rio+20

Imagine you are trying to come up with the perfect recipe for a summer solstice party you’re hosting with 193 friends. The caveat: each guest insists on picking one ingredient to include in the final dish, and your guests are from 193 different countries. This is what you all might come up with:

It’s clear after two weeks at the UN that negotiators for the Rio+20 Earth Summit on June 20-22 shouldn’t quit their day jobs to become chefs. After splitting up the 200+ page document into two “manageable” chunks – basically, the “green economy” and everything else – and introducing a “chairs selected text” consolidating and removing repetitions, we then went back to line-by-line jockeying for inclusion of our favorite ingredients for success. The weeks of negotiation ended with one consensus: to meet one more week at the end of May.

Save money, save the climate: capturing methane waste from China’s booming natural gas sector

China is rapidly expanding production and use of cleaner burning natural gas in an attempt to wean itself off heavily polluting coal for electricity and heating. In the next five years, it plans to increase the share of natural gas from the current 4 percent of its total energy mix to 8 percent, more than doubling consumption from 110 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2010 to 260 bcm in 2015. Much of this new natural gas is expected to be unconventional shale gas: in the recent five-year plan for shale gas development, the Chinese government has set a target of developing 6.5 bcm of shale gas per year by 2015, ramping up to 60-100 bcm by 2020. (To put this into perspective, all of China’s natural gas production totaled 101 bcm in 2011.)

In the U.S., where shale gas production has become a major new source of natural gas in the last decade, reaching 140 bcm in 2010 (23% of all natural gas production), companies and regulators have developed best practices and technologies to streamline development, cut costs and protect the environment. These range from smart water-saving and reuse technologies to low-impact land reclamation. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) recently released a report, “Leaking Profits” (read the factsheet here) analyzing the top 10 opportunities to capture unintended and unnecessary methane emissions from oil and gas production, including shale gas, which if implemented could reduce methane emissions by more than 80% and generate $2 billion in additional revenue for the industry each year. These technologies have huge implications for the future of shale gas development in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Implementing all these technologies in the U.S. could save 10 million metric tons of methane (equivalent to at least 300 million tons of carbon dioxide) and generate $2 billion in additional revenue.

Challenge to Young Thought Leaders: Can You Silence the World at Rio+20 this June?

I’ve blogged extensively about why my generation has a crucial stake in the outcomes of Earth Summit 2012 this June (here, here, here…). If young people don’t raise our collective voices now, nations will spend the next two months arguing about abstractions that do little to move us toward a green economy and only serve to maintain the status quo. Now, I’m really excited to join the jury of the Win A Date With History video contest to bring the next generation’s concerns and creativity to the table.

Learn more and enter at: http://datewithhistory.com/