China leads the pack in the race to go green-reportChina is taking advantage of the green technology revolution that the challenge of climate change provides, according to a new report launched recently by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Beijing. The report from The Climate Group shows that China is leading the development and commercialization of a range of low carbon technologies. With a new breed of entrepreneurs and ambitious government policies, Chinese businesses are amongst the top producers of electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and energy efficient appliances. Tony Blair, speaking at the launch event in Beijing, said: "China is already playing an important role in producing and consuming those technologies needed to solve the climate change challenge." "A new global climate agreement will set a route map for this to
happen and for our journey to a prosperous low carbon 21st century. As
one of the world's major economic powers, China will have to be at the
forefront of this journey. This report shows that it can be." 2. Energy efficiency: the energy intensity of the Chinese economy has fallen by 60% since 1980 and the government has set a goal of reducing it by a further 20% between 2005 and 2010. China is well on the way to achieve this target. 3. Renewable energy: China is driving rapid growth in renewable energy. Internationally China supplies 40% of the world's solar PV technology; domestically China is the largest wind power generator in Asia and fourth in the world. Between 2007 and 2008 China's wind power capacity doubled and it is likely to double again in 2009 accounting for one third of the world's new capacity. 4. Low carbon buildings: China has set a 50% energy conservation standard for all new buildings and a 65% standard for new buildings in some major cities by 2010. Changhua Wu, Greater China Director at
The Climate Group, said: "It's a 70-30 situation. We have 70% of the
solutions today, but they are not all proven technologies and none are
at the scale we need. 30% of the solutions will be found in the future.
Therefore we still need foreign investment to drive the revolution." "Although there are major challenges ahead, China has demonstrated that it has the capacity and determination needed to achieve a rapid, large-scale transformation to low carbon ways of building, producing, and consuming. Achieving such a transformation will take continued leadership from China's government and the support of a global deal on climate change. The benefits, in terms of avoided climate change as well as economic development and energy security, will be tremendous." Download the full China's Clean Revolution II report HERE
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