Biomass energy transition in rural China: policy options and co-benefits

Mar 2007

It has been widely accepted that providing adequate, clean and affordable energy to rural residents is essential for eradicating poverty, improving human welfare, and raising living standards worldwide. Sustainable energy in rural development, with wide utilization of renewable energy technologies, could help realize the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially in the non-income sector. The relationship between energy production, use and sustainable development has two important features.
One is the importance of providing adequate energy services to satisfy the basic human needs, improve social welfare, and providing equal rights in economic development; the other is that the production and use of energy should not endanger the quality of life of the current and future generations, and also should not exceed the carrying capacity of the ecosystems on which people’s livelihoods depend.
Bioenergy development became a top priority of the Chinese Government agenda when the Renewable Energy Law was implemented in January 2006. The current focus is on electricity generation from surplus agriculture residues. The government has set up the long-term target of 30 GW of electricity generated from biomass resources by 2020, which will require an investment of US$38 billions , which is 4 time higher in investment (KW), compared with coal-fired power plants.
In addition, there is a growing interest in biofuels development, i.e. biodiesel and ethanol, with the intention of substituting imported oil to reduce energy security risks, which account for more than 40% of the total oil supply today and may reach more than 50% by 2010. In an unexpected move, the government announced that it will import one million tons of ethanol each year from Brazil. These announcements pave the way for new business opportunities, both in China and internationally. However, this development is being challenged by the concern for food security, as production of ethanol consumes large quantities of corn and restrictive policies have been announced by the government.

By: L. Gan (CICERO, Norway), Y. Juan (Fudan University, China)

 
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