Power Engineering - China's data on soaring energy use comes as a shock

7 February 2007 - New statistics showing the true scale of China's soaring energy appetite have prompted calls from Beijing on industrialised nations to take the lead in cutting greenhouse gases.

The figures from the China Electric Power News, the mouthpiece of the state industry, showed that the country added 102 GW of new capacity last year - the equivalent of twice the total capacity of California. The figures showed that China last year surpassed its often-cited statistic of adding more electricity generating power each year than the entire UK national grid.

Details of the figures emerged as Jiang Yu, a foreign ministry spokeswoman, made clear Beijing's determination to resist international action on climate change that might affect its economic development.

"It must be pointed out that climate change has been caused by the long-term historic emissions of developed countries and their high per-capita emissions," Ms Jiang told a briefing. "Developed countries bear an unshirkable responsibility."

Ms Jiang made the comments as Beijing's top weather bureau official said China was serious about tackling climate change but that it needed time to introduce the advanced environmental technology available to developed countries.

"The Chinese government takes the problem of climate change extremely seriously. President Hu Jintao has said that it is not just an environmental issue but a development issue," said Qin Dahe, the head of the China Meteorological Administration.

However, Mr Qin said other countries should not expect too much of China. "As a developing country with a fast-growing economy and large population it will require a great deal of money to completely change the energy structure and adopt clean energy," he said. China would "need time" to catch up with the US, Europe and Japan in clean energy technology, he added.

Rapid economic growth, a huge population and inefficient industry have made China the world's second biggest carbon emitter after the US, although the country's per capita emissions have remained far below the global average.

The figures for new power generation have received little coverage, in part because industry experts were so surprised at the data that they questioned their accuracy. "It was a shock even for us who track the numbers," said Jiang Lin of the China energy group at the University of California, Berkeley.

The figure appears also to have surprised the State Grid Corporation, which controls 80 per cent of China's power transmission and is generally the authority on such issues. It estimated just months ago that new capacity would range between about 75GW and 80GW, a shortfall of about 20-25 per cent on the latest number.

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