China’s green energy push praised at Cancun

• 13 years ago (2010-12-03)
• Junior Isles

Asia 848 North America 998 Renewables 751

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“China is responding to climate change on many fronts... [and] its efforts in developing green energy are noteworthy”, according to delegates attending the UN climate change conference in Cancun.

Renata Lok-Dessallien, UN Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resident Representative in China, has spoken highly of China's efforts to combat climate change, especially its achievements in developing renewable energy.

"China has worked in this field for many years. In 2006, it promulgated the renewable energy law and for the first time set targets to double the proportion of renewable in the total energy consumption mix from about 7 per cent to 15 per cent by 2020," she said.

China became the world's biggest investor in clean energy in 2008, with about 34.6 billion U.S. dollars spent. This was considerably more than the largest developed country, according to Lok-Dessallien.

"China is now a world leader in renewable energy manufacture with 40 per cent of the global market share of solar panels in 2009, 30 per cent of the world's wind turbines and 77 per cent of the world's solar hot water collectors," she added.

The Cancun conference has gathered about 25 000 participants from governments, businesses, non-governmental organisations and research institutions in almost 200 countries for high level climate change talks, scheduled for Nov. 29 to Dec. 10.

The negotiators at the Cancun conference are trying to to establish a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which obliges many developed nations , not including the US, to cut greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-2012, although chances of reaching agreement appear slim.