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330 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

words, China’s rapid economic growth has been driven by exports with the
assistance of foreign investments and joint ventures that have dominated the
most dynamic sectors of the economy. Its market-driven growth encourages
more concessions to induce capital flows and growth in unlimited possibilities
of expansion and more structural changes to meet the demand of the over-
whelming pursuit of external markets and resources (Lo, 2011). In addition, its
integration with the world market is followed by overdependence of the
productive forces on the fluctuations of the world market. The most affected
area is China’s energy demand and supply. Chart I illustrates the problem in
China today with most of its energy demand being met by the supplies of coal,
natural gas, and nuclear power. To summarize part of a recent series of
presentations to the US Congress (April 2011):

China is now the global manufacturing leader of most renewable energy
technologies, and the largest user of clean energy. In 2010 alone, clean energy
investment in China topped $154 billion, while approximately 77 gigawatts of
old fossil fuel power was shut down.

THE REAL PREDICAMENT: ENERGY-CONSUMPTION-BASED
ECONOMIC GROWTH
During the past three decades, China’s GDP has enjoyed an average growth
rate of 9%e10%. Since 2002, China’s energy consumption has been growing
at a faster rate than its GDP growth. From 2000 to 2005, China’s energy
consumption rose by 60%, accounting for almost half of the growth in world
energy consumption (Downs, 2006, p. 1). In 2004, China contributed 4.4% of
total world GDP, whereas China also consumed 30% of the world’s iron ore,
31% of its coal, 27% of its steel, and 25% of its aluminum. Between 2000 and
2003, China’s share of the increase in global demand for aluminum, steel,
nickel, and copper was, respectively, 76%, 95%, 99%, and 100%. On a global
scale, an increase in personal car ownership alone could mean an extra billion
cars on the road worldwide within the next 10 years (NYT, 2010). As a report
by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2006 predicted accurately on
the mounting worldwide impact of China’s resource consumption:
China is currently the world’s third largest energy producer and the second
largest energy consumer. In 2002, China accounted for 10% of total world
energy use and is projected to account for 15% of global energy use by 2025.
China is the world’s largest coal producer accounting for 28% of world coal
production and 26% of total consumption. China is the third largest consumer of
oil and is estimated to have the world’s sixth largest proven reserves of oil. China
has roughly 9.4% of the world’s installed electricity generation capacity (second
only to the United States) and over the next three decades is predicted to be
responsible for up to 25% of the increase in global electricity generation. China