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342 Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

certain exporters, China is taking many political and economic measures
and providing economic aid to strengthen its cooperative relations with
resource-rich countries (Tseng, 2008; Ziegler, 2006). However, the dynamic
debates on energy security are still going on in China (Downs, 2004). The
debates indicate that many of China’s analysts and policy makers are not fully
convinced of the benefits of reliance on world energy markets. The
political consensus today is to move toward “green” (renewable energy power
generation) and integrated energy infrastructure systems that are sustainable.
In addition, China has been alert regarding the soaring demand in global
energy in recent years and at the possibilities of long-term global energy
shortage, called “peak oil,” which now includes “gas” (US Congress, 2011).
Hence, China’s energy security will be one of the most important parts of its
broader foreign policy in the years to come. The world will soon focus on
China’s new economic and energy policies, its energy market reform, and its
new strategies in meeting the political challenges of rising energy costs and
environmental pollutions (Clark and Li, 2003). Much global attention has seen
China move toward technology development and innovation in generating
clean coal and natural gas power along with new institutional developments.
Chinese energy policies and each of China’s steps and practices bear
significant implication on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.
Already being burdened with serious environmental problems and energy
shortage, the ongoing global economic downturn presents China with a
historic opportunity to rethink its growth strategy to move toward a more
stable and sustainable path. Today, a promising optimism is that China seems
to be firmly committed to the creation of a largely self-sustaining innovation
system as part of a knowledge-based economy of the future. China is sparing
no effort to meet its 11th Five-Year Plan’s energy conservation goals, in which
China will cut its per unit of GDP energy consumption by 20% from 2005
levels by the end of 2010 (Fig. 17.3).
China’s policy determination in clean and renewable energy can be clearly
seen from its ambitious plan published in 2007d“Middle and Long-term
Development Plan of Renewable Energies,” which was approved by the
People’s Congress in 2008 as The Renewable Energy Law. The new policy is
determined at moving the country toward renewable energy to reduce energy
consumption and cut the surging carbon dioxide emissions. The policy expects
to derive 10% of China’s energy supply from renewable sources by 2010 and
15% by 2020. To meet the 2020 goal the total expected investment will be two
trillion Chinese yuan (US $133.3 billion). If successful, by the end of 2010,
China would emit 600 million tons less carbon dioxide a year, and by 2020 the
annual reduction in carbon dioxide emissions would reach 1.2 billion tons. The
target of this policy plan reflects another of China’s policy concerns in coping
with the environmental and economic challenges of climate change. The
linkage of energy policy and climate change policy can be read from the policy
documentdChina’s National Climate Change Programme 2007, prepared by