As China has been following its 12th Five-year Plan which aims to promote a low-carbon economy, experts say that the country’s green transition will boost the economy both in its domestic market and the global economy, especially renewable energy industry. Denmark and its Nordic neighbors, who have been first-movers in the global green growth arena, could stand to benefit commercially from China’s green transition.
China’s commitment to developing a sustainable economy, emphasizing domestic consumption, and putting a green economy at the heart of the planning process, already form the basis of the 12th Five-Year Plan – the ongoing plan on Greenhouse Emission Control with the goals to reduce carbon emissions in the next five years.
“We definitely need China to succeed if the world is to succeed. Whatever China does will have global repercussions because a lot of the world’s manufacturing is going on there,” said Nis Hoeyrup Christensen, advisor on Chinese affairs at the Confederation of Danish Industry (CDI), and researcher in China’s renewable energy sector at Copenhagen Business School.
China is making a green refurbishment of its economy under a number of key headings defined in its 12th Five-Year Plan. These include that value-added output of emerging strategic industries will account for eight percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and that the country’s manufacturing base in coastal regions will transit to high-end manufacturing, services and research and development.
Keystones in China’s greening process include replacing coal-fired plants with those run on renewable sources like bio-mass, wind energy and solar power.
Other areas involve better insulation of homes and offices to cut heating bills, combined urban heating and power networks, more recycling, improving energy-efficiency of production facilities, and developing alternative-fuel cars.
In fact, China is now the world’s largest maker of wind turbines and solar panels, and its largest market for wind power. Moreover, the Chinese government says it plans to increase the share of non fossil-fuel based energy in the country’s total energy consumption to 11.4 percent in 2015, up from 8.3 percent in 2010.
