China publishes energy white paper

China publishes energy white paper

China.org.cn December 26, 2007-The State Council Information Office published on Wednesday a white paper entitled China's Energy Conditions and Policies. The document, composed of eight chapters, points out that China, as an irreplaceable component of the world energy market, plays an increasingly important role in maintaining global energy security.

China's Energy Conditions and Policies

Preface
"Energy is an essential material basis for human survival and development. Over the entire history of mankind, each and every significant step in the progress of human civilization has been accompanied by energy innovations and substitutions. The development and utilization of energy has enormously boosted the development of the world economy and human society.

Over more than 100 years in the past, developed countries have completed their industrialization, consuming an enormous quantity of natural resources, especially energy resources, in the process. Today, some developing countries are ushering in their own era of industrialization, and an increase of energy consumption is inevitable for their economic and social development.

China is the largest developing country in the world, and developing its economy and eliminating poverty will, for a long time to come, remain the main tasks for the Chinese government and the Chinese people. Since the late 1970s, China, as the fastest growing developing country, has scored brilliant achievements in its economy and society that have attracted worldwide attention, successfully blazed the trail of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and made significant contributions to world development and prosperity.

China is now the world's second-largest energy producer and consumer. The sustained growth of energy supply has provided an important support for the country's economic growth and social progress, while the rapid expansion of energy consumption has created a vast scope for the global energy market. As an irreplaceable component of the world energy market, China plays an increasingly important role in maintaining global energy security.

Guided by the Scientific Outlook on Development, the Chinese government is accelerating its development of a modern energy industry, taking resource conservation and environmental protection as two basic state policies, giving prominence to building a resource-conserving and environment-friendly society in the course of its industrialization and modernization, striving to enhance its capability for sustainable development and making China an innovative country, so as to make greater contributions to the world's economy and prosperity.

I. Current Situation of Energy Development

Energy resources are the basis of energy development. Since New China was founded in 1949, it has made constant endeavors in energy resources prospecting, and conducted several resources assessments. China's energy resources have the following characteristics:

-- Energy resources abound. China boasts fairly rich fossil energy resources, dominated by coal. By 2006, the reserves of coal stood at 1,034.5 billion tons, and the remaining verified reserves exploitable accounted for 13 percent of the world total, ranking China third in the world. The verified reserves of oil and natural gas are relatively small, while oil shale, coal-bed gas and other unconventional fossil energy resources have huge potential for exploitation. China also boasts fairly abundant renewable energy resources. In 2006, the theoretical reserves of hydropower resources were equal to 6,190 billion kwh, and the economically exploitable annual power output was 1,760 billion kwh, equivalent to 12 percent of global hydropower resources, ranking the country first in the world.

-- China's per-capita average of energy resources is very low. China has a large population, resulting in a low per-capita average of energy resources in the world. The per-capita average of both coal and hydropower resources is 50 percent of the world's average, while the per-capita average of both oil and natural gas resources is only about one-fifteenth of the world's average. The per-capita average of arable land is less than 30 percent of the world's average, which has hindered the development of biomass energy.

-- The distribution of energy resources is imbalanced. China's energy resources are scattered widely across the country, but the distribution is uneven. Coal is found mainly in the north and the northwest, hydropower in the southwest, and oil and natural gas in the eastern, central and western regions and along the coast. But, the consumers of energy resources are mainly in the southeast coastal areas, where the economy is the most developed. Such a great difference of location between the producers and the consumers has led to the following basic framework of China's energy flow: large-scale transportation over long distances of coal and oil from the north to the south, and transmission of natural gas and electricity from the west to the east."

Full report - http://www.china.org.cn/english/environment/236955.htm#9
I. Current Situation of Energy Development
II. Strategy and Goals of Energy Development
III. All-round Promotion of Energy Conservation
IV. Improving the Energy Supply Capacity
V. Accelerating the Progress of Energy Technologies
VI. Coordinating Energy and Environment Development
VII. Deepening Energy System Reform
VIII. Strengthening International Cooperation in the Field of Energy
Conclusion

"In the course of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects that benefits 1.3 billion people of China, energy has a significant bearing on China's economic and social development. It is a long and arduous task to use sustainable energy development to support the sustainable economic and social advancement. The Chinese government will strive to address the energy problem properly to realize sustainable energy development.

Though China's energy consumption is growing rapidly, its per-capita energy consumption level is still fairly low -- only about three-fourths of the world's average. The figures for China's per-capita oil consumption and imports account for only one half and one quarter of the world's average, respectively, far below the level of the developed countries. China did not, does not and will not pose any threat to the world's energy security. China will continue to maintain its sustainable energy development and make it promote the sustainable development of the world's energy resources, thus making positive contributions to the world's energy security."

China.org.cn December 26, 2007