Source: CCTV.com

10-02-2008 11:47

Time now for our next part of our BizChina 360 series on environmental challenges in China.

The central government it is about reducing pollution, consumption of resources and environmental impact while increasing productivity.

Edward Law takes a closer look at some of the key issues that the country must tackle before bring its "Green Dream" to fruition.

Just a typical weekday for Beijing residents, the roads are congested, the shops are open and everywhere people are busy, but it is coal and petroleum which is keeping the country on the move.

Now, the government has to balance the country’s complex energy needs against health, financial and environmental costs to the country.

China relies on coal for power generation and heating and also imports expensive oil and gas.

In response, the central government is calling for better energy efficiency and more investment in renewable energy to contain the country’s fuel costs and to reduce air borne pollutants and carbon emissions.

Yang Ailun, Climate and Energy Campaign Manager, Greenpeace China, said, "We are very concerned with the Climate and energy issues and we feel that China’s dependency on coal is a very big problem. If China really wants to develop in a cleaner way, it has to very urgently shift its energy structure. However at that time, there wasn’t any other alternative for China. China has a lot of coal but not any other types of energy so we felt that its very urgent that China has to develop its own renewable energy industries.”

China’s sustainable energy investment nearly doubled in 2007 to just under US$11 billion lifting the country’s wind power capacity to 6 gigawatts.

Beijing’s Guanting wind power plant has just began full operations with a capacity to supply the daily power needs of 100,000 households.