1 China’s Energy Transition Strategy in the Context of Global …
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• Energy equity: Energy equity performs the basic mission of energy development
by providing affordable modern energy services for all. At present, the world is still
haunted by this challenge. For example, in 2016, 13% of the world’s population
lack electricity and 41% of the population were still using unclean cooking fuels
and technologies; only 55% of renewable energy was of modern utilization with
the rest coming from traditional biomass fuels such as fuelwood and charcoal.
(UN 2018).
• Energy security: Currently energy security is not only about oil security, but also
about power, natural gas and even end-use energy service security (Wang and
Zhou 2017). Influenced by infrastructure and geopolitical factors, global energy
security is still not optimistic. Major historic energy security accidents, including
multiple oil crises, the power outage in the United States and Canada in 2003
(Zhou 2013), and the three gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine between
2006 and 2014 (Zhou 2014), have highlighted the importance and risks of energy
security.
Apart from energy equity and security, other challenges also stand out in many
countries, including regional environmental pollution from energy development and
utilization, and how to support economic growth through the energy sector, etc.
1.2.3 Severe Energy Challenges in China
The multiple energy challenges in the world are complex in various countries. For
China, the magnitude and scale of the problems are unprecedented in human history.
The five energy challenges laid out by some scholars (Ni et al. 2008) early on continue
to exist, or have even increased, including: (1) huge and dynamically growing energy
demand. In 2017, China’s primary energy consumption contributed 23.2% to the
world’s total consumption, averaging an annual increase of 3.9% over the past decade
(BP 2019); (2) the rapidly rising dependence on imported oil and gas. From 2007 to
2017, China’s foreign dependence on oil rose from 50.7 to 68.5%, and its dependence
on natural gas surged from 1.8 to 37.9% (NBSC 2018); (3) severe conventional
environmental pollution lingers, including air, water, soil pollution, etc. (Li 2018);
(4) lack of clean energy services in rural areas and small towns with acute energy
poverty, plus the massive use of inferior bulk coal, serious pollution of coal-burning,
backward energy infrastructure, and inadequate use of renewable energy (Ni et al.
2019); (5) enormous and ballooning greenhouse gas emissions. In 2017, China’s
energy-related carbon emissions accounted for 27.6% of the world’s total emission,
with a 10-year average annual growth of 3.2% (BP 2019).
In the meantime, as global climate change accelerates and China’s economic and
social development enters a new phase, the dimensions of China’s energy challenge
have also undergone notable shift. For instance, the overcapacity at the energy supply
side in the new era calls for speedier transition from fossil-based (particularly coal)
primary energy utilization to a pattern driven by non-fossil fuels, while meeting the
5
• Energy equity: Energy equity performs the basic mission of energy development
by providing affordable modern energy services for all. At present, the world is still
haunted by this challenge. For example, in 2016, 13% of the world’s population
lack electricity and 41% of the population were still using unclean cooking fuels
and technologies; only 55% of renewable energy was of modern utilization with
the rest coming from traditional biomass fuels such as fuelwood and charcoal.
(UN 2018).
• Energy security: Currently energy security is not only about oil security, but also
about power, natural gas and even end-use energy service security (Wang and
Zhou 2017). Influenced by infrastructure and geopolitical factors, global energy
security is still not optimistic. Major historic energy security accidents, including
multiple oil crises, the power outage in the United States and Canada in 2003
(Zhou 2013), and the three gas disputes between Russia and Ukraine between
2006 and 2014 (Zhou 2014), have highlighted the importance and risks of energy
security.
Apart from energy equity and security, other challenges also stand out in many
countries, including regional environmental pollution from energy development and
utilization, and how to support economic growth through the energy sector, etc.
1.2.3 Severe Energy Challenges in China
The multiple energy challenges in the world are complex in various countries. For
China, the magnitude and scale of the problems are unprecedented in human history.
The five energy challenges laid out by some scholars (Ni et al. 2008) early on continue
to exist, or have even increased, including: (1) huge and dynamically growing energy
demand. In 2017, China’s primary energy consumption contributed 23.2% to the
world’s total consumption, averaging an annual increase of 3.9% over the past decade
(BP 2019); (2) the rapidly rising dependence on imported oil and gas. From 2007 to
2017, China’s foreign dependence on oil rose from 50.7 to 68.5%, and its dependence
on natural gas surged from 1.8 to 37.9% (NBSC 2018); (3) severe conventional
environmental pollution lingers, including air, water, soil pollution, etc. (Li 2018);
(4) lack of clean energy services in rural areas and small towns with acute energy
poverty, plus the massive use of inferior bulk coal, serious pollution of coal-burning,
backward energy infrastructure, and inadequate use of renewable energy (Ni et al.
2019); (5) enormous and ballooning greenhouse gas emissions. In 2017, China’s
energy-related carbon emissions accounted for 27.6% of the world’s total emission,
with a 10-year average annual growth of 3.2% (BP 2019).
In the meantime, as global climate change accelerates and China’s economic and
social development enters a new phase, the dimensions of China’s energy challenge
have also undergone notable shift. For instance, the overcapacity at the energy supply
side in the new era calls for speedier transition from fossil-based (particularly coal)
primary energy utilization to a pattern driven by non-fossil fuels, while meeting the