of the 13th Five-Year Plan for Economic and
Social Development. Guided by the concepts of
“innovative, coordinated, green, open and sharing”, China is expected to make continuous
progress in economic restructuring and transformation, and deliver stable and sustainable
medium-to-high growth. This will help ensure
that the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation
will be fulfilled by mid-century. China’s GDP
per capita will approach $40,000 (at 2015 prices)
by 2050,
8 an increase by a factor of five on 2015.
As a strategic requirement of future socioeconomic development, this increase in GDP per
capita will become a solid foundation for the
revolutions in energy production, consumption
and supply.
3.2.3 Combating Climate Change
and Protecting
the Environment Are Key
Drivers of the Energy
Revolution
According to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), the rise in global average surface
temperature between 1951 and 2012 was 0.72°C,
almost double that of 1880. Global warming has
become an indisputable fact. Almost 200 ratifying
countries agreed on the Paris Agreement in 2015.
They identified the long-term goal of keeping the
increase in global average temperature to well
below 2°C, and even limiting the increase to
1.5°C by 2100. China has also developed action
plans to combat climate change, such as setting
the target of reaching peak level CO 2 by 2030 or
earlier and achieving a 60-65% decrease in CO 2
emissions/GDP per capita by 2030, compared to
the level in 2015. However, long-term extensive
economic development impacts the environment
negatively and significantly. In response, China
issued the Air Pollution Prevention and Control
Action Plan in 2013. Currently, China is making
vigorous efforts to control haze and is implementing effective measures to reduce emissions
of air pollutants. These include shutting down
small coal-fired industrial boilers, substituting
electricity or gas for scattered coal, replacing the
internal combustion engine with electric vehicles,
and using oil of higher quality.
The pressure to combat climate change and
control haze is forcing China’s energy industry to
develop a clean and low-carbon energy system
that will gradually deliver sustainable socioeconomic development.
Substituting electricity and gas for fossil fuels
like coal and oil is an important way to optimise
the energy system and achieve energy efficiency
and emissions reduction. However, electricity
and gas are both constrained by system factors:
gas by price and the need to overhaul the transmission system; and electricity by costs, and a
lack of interconnected nationwide infrastructure
and critical technologies. During the ongoing
13th Five-Year Plan (2016–20) and beyond in
the medium and long terms, optimisation is
urgently needed to improve the level of coordinated energy development.
3.2.4 Innovation Is an Important
Support for the Energy
Revolution
New business models like the Energy Internet are
evolving rapidly and driving the entire energy
technology innovation value chain. Taking the
overall energy industry and its long-term development requirements into consideration, the
Energy Internet, enabled by smart technologies,
achieves deep integration of energy and information and new technologies and business
models. As the new driver of a rejuvenated
energy industry, the Energy Internet will support
the steady implementation of the energy production and consumption revolution.
China’s Energy Internet (Internet +) will be
achieved through a three-stage strategy:
• In 2017–20: (i) distributed power generation
and storage technologies will be deployed at
scale to allow flexible grid connection of
various types of distributed energy; (ii) an
8
The State Information Center of China. 2016. Internal
Research Report.
128
W. Xiaoming et al.
Social Development. Guided by the concepts of
“innovative, coordinated, green, open and sharing”, China is expected to make continuous
progress in economic restructuring and transformation, and deliver stable and sustainable
medium-to-high growth. This will help ensure
that the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation
will be fulfilled by mid-century. China’s GDP
per capita will approach $40,000 (at 2015 prices)
by 2050,
8 an increase by a factor of five on 2015.
As a strategic requirement of future socioeconomic development, this increase in GDP per
capita will become a solid foundation for the
revolutions in energy production, consumption
and supply.
3.2.3 Combating Climate Change
and Protecting
the Environment Are Key
Drivers of the Energy
Revolution
According to the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5)
of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), the rise in global average surface
temperature between 1951 and 2012 was 0.72°C,
almost double that of 1880. Global warming has
become an indisputable fact. Almost 200 ratifying
countries agreed on the Paris Agreement in 2015.
They identified the long-term goal of keeping the
increase in global average temperature to well
below 2°C, and even limiting the increase to
1.5°C by 2100. China has also developed action
plans to combat climate change, such as setting
the target of reaching peak level CO 2 by 2030 or
earlier and achieving a 60-65% decrease in CO 2
emissions/GDP per capita by 2030, compared to
the level in 2015. However, long-term extensive
economic development impacts the environment
negatively and significantly. In response, China
issued the Air Pollution Prevention and Control
Action Plan in 2013. Currently, China is making
vigorous efforts to control haze and is implementing effective measures to reduce emissions
of air pollutants. These include shutting down
small coal-fired industrial boilers, substituting
electricity or gas for scattered coal, replacing the
internal combustion engine with electric vehicles,
and using oil of higher quality.
The pressure to combat climate change and
control haze is forcing China’s energy industry to
develop a clean and low-carbon energy system
that will gradually deliver sustainable socioeconomic development.
Substituting electricity and gas for fossil fuels
like coal and oil is an important way to optimise
the energy system and achieve energy efficiency
and emissions reduction. However, electricity
and gas are both constrained by system factors:
gas by price and the need to overhaul the transmission system; and electricity by costs, and a
lack of interconnected nationwide infrastructure
and critical technologies. During the ongoing
13th Five-Year Plan (2016–20) and beyond in
the medium and long terms, optimisation is
urgently needed to improve the level of coordinated energy development.
3.2.4 Innovation Is an Important
Support for the Energy
Revolution
New business models like the Energy Internet are
evolving rapidly and driving the entire energy
technology innovation value chain. Taking the
overall energy industry and its long-term development requirements into consideration, the
Energy Internet, enabled by smart technologies,
achieves deep integration of energy and information and new technologies and business
models. As the new driver of a rejuvenated
energy industry, the Energy Internet will support
the steady implementation of the energy production and consumption revolution.
China’s Energy Internet (Internet +) will be
achieved through a three-stage strategy:
• In 2017–20: (i) distributed power generation
and storage technologies will be deployed at
scale to allow flexible grid connection of
various types of distributed energy; (ii) an
8
The State Information Center of China. 2016. Internal
Research Report.
128
W. Xiaoming et al.