Overview: High-Quality Energy
for High-Quality Growth: China’s
Energy Revolution in the New Era
Xu Zhaoyuan and Mallika Ishwaran
In June 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping
remarked at a conference of the Communist Party
of China’s (CPC) Central Leading Group for
Financial and Economic Affairs Commission that a
revolution in energy production and consumption
was needed to safeguard national energy security.
New patterns in supply and demand, compounded
by changing trends in international energy development, were presenting China with opportunities
to develop and drive a new energy era.
In December 2016, the Chinese government
published its Energy Production and Consumption Revolution Strategy (2016–30), which set
out the specific actions needed to promote the
energy revolution that President Xi had referred
to. In October 2017, the report of the 19th CPC
National Congress noted that:
Socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed
the threshold into a new era. China’s economy is
transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a
stage of high-quality development.
China must put quality first and prioritise performance; and China should make supply-side
structural reform its main task and work hard to
achieve better quality, higher efficiency, and more
robust drivers of economic growth.
The new era provides a new background and poses
new requirements for China to deepen its study of
the energy revolution. Global practices show that
all countries have undergone an energy transition
in the course of their development, albeit along
different paths. From the perspective of the global
energy system as a whole, the current energy
transition towards a greener and more sustainable
energy system is significantly different from the
energy transitions of the past.
China needs to learn from other countries’ practices
in promoting energy transition. It must keep up with
the latest trends in global energy transitions, take
account of the needs of economic, social and environmental development in China, vigorously develop
energy technologies, and conduct an in-depth study
on how to achieve China’s energy revolution.
1 Global Energy Transitions:
Historical Experience
and the Latest Trends
The energy system is comprehensive in scope,
integrating energy production, conversion,
transmission, consumption and management into
a single system.
DRC Team Lead for the Overview:
Xu Zhaoyuan, Research Department of Industrial
Economy, DRC of the State Council of China.
Shell Team Lead for the Overview:
Mallika Ishwaran, Global Business Environment, Shell
International B.V.
Contributors:
Zhou Yi, Research Department of Industrial Economy,
DRC of the State Council of China.
X. Zhaoyuan (&)
Research Department of Industrial Economy, DRC
of the State Council of China, Beijing, China
e-mail: xuzhaoyuan@gsm.pku.edu.cn
M. Ishwaran
Global Business Environment, Shell International B.V.,
The Hague, the Netherlands
© The Author(s) 2020
Shell International B.V. and the Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council of the People’s
Republic of China (eds.), China’s Energy Revolution in the Context of the Global Energy Transition,
Advances in Oil and Gas Exploration & Production, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40154-2_1
1
for High-Quality Growth: China’s
Energy Revolution in the New Era
Xu Zhaoyuan and Mallika Ishwaran
In June 2014, General Secretary Xi Jinping
remarked at a conference of the Communist Party
of China’s (CPC) Central Leading Group for
Financial and Economic Affairs Commission that a
revolution in energy production and consumption
was needed to safeguard national energy security.
New patterns in supply and demand, compounded
by changing trends in international energy development, were presenting China with opportunities
to develop and drive a new energy era.
In December 2016, the Chinese government
published its Energy Production and Consumption Revolution Strategy (2016–30), which set
out the specific actions needed to promote the
energy revolution that President Xi had referred
to. In October 2017, the report of the 19th CPC
National Congress noted that:
Socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed
the threshold into a new era. China’s economy is
transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a
stage of high-quality development.
China must put quality first and prioritise performance; and China should make supply-side
structural reform its main task and work hard to
achieve better quality, higher efficiency, and more
robust drivers of economic growth.
The new era provides a new background and poses
new requirements for China to deepen its study of
the energy revolution. Global practices show that
all countries have undergone an energy transition
in the course of their development, albeit along
different paths. From the perspective of the global
energy system as a whole, the current energy
transition towards a greener and more sustainable
energy system is significantly different from the
energy transitions of the past.
China needs to learn from other countries’ practices
in promoting energy transition. It must keep up with
the latest trends in global energy transitions, take
account of the needs of economic, social and environmental development in China, vigorously develop
energy technologies, and conduct an in-depth study
on how to achieve China’s energy revolution.
1 Global Energy Transitions:
Historical Experience
and the Latest Trends
The energy system is comprehensive in scope,
integrating energy production, conversion,
transmission, consumption and management into
a single system.
DRC Team Lead for the Overview:
Xu Zhaoyuan, Research Department of Industrial
Economy, DRC of the State Council of China.
Shell Team Lead for the Overview:
Mallika Ishwaran, Global Business Environment, Shell
International B.V.
Contributors:
Zhou Yi, Research Department of Industrial Economy,
DRC of the State Council of China.
X. Zhaoyuan (&)
Research Department of Industrial Economy, DRC
of the State Council of China, Beijing, China
e-mail: xuzhaoyuan@gsm.pku.edu.cn
M. Ishwaran
Global Business Environment, Shell International B.V.,
The Hague, the Netherlands
© The Author(s) 2020
Shell International B.V. and the Development Research Center (DRC) of the State Council of the People’s
Republic of China (eds.), China’s Energy Revolution in the Context of the Global Energy Transition,
Advances in Oil and Gas Exploration & Production, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40154-2_1
1