New Resources for China Climate and Energy Information

For those tracking China climate and energy information, you might want to take a look at these blog entries. Blogger Vance Wagner has just updated his organizational chart for the Chinese government to try to capture the new National Energy Commission under the State Council. This chart is still a work in progress, and Vance says he welcomes comments on how to improve it, but it is extremely useful for seeing who is connected to whom in the Chinese government.

The one thing the casual reader might find confusing is that he lists both governmental organizations and a number of government-connected think tanks and research institutes without differentiating – we’ve already suggested to Vance he may want to color code. But you will find it useful, and he also has a helpful list of acronyms and programs on the same page.

For much more detail on the National Energy Commission, including an analysis of recent Chinese pronouncements, the best place to go is ChinaFAQs expert and Green Leap Forward blogger Julian Wong’s analysis. Julian gives a thorough explanation of how the NEC compares to the State Council Climate Change Leading Group as well as the old National Energy Leading Group. He also reminds us that the best explanation for the relationship among these groups is still to be found in Brooking’s scholar Erica Downs’ 2008 China Business Review article.

There are also a number of new in depth analyses of China’s renewable energy law up on the web. One particularly good one was just posted by the China Wind Power Center, which is a project funded by the official German aid organization GTZ. You’ll find the assessment at this link, and you can also link from there to a host of useful information on renewable energy, and particularly wind power in China. ChinaFAQs expert and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Barbara Finamore has also just posted an interesting piece by NRDC visiting attorney Sara Schuman on China’s renewable energy law. Sara gets into quite a bit of detail on both the changes brought about by the amendment and the questions that will still need to be answered by implementing regulations. Chinese laws typically leave a great deal of detail to the implementing regulations, and this particular one is no exception. While Sara gives us a lot of important issues to keep on the lookout for, we believe our original conclusion on the amendment continues to be sound – the reason the Chinese government promulgated the new amendment was to address problems with the original law’s implementation and further support the development of renewable resources in China. This commitment has just been reinforced by China’s report of its renewable energy target of 15% by 2020 to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat.

Image by kevinzhengli, courtesy of a CC Attribution 2.0 Generic license