Coal for Electricity

When I recently testified at the House Energy and Power Subcommittee, a phrase that came up in regard to China’s energy policy was that China is pursuing “an all-of-the-above strategy,” in other words generating supply from as many sources as possible. (full hearing details) There is nothing terribly remarkable about the idea that China is pursuing diversified supply. However, the implication of the discussion was that China’s approach is focused on the supply side, and that seems backwards.

In a move that exceeded expectations, China’s former Minister in charge of the National Energy Administration, Zhang Guobao, announced yesterday that for the 12th Five Year Plan China would cap total energy use at 4 billion tons coal equivalent (TCE) by 2015. There had been rumors that China would adopt a total coal cap in the 12th Five Year Plan, but Zhang’s announcement goes beyond just coal to include all energy sources.

China’s annual political meetings begin on Thursday March 3 and the major outcome will be the announcement of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). Votes at both the advisory China People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, opening March 3) and the National People’s Congress (NPC, opening March 5) are not in question. But the content of the Five-Year Plan, as well as various government work reports and major pieces of legislation, are only revealed during the meetings.

China and the U.S. issued a joint statement Wednesday, January 19, covering the range of issues discussed during President Hu Jintao’s state visit to Washington this week. The White House also posted a fact sheet summarizing Hu and Obama’s agreement to enhance cooperation on climate change, clean energy, and the environment. The Department of Energy provides further detail on these Clean Energy Cooperation Announcements.

On January 18, at a ceremony at the US-China Strategic Forum on Clean Energy Cooperation in Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu and China’s Energy Minister Zhang Guogao and Science and Technology Minister Wan Gang signed an agreement to advance the US-China Clean Energy Research Center (CERC).

On January 18, 2011, the Department of Energy released a report detailing the substantial progress made to date on a number of clean energy initiatives between China and the United States.

To download the report, click here

China and the U.S. at the Summit

• Fact Sheet: The U.S. and China at the Summit: Climate & Energy Developments in China and U.S.-China Collaboration
  Background on US-China climate relations, what China has accomplished and the prospects ahead for clean energy and climate progress.
• Ask the ChinaFAQs Experts: “What Outcomes Do You Hope to See From the Hu Jintao-Obama Summit?”
  We asked members of our ChinaFAQs Expert Network what they would like to see in terms of outcomes from the summit. Read their responses here.