China may boost use of renewables, efforts to fight climate change
Recent developments show China making concerted efforts to boost its use of clean energy and engage the world community in efforts to battle global warming. Late last week, China and the European Union announced a deal that would have the formidable economic powers sharing technology and techniques to mitigate carbon-dioxide emissions. And Monday, the director of renewable energy for a Beijing policy commission said that Chinese leadership is considering boosting its clean-energy targets by 50 percent, from a goal of 10 percent by 2020 to 15 percent (to greens’ chagrin, that target includes environmentally controversial hydropower). Though China likely wishes to be seen as a good global citizen on environmental issues, it has plenty of direct incentives to adopt clean energy, including the high cost of fossil-fuel imports, notoriously filthy air, widespread acid rain, and the likely impacts of global warming.
