SCIO briefing on China's policies and actions for addressing climate change
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E-mail China.org.cn, November 28, 2019
Hong Kong Cable Television:
As for some of the targets that China has pledged for 2020, it has already met the carbon emissions goals. How about the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption, is it still far from the 15 percent goal? We have also noticed that a new chapter on the health of the human body has been added in this year's report. What are the considerations for this new addition? A chapter about green and low-carbon finance introduced in the 2017 report seemed to have been removed from this year's report, or perhaps I missed it. What is the reason for that?
Zhao Yingmin:
I would like to answer your first question, and invite Mr. Li to answer the second and third ones.
The Chinese government has always paid great attention to the exploitation and utilization of clean and renewable energy resources. It has also advanced the revolution in energy production and consumption, especially the implementing of the Renewable Energy Law, and has improved plans and industrial policies for renewable energy. China constantly endeavors to promote sustainability work in the field of hydro power, maintain the sound and orderly development of wind power, and boost the healthy and orderly development of the solar energy industry. It also seeks to exploit and utilize geothermal energy, pursue the sustainable development of biomass energy, and resolve problems in absorbing clean energy.
Currently, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) is carrying out a series of reviews on the enforcement of the Renewable Energy Law. By the end of 2018, China's installed capacity of renewable energy reached 730 million kW, accounting for 38.3 percent of the total power capacity. The installed capacity of hydropower, wind power, photovoltaic power and biomass energy reached 350 million kW, 180 million kW, 170 million kW, and 17.81 million kW, which showed a year-on-year growth of 2.5%, 12.4%, 34% and 20.7%, respectively. All the above numbers show that China's renewable energy market has developed rapidly in recent years.
In 2018, the power generated by renewable energy reached 1.9 trillion kWh, accounting for 26.7% of the country's total power output. Among that, hydropower generated 1.2 trillion kWh, wind power generated 366 billion kWh, photovoltaic power generated 177.5 billion kWh, and biomass energy generated 90.6 billion kWh. With the implementation of the Renewable Energy Law, the role of renewable energy in China as clean energy is increasingly apparent.
In regard to the chapter on people's health, indeed, the policies and actions to address climate change have had a profound impact on humankind. This is because climate change affects not only the natural environment, but also people's health. There is an increasing number of studies on this issue within the scientific community. The Chinese government has also attached great importance to this issue. We are now working to improve the capacity and management of our public service, making them more adaptable to climate change. We are also working to establish standards and mechanisms to enhance the monitoring, investigation and risk management of health data. In the meantime, more climate change-related research will be done to facilitate disease prevention and control, dynamic monitoring of epidemics, and studies on factors affecting them. We are working to establish emergency plans and aid mechanisms for public health incidents caused by climate change. We are working to establish early warning systems to detect heat waves and health risks. We are also working to advance research on people's health and their adaptability to climate change, and put forward health-related programs to enhance people's capacity to deal with extreme weather such as heat waves.
Climate change's impact on people's health indicates that climate change have exerted long-term impacts on a wide range of issues, which are closely related to social development and people's wellbeing. We need to make a greater effort on the research front, and we need to enhance the cooperation with the international society, thus to further enhance our actions on climate change and reduce the various adverse effects brought about by climate change.
As for your third question, let's give the floor to Mr. Li Gao.
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