China has poured 5 billion yuan (US$643 million) into the fight against climate change since the beginning of the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), Vice Minister of Science and Technology Shang Yong unveiled on Tuesday in an exclusive interview with China.org.cn.

 

Ten days after China released its Climate Change Program on June 4, the country's first global warming policy initiative, the country's Scientific & Technological Actions on Climate Change was made public with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) playing a key role in the plan from its inception.

 

Actually, MOST has always focused on using science and technology to bolster China's sustainable development and tackling climate change is crucial to its action plan, said Shang Yong, who is also the spokesman of the ministry. He added that 5 billion yuan (US$643 million) had been invested in this field since last year compared with only 2.5 billion yuan in the whole of the last Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005).

 

Shang said that S&T actions on climate change have clarified MOST's sense of purpose in energy saving and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG), two focal points of domestic environmental protection undertakings.

 

As appended actions to the National Climate Change Program, the S&T actions operate in four major areas, said Sun Hong, deputy director-general of MOST's Department of Social Development, who also attended the interview. The first task is to carry out basic scientific research on climate change followed by research into technologies that will reduce GHG emissions by using new energy and energy saving technologies; the third is how to tackle current impacts stemming from climate change, with finally research to be carried out into related state macro-strategy and policy.

 

The Group of Eight (G8) summit called for the reduction of GHG discharges to half the 1990 level by 2050. "It's a quite encouraging object," said Shang Yong. "However, for this target to be met will require international cooperation relying on science and technology."

 

Regarding MOST's current work process, Shang Yong divulged that several research groups were looking into energy-saving and pollutant-diminishing solutions, with another team delving into CDM (clean development mechanism) and renewable energies so as to alter the existing energy structure.

 

In addition, the ministry has paid greater attention to technological advancements regarding pollution control and the recycling economy. "All in all, we are doing efforts to break new ground in all the major problems regarding fundamental research such as high-tech breakthroughs, and the exploitation and application of findings," said Shang Yong.

 

Some materials are designed to predict the outlook in the future when China faces new challenges, such as increased vehicles on the road.

 

Wu Ping, an official from the MOST's Department of High and New Technology Development and Industrialization, said: "Development of energy-saving and new-energy cars will represent a popular future trend, given the drag factor cars have on the environment. The government is pushing for the development of clean cars. In the last Five-Year Plan, the MOST earmarked 800 million to develop fuel cell cars, pure electro-motion car and hybrid electric car, with a nationwide campaign seeking to allow alternative fuels including natural gas and liquefied gas to enter the public consciousness."

 

Technology has come on in leaps and bounds especially regarding batteries, electrical engineering and control field. In the 2005 France Clean Car Contest, China's cars were acclaimed as environmentally-friendly. In particular, the Olympic Games and future expos will allow the exposure of China's recent technological breakthroughs.

 

"There is a long way to go before the new-energy cars become commonplace," said Wu, "Although clean cars benefit environmental protection, their costs keep rising. Because of this, our R&D is geared towards ensuring affordable prices while cultivating a public awareness about environmental protection."

 

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting and He Shan, July 31, 2007)