Chinese Goverment Ammends Energy Law
Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported recently that a renewable energy law was amended that requires all power companies to buy power generated from renewable resources. The amendment was adopted during a National People's Congress Standing Committee meeting. It is a big move for a country of which two-thirds of its s energy supply is fueled by coal. Additionally, the country has become one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters.
The amendment, which states that State Council energy department and the state power regulatory agency should supervise the purchases, aims to support the country's fledgling renewable energy sector.
Power companies that refuse to buy power produced by renewable energy generators will be fined up to an amount double that of the economic loss of the renewable energy company, according to reports.
Renewable energy includes non-fossil fuels such as wind and solar power, hydropower, biomass, geothermal and ocean energy.
A national plan on renewable energy development issued in 2007 set a target to increase renewable resources to supply 15 percent of its total energy consumption by 2020, in a bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote sustainable economic growth.
Last year, renewable resources supplied 9 percent of China's total energy consumption, an equivalent of reducing 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Last month, the State Council announced that China was going to reduce the intensity of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent compared with the level of 2005.
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