China Set to Spend $400 Billion on Renewables?

An official from China's National Energy Administration says the country may spend more than $400 billion on renewable energy projects between now and 2020.

According to a draft proposal -- that still needs approval by the country's influential National Development and Reform Commission -- more than $130 billion is earmarked for wind projects, nearly $20 billion for solar projects, and $30 billion for biomass, the BNA International Environment Daily has reported ("Chinese Draft Plan Calls for $440 Billion in Spending on Renewable Energy by 2020," May 18, 2009).

China's rapid economic development has been undertaken at the expense of the environment.  Government officials are not under any illusions that this can be sustained, but they chaff at calls from western governments to improve China's energy generation mix (i.e., reduce greenhouse gas emissions) with the response that no one put any limits on western energy use in the 1800s and 1900s.