China's Energy Transition : Actors Discourses and Geopolitics

China has in recent years risen to the top of the list of energy importing nations. Sometime in the past decade it overtook the United States as the world’s largest consumer of imported energy (IEA, 2014). The dramatic increase of China’s share in international energy markets has prompted the government in Beijing to prioritise relations with external suppliers. These include some of China’s closes neighbours as well as countries geographically remote from China. The country’s rapid economic growth and securing the means to fuel this growth have come to dominate Beijing’s thinking on foreign policy. China’s external relations increasingly prioritise making overseas investments in new sources of imported energy. As a result, its energy security and foreign relations have become inextricably intertwined. This special issue contains several scholarly works that explore the modalities of China’s energy security strategy and its impact on the country’s commercial relations with the rest of the world. Contributions assess the environmental implications of this strategy and discuss what it tells us about China as an international actor. The approach to energy security, geopolitics and the environment taken in this special issue is interdisciplinary. The articles presented here draw on approaches and methodologies from the disciplines of economics, management, political ecology, area studies and international relations to study China’s energy diplomacy and its international impact. Contributions cover a range of energy sources, from petroleum and natural gas to solar, hydropower and other renewables.

With the shift of energy production centres and oil consumption markets the international energy order has been changing, indicating four trends: the Arctic region and the international seabed area will become new energy sources; the exploitation of unconventional energy sources-a new focus; and the rulemaking right in the energy market-a new battlefield. Contemporary international law promotes, regulates, and safeguards the transition to a new international energy order, in which China should make efforts to shift its role from a passive recipient to an active innovator of international energy rules; from an onlooker to an active participant in international energy affairs; and from a receiver to a contributor of international energy public goods.

China's debate over what ‘energy security’ is and how it can be achieved has evolved considerably over the past decade. Traditionally, Chinese officials and analysts have been most worried about China's mounting oil imports, and they have expressed considerable wariness of international energy markets and institutions. This narrow and relatively nationalistic view of China's energy-security challenge has been challenged on several different fronts, however, particularly in the past five years. Prominent analysts now call for a more positive approach to international markets and institutions, and some argue that external dependence is a less important energy security challenge than the shortcomings of China's own energy system. China's broadening debate over energy security represents an opportunity for the outside world as it engages China on energy and climate change in the years ahead.

China in the light of global challenges, 2017

This article consists of five core parts. The first part places Chinese energy policy in a broader context, since energy policies are interconnected with the needs of societies. In case of China the energy needs of a truly great world power are being satisfied. The second part examines the current Chinese energy mix, providing a snapshot of where we are. In the Chinese energy mix coal consumption still plays a major role that has multiple consequences, which would be examined later. The third part provides data and analysis of China’s place in global energy systems – production and consumption, export and import, reserves and capacities – focusing on coal, petroleum, natural gas, and electricity. Such a systematic analysis based on the charts of EIA allows us to get a fact-based picture of China’s energy production and consumption in reference to top players of the world. Part four outlines some essential aspects environmental and climate implications that shape energy policies, since energy policies must take into consideration issues different from economic arguments. Climate change does and will have very severe consequences, which would alter world economy and ultimately the fate of humanity, including China. The fifth part summarises some major, foreseeable Chinese energy production and consumption trends, providing hints to what we can expect.

China's current national policies promote high levels of economic growth, transforming China into a " world factory " , but at a high cost in terms of energy and the environment. At the same time, this growth and transformation also forms the backbone of China's economy, underpinning social stability. China faces a dilemma to reconcile its economy, energy system and environmental security. Each aspect of this triad is discussed in this study to illuminate the challenges faced by China, and China's dilemma in energy, economy and environment is analyzed from the perspective of its participation in current global supply chains. While China must import a significant proportion of its energy and a large proportion of primary materials, a large share of these imports are returned to the global market as industrial exports. China is bound by its own course of action and unable to radically change its position for the foreseeable future as the road to economic development and employment stability is through policies built on exports and shifting development models, presenting a tough socioeconomic trade-off. China's growth challenges are discussed as an example of challenges more broadly faced in the developing world. China's success or failure in achieving a sustainable developmental pattern will inevitably have a significant influence on the global environment.

Indonesian Journal of Energy, 2022

In the turn of the twenty-first, China has grown to become the largest energy consumer in the world, the largest energy producer globally and has risen to prominence as one of the leaders in the development of alternative and renewable energy sources. This has granted China the status as a leader in global energy governance. But while China has actively participated in international energy markets as a massive competition, this has also been juxtaposed with an odd reluctance to ambitiously participate in global energy regimes. However, under President Xi Jinping this has changed, and China has become more and more dominant in the global energy sector; not just in the market but now in its governance. From its inclusion in international energy institutions to its role in energy development in the Belt and Road Initiative, BRICS and New Development Bank; we can now see how China has expanded its dominance in the energy sector. By using qualitative methods, this paper critically analyses China's strive to become a global hegemony via dominance in the energy development sector, both as a tool for its energy security as well as to hold geopolitical control over developing nations that rely on China for their energy needs.

2017

This study was performed using reports, news articles, peer-reviewed journals, and publications by government agencies. A hypothesis was formed using skills and knowledge gained throughout the Energy Policy and Climate Program. The goal was to gather relevant, pertinent, applicable data to analyze in order to produce an answer to the hypothesis. Results China is far outpacing the United States in production of renewable and nuclear energy. This production drive is due to current and future threats China faces from a changing climate. The United States has limited ability to compete with China's growing energy markets. China's nuclear energy production creates a geopolitical threat through its ability to control foreign energy markets.

2014

China's energy demands have been growing exponentially since the early 1980s, impacting the global environment and economy. China is already the world's largest producer and consumer of energy, and as it continues to urbanize and develop its electricity demand is projected to more than double by 2040. China's energy consumption will not continue its rapid growth forever; its population growth and energy demand are expected to level off by 2040. While mostly relying on the increasing amounts of coal, oil, and natural gas, the Chinese government aims for renewable resources to satisfy 15% of total energy consumption by 2020. That goal is admirable, but will not offset China's reliance on fossil fuels; the quantity of coal used for energy production is set to double by 2040, accompanied by greaterenvironmental and public health issues.China's push for clean energy is motivated more by environmental concernsthan energy independence, but one of the major advantages of developing renewable energyis thepotential for decreasing international conflicts over energy resources.Wind and solar energy production has increased significantly in recent years, but China has chosen to shift its focus away from these clean sources of energy, and instead vigorously develop hydroelectric and nuclear power. These sources have the potential to decrease China's hazardous reliance on coal and oil, but introduce many new environmental problems. Although China is still a developing nation, it is a global leader that should be prioritizing wind and solar energy as the best ways to produce electricity domestically, combat climate change, improve public health, and work towards a future with less environmental damage and international conflict.

Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia, 2021

This article investigates the geopolitics of the energy transition era, concentrating on China's solar photovoltaic (PV) industry. Authors have noted that the rise of renewables is changing the geopolitical landscape of world energy systems, but these new energy sources carry their own technical characteristics and geopolitical implications. Bearing this in mind, this research answers the questions: What are the structural factors that facilitate China's use of renewable energy to achieve political goals, and what are their implications? In order to analyze the data, I devise an analytical framework based on the energy statecraft literature and contrast rival explanations, particularly the "prosumer theory" and the premise of less geopolitical interdependence in a renewable-centered world. I show that asymmetric interdependence in the solar PV sector is already a reality. China's solar PV industry is a case that suffices all conditions (centrality in industrial capacity, market share, and companies' compliance, but to a lesser extent in critical materials and technological endowments) in the solar PV sector to devise effective strategies aimed at reaping benefits out of its asymmetric interdependence with the rest of the world.

China has embarked on an ambitious and unprecedented programme of energy reform and climate change mitigation. Yet the motivations for this important shift remain unclear. This paper surveys key central government documents and articles by China's leading energy academics to investigate the ideas influencing China's new energy and climate policies. Three key ideas in particular are supportive of greater climate mitigation than in the past. First, domestic energy security concerns have risen on the central government agenda as a result of electricity shortages and rapidly rising energy consumption. Such concerns have deeply influenced China's ambitious and largely successful energy efficiency policies. Second, growing awareness of the environmental constraints on economic growth in general, and the potential damages of dangerous climate change in particular, has prompted stronger official rhetoric in favour of green development. The appearance of targets and policies that specifically target carbon emissions reductions in the 12th FYP for the first time suggests that climate change mitigation is becoming a motivation for policy action in its own right, rather than simply a co-benefit of policies enacted for other purposes. Third, a conviction that the world is moving towards low-carbon energy forms has given rise to the belief that China must become a technological and economic leader in this transition. Large levels of public financing to support the development of China's wind power and solar PV sectors suggests that the Chinese government has strong vested interests in seeing China successfully compete and lead in global low-carbon energy markets. In order to understand the shift in China's approach to climate change since the 11th FYP, it is important to understand how new ideas such as these have reframed and reshaped the Chinese government's interests and objectives.