China's Wasteful Ways
China is paying for its inefficiencies in energy consumption -- through hard dollars and the havoc be played out on their environment. China's wasteful ways:
China has a lot to do, and a big push is being made of have Beijing presentable for the 2008 Olympics. China is also looking to reduce its dependence on coal and oil, revving up use of natural gas and building upwards of 30 new nuclear reactors in the near future. China is also experimenting with hybrid vehicles at a more pressing pace than the developed nations -- they need to. By 2020, the number of vehicles on their roads is expected to quadruple to 100 million, accounting for 60% of China's energy consumption -- doubling what it is today. China does have a clear advantage over the developed nations in this respect -- they don't have the transportation infrastructure -- so building a clean transportation infrastructure that is not dependent on oil should not be a hard thing. But do they have the will?
For further reading, check out the following links:
True, China is a developing nation as much as it an industrial nation. It's caught between the 3rd and 1st world, and is rapidly changing. Comparisons with the productivity and efficiencies with the 1st world nations are sometimes unfair, just as it's unfair to use its competitiveness for comparison.It consumes three times the world average in energy to produce $1 of GDP Its steelmakers use twice as much energy as Japan or Korea per ton of output Only 5% of its office & residential towers meet its own energy conservation standards Fuel consumption grew 1.5 times its economy in 2004, while the rest of the world is 1 times or less Inefficient fuel use is tagged at $120 billion in lost output and pollution related health problems annually
China has a lot to do, and a big push is being made of have Beijing presentable for the 2008 Olympics. China is also looking to reduce its dependence on coal and oil, revving up use of natural gas and building upwards of 30 new nuclear reactors in the near future. China is also experimenting with hybrid vehicles at a more pressing pace than the developed nations -- they need to. By 2020, the number of vehicles on their roads is expected to quadruple to 100 million, accounting for 60% of China's energy consumption -- doubling what it is today. China does have a clear advantage over the developed nations in this respect -- they don't have the transportation infrastructure -- so building a clean transportation infrastructure that is not dependent on oil should not be a hard thing. But do they have the will?For further reading, check out the following links:
International Energy Outlook 2004 Environment Matters -- World Bank The Environment and China -- World Resources Institute China’s Transportation and its Energy Use
I just read this article from ZDNet -- apparently some hybrid owners are not following manufacturer suggestions, and are actually plugging their cars in for a charge. Surprisingly, they're getting more kilometres for their gas. Some have even replaced the batteries with higher capacity batteries and are getting as much as twice the fuel efficiency.
ReplyDelete