China Policy: Most in Need of Help from Climate Change

China needs help. Surely, this idea contradicts the spectacle of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which boasted the most lavish opening ceremony ever broadcasted. Indeed, China is a behemoth of economic prosperity and is expected to grow indefinitely for the foreseeable future, in every aspect. Hell, everything is made in China! The spoons in the drawers, the laptop on the desk, the car in the driveway. China must have deep pockets: it's always growing. Fact: economic growth is inherently tied with energy consumption, creating more carbon emissions. With a population of 1.3 billion people, China is the world's largest carbon emitter. With the Copenhagen climate summit quickly approaching, China is again to take center stage. Despite being the Giant among giants, it too is humbled by its needs for help from the world community. With many resources at its disposal, why would China need anyone's help?

One aspect of the answer is the fact that China is THE most jeopardized nation of global warming. Sea level rise caused by climate change threatens every major urban center from Hong Kong to Beijing, representing hundreds of millions of people along the 18,000km coastline. That's more than the entire US population. Moving South and inland, the melting of continental glaciers combined with predicted extreme storm events will increase flooding, drowning homes and farmland. In the North, warmer temperatures bring drought and water shortages as rainy seasons shrink and lakes dry up. China is also susceptible to desertification; in 2005, desertification accounted for 2.6 million square kilometers, accounting for 27% of the country's territory (NDRC, 2007). Think of all the individual problems each individual country will face and know that China will face them all, directly, in one country. As the beat goes on, the heat continues to rise.

In the wake of climate catastrophes, China has berthed a healthy green industrial revolution. Transportation is one area the country does extremely well. National standard fuel economy is high: 30.2 miles per gallon (mpg) for the typical car in 2005, and raised to 36 miles per gallon in 2008. To contrast Chinese superiority in transportation policy: the USA legislates 27.5 mpg for cars and 22 mpg for light trucks/SUV's. Unfortunately the highlight reel ends there, and problems arise. Although it has garnered much media attention, China's electricity from renewable energy only produces less than 10% of the total energy consumed, 7% of which is from hydropower.

The cause of Chinese climate change woes: the majority of China's energy is 28% from Oil and 62% from Coal (Pew Center, 2002). Although generation of coal-fired power plants has an efficiency of 35%, 2% higher than the US, it's still coal! For China and India, the two largest developing nations, the most available energy comes from coal, whose carbon emissions destroy a healthy environment. The dilemma: starve growth or starve coal, either way starves the people. Again, China needs help. It needs advanced CCS technology from other countries and soon in order to both grow the economy and protect the environment. Expect this to be a top priority for China at Copenhagen.