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How
China and the EU are helping each other to find – and save – the
energy that will drive their economies.
 Voracious
consumption of energy and higher oil prices could damage economic
growth and choke climates unless major power consumers like the
EU and China cooperate on energy security and efficiency. At least
that was the message EU Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs
had for policy makers and energy industrialists when he opened
the sixth China-EU Energy Conference in Shanghai on February 20.
As a trained physicist the EU’s chief energy policy maker
should know when he told Chinese and European policy makers and
energy executives: “Promoting greater coherence between energy,
research and environmental policies is key to ensure a sustainable
future for our economies, for our citizens and for our planet.”
Luckily the commissioner matched words with deeds in Shanghai.
In the margins of the conference, Piebalgs signed a Memorandum
of Understanding (MoU) with China’s Vice Minister of Science
and Technology, Ma Songde, to encourage the development of technology
that captures and stores carbon dioxide emitted from coal-fired
power stations.
The MoU is the latest milestone in a flurry of cooperation and
dialogues between the EU and China on energy. It’s the follow
up to a Joint Declaration on Climate Change signed at the China-EU
Summit in September 2005, which had both sides vowing to tackle
climate change through “practical and results-oriented cooperation.”
To that end the Joint Declaration yielded the promise to jointly
develop near-zero emission coal technology through carbon dioxide
capture and storage. The same event yielded a Memorandum of Understanding
that brings both sides together in a new strategic dialogue on
energy and transport. The EU-China Energy and Environment Program
meanwhile shares European know-how on energy efficiency and concerns
on climate change with China. Beijing in turn shares its energy
sourcing intentions and promises to collaborate on reducing pollution.
Carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants have been
blamed for much of the pollution causing climate change in China.
In 2004 China consumed some 34 percent of the coal used worldwide
but also contributed to 74 percent of the growth in world coal
consumption. Coal accounts for 30 percent of EU electricity generation
while China depends on the fuel for 70 percent of its power. With
China’s economy growing at a lightening speed coal is set
to remain a prominent part of the local energy mix but China is
also keen to reduce smog in cities, and has explored using coal
to produce liquid fuels and hydrogen, technology that would reduce
its dependency on imported oil. Coal will also continue to be
burned in Europe, where electricity usage is also rising, though
not as rapidly.
Beijing and Brussels have decided that using clean coal and tapping
off harmful emissions are the best that can be hoped for in both
territories. Along with the US they’re the world’s largest
consumers of energy but China and the EU are increasingly reliant
on external sources for energy – 50 percent in the EU’s
case and 20 percent in China’s. Not only are those figures
rising, said Piebalgs, but the energy they need to import to cover
their needs is getting expensive, and harder to find in energy-rich
but unstable countries. Thus China and the EU, said Piebalgs,
both have a common interest in improving the investment climate
in energy exporting countries. “We are increasingly interdependent
in energy matters and we are facing similar challenges… to
create clearly defined, transparent and non-discriminatory rules
for exploiting and transporting energy resources.” A danger
of oil slicks from maritime accidents in increasingly congested
sea-lanes and the effects of natural disasters – note, Hurricane
Katrina – also hints to the need for “increased integration
of energy networks,” said the commissioner.
The EU itself is building probably the most integrated regional
energy market in the world – barriers to competition and
energy supply have been dismantled in member states. The EU Commission
in March adopted a Green Paper on EU energy policy as the basis
for a public debate on a “secure, competitive and sustainable”
energy policy for Europe. The paper will more than ever emphasize
the global and regional dimensions to EU energy policies, especially
in security of energy supply and the battle against climate change.
Hence the bloc is entering into cooperation and dialogues around
the world, and particularly with China.
In an earlier green paper the EU showed energy security isn’t
just access to oil and gas supplies. In the document the EU’s
policy-making body, the Commission, outlined an ambitious program
to cut current levels of consumption by 20 percent. It will do
so by improving the labeling of energy efficient products and
adjusting taxes to ensure polluters pay. The EU and its member
states will also use public procurement to “kick-start”
new technologies such as efficient vehicles. Energy efficiency,
said Piebalgs, “is perhaps the most practical way of reconciling
improving living conditions with an ever-increasing demand for
energy consuming goods and the need to take concrete action on
global warming.”
Despite a very strong focus on energy efficiency, an EU of 25
member states will use 15 percent more fuel 25 years from now.
Demand for natural gas is expected to rise 70 percent over the
period, with electricity consumption up 45 percent in the same
timeframe. Technology must be “at the core” of energy
policies in China and Europe, said the commissioner, who as a
former Latvian government official learned firsthand the difficulties
of streamlining a centrally planned economy. Since indigenous
energy sources are limited both in the EU and in China, the “huge
potential” of renewable energy will have to be drawn upon,
he stressed. The future role of nuclear energy would have to be
closely linked to a “solid strategy” ensuring safe handling
of nuclear materials and waste.
China is in the midst of a major nuclear power plant drive –
15 new plants – but it is also trying to save energy. During
a visit to the huge Baoshan Steel Plant Commissioner Piebalgs
saw energy saving technology in action. The security of energy
supplies and increasing energy efficiency are both likely to surface
again at the next round of the China-EU Energy Conference, which
alternates every two years between China and the EU. Interaction
between energy, research and environmental policy makers from
China and Europe is all the while on a northeasterly curve and,
judging by the February agreement on zero emission power generation,
the partnership developing between the EU and China in science
and research is bearing fruit. China is also a partner with the
EU in the ITER fusion project, in which researchers are seeking
to generate electricity from a safe, natural atomic fusion process.
If successful the project could obviate the need for coal and
oil and leave Commissioner Piebalgs without a job. Better, fresh
air all around.
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