China, already a global leader in renewable energy, is also looking to be a leader in energy efficiency.
In a keynote speech at the Chinese Communist Party Congress, outgoing Chinese President Hu Jintao reccently called for dramatic changes in how natural resources are used within the country, Business Green reported on Friday.
Image Credit: China Map on China Flag via SmileStudio/Shutterstock
Hu even went to on to say that China needs a “energy efficiency revolution,” which would include putting a ceiling on energy use.
Besides cutting back energy consumption, China will need to drop its carbon emission in other ways, along with the release of other major pollutants, he said.
Hu also acknowledges that China will need to put taxes on resource consumption, and implement fines for companies conflicting environmental damage on the nation and the world.
“We should launch a revolution in energy production and consumption, impose a ceiling on total energy consumption, save energy and reduce its consumption,” Hu said.
As the world’s largest emitter of carbon emissions, the emerging market country has already made some strides to address these concerns.
China is aiming, by 2015, to have 11% of the nation’s energy supply come from renewable energy. At the start of 2013, it will have seven carbon emissions trading projects targeting 700 million tonnes of carbon emissions in various cities and provinces.
Hu also warned at the Congress that the country needs to better manage its national resources in the face of fast-paced industrialization seen within China.
“We should keep more farmland for farmers and leave to our future generations a beautiful homeland with green fields, clean water and a blue sky,” Hu said.
Who knows where these words will lead? But, if followed, this is not a bad path for the second-largest economy in the world, and such efforts are sure to benefit the red giant in more ways than one.
