Saturday, March 5, 2011

For China, Energy a Dual Security Threat

China laid out ambitious goals for slashing energy consumption and easing its environmental woes on Saturday, signaling that the government is taking note of national-security risks that come with the nation’s voracious appetite for natural resources.

Energy consumption and environmental protection are key topics in Chinese premier Wen Jiabao’s work report this year, with new targets outlining the nation’s efforts to raise its use of nonfossil fuels to 11.4%, from 8% currently. Beijing also aims to reduce energy consumption by 16% per unit of GDP over the next five years.

The focus on energy underscores the national-security threats faced by the Communist Party. China ranks among the world’s largest net importers of oil, making its economy susceptible to political jolts in major oil-producing countries. On Friday, Zhang Guobao, the former head of the country’s National Energy Administration, expressed concern over protecting the country’s oil supply. “Oil security is the most important part of achieving energy security,” he said, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. That view isn’t unique to China: Major economies world-wide face national-security risks as a result of imported oil. Recent uprisings in the Mideast and North Africa are just one example of external threats to energy supplies.

The unique threat facing China is that coal, the country’s most economically viable domestic energy source, has created environmental conditions so poor they have begun to serve as a source of social unrest. The major effects of coal on the environment include choking pollution and the degradation of water supplies. Dangerous mining conditions as well, in which scores of miners have been killed in recent years, have become a social issue, and have contributed to isolated protests in recent years in the aftermath of mining disasters.

Coal accounts for 70% of China’s overall energy consumption, Zhang said in the report, which is 30% higher than the world average. So while he cites a reliance on imported oil as a threat to national security, coal presents its own risks. In a recent congressional testimony, Elizabeth Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations writes that the Chinese people see environmental problems as linked to government shortcomings.

It’s inevitable China will need to develop new sources of energy, and Saturday’s report appears to be the government’s latest recognition of that. While China isn’t the only country with heavy coal reliance, its incredible energy demands make the environmental consequences more pronounced.

The work report highlights the “people’s livelihoods” as a major theme of the next five years. It’s a nod to not only inflation, wages and other tangible economic variables impacting the lives of Chinese, but also the environmental concerns felt across the country. Wen’s report pledges China to developing new sources of energy beyond oil and coal, though it’s unclear whether it can muster up the innovation required to pull it off.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com

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