Perhaps it is the “can’t see 200 yards in front of you” air pollution, or possible political backlash from unaddressed environmental problems, but China just unveiled a major plan to push further into developing renewable energy. It wants to add 49GW of capacity this year, composed of as much as 18GW of new wind power and 10GW of solar. This announcement (covered by Bloomberg) follows on a large investment push in 2012, when China accounted for 1/4 of the $269 billion (US) total global investment in clean energy. Worldwide, solar continued to be the largest sector for investment, at $143 billion. Wind came next at $78 billion invested in the wind sector.
With a voracious appetite for energy as it grows, China could use as much renewables as it can get. It is the world’s largest carbon emitter, taking over the top spot from the US a few years back. China aims to tackle this trend as well, saying that per unit emissions would be reduced by 21% by 2015.
