China, the world’s biggest generator of green house gases, says it may need about 2.4 trillion yuan ($373 billion) of investment for its energy saving goals and anti-pollution measures under a five-year plan. The spending will reduce the energy consumption of China per unit of GDP (gross domestic product) by 2015 to 16 percent, the State Council said in a statement. But the government clarified nothing about who would fund that investment. The second-largest economy in the world is planning to shrink the energy usage of the country for energy savings equivalent to 670 million tons of standard coal by 2015.
After years of breakneck and decades of filthy economic development, China aims to move towards a much greener path by increasing the energy efficiency and improving the environmental conditions of the country. The government of China has estimated $155 billion of the fund to be invested in energy saving projects, but the complete details on which sectors or types of energy projects would be benefited from the investment, has not yet been provided. The economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggested spending of funds on support of country’s environmental protection issues to sustain the economic growth of China.
The key objective is to spend on energy-intensive sectors of the country with major share of the fund expected to be invested in the industry sector. Oil, natural gas and coal industry have contributed significantly to the country’s economy over decades and large number of power companies in China have suffered huge losses because of the inconsistent international fuel prices. The State Council, from this investment, plans to lessen country’s unappeasable appetite for fossil fuels in order to drive China to a greener side.
Seven cities of China and its provinces will be launching trading schemes over the period of next two years as a measure to combat the increasing carbon emissions in the country. The government is aiming to cut the country’s CO2 emissions per unit of its economic output, by 40 to 45 percent at the end of 2020 and to establish a mechanism to limit the overall energy consumption of the country.