Expert suggests to develop green economy by cutting energy consumption
- By Cui Can
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E-mail China.org.cn, December 12, 2017
Solving China's environmental problems lies in adjusting the energy consumption structure. Therefore, China will keep the total energy consumption under 5 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, and increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 15 percent by 2020, a Chinese expert in energy research said.
Dai Yande, the director of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, delivered his speech during a forum on green technology and green life held in Suining, southwest China's Sichuan Province on December 9.
![Forum on green technology and green life opens in Suining, southwest China's Sichuan Province on Dec.9, 2017. [Photo by Cui Can/China.org.cn]](http://images.china.cn/site1007/2017-12/12/24f4cdf1-d33a-4a94-b25a-9456b3a0d454.jpg "Forum on green technology and green life opens in Suining, southwest China's Sichuan Province on Dec.9, 2017. [Photo by Cui Can/China.org.cn]")
Themed "Green leading fashion, technology improving life," this forum invited over 70 Chinese and foreign experts and scholars, officials and business delegates to exchange ideas on cooperation in environmental protection and green development.
Dai pointed out that adjusting the energy structure plays a key role in dealing with the relationship between economic development and environmental protection.
"With an eye on the future, we should vigorously develop new and renewable energy. It is a key strategic measure for promoting the green economy, and fostering emerging industries of strategic importance. It is also an urgent need in the protection of the environment, responding to climate change and achievement of sustainable development," Dai said
Dai's remarks were echoed by Simone Padoan, general secretary of the Energy Environment Global Exchange, who shared Italy's experience on remediation of polluted soil on brownfield sites.
He said that three percent of the soil in Italy was contaminated by traditional heavy industry, accounting for 13 percent of the plains where most of the population is concentrated. Therefore, Italy has developed ecotourism in recent years to boost its green economy, providing benefits and protection not only to the environment but for sustainable development.
The green economy is "an economy that results in improved human well-being and reduced inequalities over the long term, while not exposing future generations to significant environmental risks and ecological scarcities," according to UNEP's green economy definition.
Therefore, under this definition, China has issued a vast array of policies relevant to greening China's economy and achieving sustainable development. One of the examples is the 13th Five-Year plan (2016-2020), featuring an entire chapter on green development, addressing renewable energy, climate change, resource efficiency, pollution control, ecological conservation, and green industrial development.
Accordingly, China's green economy has flourished in recent years. As the industrial structure has improved, economic profits have soared. Thanks to the government's support, the annual revenue of the green industry was predicted to be 4.5 trillion yuan by 2015 (US$ 730 billion), according to a report published by UNEP in 2013.
"The development of the green economy in China is now at a crucial stage," Dai said, "We should be determined to push forward the adjustment of the economic structure and shift the growth mode, to leverage new technologies and cultivate new driving forces for sustainable development."
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