Environment and clean technology: The east is green

[This feature is part of The year ahead 2010]

China's top leadership is now working on the country's next five-year plan, and it looks likely to be a green one.

According to a recent Financial Times report, the twelfth plan, which covers the years 2011 to 2015, should include a low-carbon road map drawn up by a team of academics, business people, charity workers and other specialists in clean technology. The plan contains various low-carbon options, the least onerous of which will mean a 30% reduction in predicted carbon emissions by 2050. The newspaper reported remarks from Lord Stern, a noted economist and climate campaigner, who said the report “was the most careful, thorough analysis by any country”.

Lord Stern's comments reflect China's efforts to take a lead in green initiatives; these include a drive to promote the cleantech industry in areas of technology as diverse as power generation from wind and solar power, batteries and electric cars. In the run up to the Copenhagen climate change summit, China also showed its resolve and leadership by publically pledging specific cuts in its emissions of carbon dioxide by 2020 (although some have questioned the true scale of the cuts as China uses a “carbon intensity” benchmark which is related to units of GDP).