The plan is part of a wider program to decrease greenhouse gas emission levels. These also entail reforesting the country to a 23% level, up from the current 20%, which will help the country absorb its carbon emissions. Besides offsetting carbon emissions, forests can provide biomass for biodiesel and ethanol.
China draws two thirds of its energy for coal. For that reason the country has been pushing clean technologies and has become the world’s biggest investors in renewable energy and clean tech.
Meanwhile, a new report released by Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, called Statistical Aspects of the Energy Economy in 2009, found that between 2008 and 2009 the use of renewable energy in the European Union increased 8.3 percent.
In total, renewable energy accounts for 18.4 percent of energy production in the European Union, trailing right after natural gas at 19.3 percent.
Energy derived from hard coal and natural gas decreased by 9.2 and 10.1 percent, respectively. Besides, energy consumption in Europe decreased by 5.5 percent. The report notes that the reduction could be related to the global recession.
Via Solar Feeds and NY Times Blogs
This is much smarter and cheaper than going to war over oil as Japan did and as the US continues to do. Theodore Sumrall, Ph.D.