Daily Archives: April 3, 2011

You Know Your Country is Falling Behind On Sustainability When …

The dirtiest country, energy wise, on the planet will almost equal you in Wind Energy Production per capita within five years. Sustainability is a big part of China’s new five year plan, and the goal is to increase wind energy production to 90 Gigawatts (GW) of power by 2016 from current production level of 40 GW. (Source: The Next Five Years) Currently, the US, the world leader in wind power production, produces a meare 35 GW of electricity from wind.

But more important is China’s commitment to reduce energy intensity per unit of GDP by 16%, cut carbon intensity per unit of GDP by 17%, and have non fossil fuels increase to 11.4% of primary energy mix by 2015. For a country that currently relies on dirty coal (whch is 70% of the energy mix), this is an aggressive goal. And even more aggressive are its 2020 goals of reducing carbon intensity per unit of GDP by 40% and increasing sustainable energy production to 15%. Considering that China tends to accomplish tasks it puts its minds to, this is an impressive start to a sustainability effort, which it has been in dire need of.