Julia Gillard, Greens leader Bob Brown and climate-change adviser Ross Garnaut have argued China's can-do green example ought to be our inspiration. But ... its pro-green credentials are a mirage.
There is superficial evidence that China takes climate change seriously. Its 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) claims China will reduce its carbon intensity (the amount of carbon emitted per unit of output) by 17 per cent in 2015 .... And 50 per cent of its energy will come from renewable sources by 2050.
Yet ... Beijing's carefully crafted message about shifting towards a green future is primarily designed for Western markets eager for alternative energy sources and as a defence against these same governments putting greater pressure on China to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
Take the issue of coal-fired power stations...While gross domestic product has been growing at about 10 per cent during the past five years, Chinese consumption of coal has been increasing at about 17 per cent each year.
The International Energy Agency estimates almost 80 per cent of China's energy needs will be met by coal and oil in 2030...Which leads to the inescapable conclusion that a target that half the country's energy needs will be met by renewable sources in 2050 is not achievable.
Wind power now accounts for less than 1 per cent of China's energy needs while solar constitutes one-thousandth of 1 per cent of the country's energy use.
The outlook for Chinese-made renewable products and technologies is much more encouraging when viewed as an export opportunity to subsidised clean-energy sectors in foreign markets. Because of low production costs and peerless export manufacturing and shipping infrastructure, a Chinese-made wind turbine is one-third the price of one made in Germany or Spain. Foreign companies based in China and state-owned enterprises in the clean-energy sectors send most of the wind turbines and almost all the solar panels to the US and Europe. Far from exercising environmental leadership, Beijing has simply identified yet another export opportunity to Western consumers.
So China gains first by having the West limit its own growth in a green daze, and then by selling the West the gadgets to do it.
