Monitoring the great wall of change in China

China’s industrial revolution, like Britain’s before it, has been powered by coal – and on an unprecedented scale, making the country the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. Yet in 2014, for the first time in 15 years, the country’s fossil fuel consumption fell by nearly three per cent.

At the same time, there has been a marked shift in China’s environmental policy: it is now the world’s biggest investor in renewable energy, particularly in power generation from sources such as solar and hydro.

One of the constraints in China has been access to finance – particularly among private sector companies – to fund investment projects to improve energy efficiency. Now, however, the China Banking Regulatory Commission has issued green credit guidelines, which should make it easier for companies to become more environmentally friendly.

While the pace of change in China is slow – not least because of the challenges of coordinating local and national government policies – the path of economic growth has taken a new turn, towards energy innovation and new technology.

Here at Birmingham, we are playing a key role in monitoring the changes and helping to shape the future of China – and the rest of the world – by carrying out leading-edge research related to the three Es – energy, environment and economy:

  • A book, Energy Security and Sustainable Economic Growth in China, co-authored by academics in Birmingham, provides a unique study of the Chinese energy market at both national and provincial levels, covering issues such as energy security, institutional reforms, international relations, and environmental implications now and in the future.
  • We have investigated the impact of foreign entry on the gasoline retail market in China, finding that the arrival of Royal Dutch Shell reduced the average price of gasoline by up to five per cent.
  • Our academics have examined the direct and indirect effects of the migration of the rural population into already overcrowded urban areas, which has potentially important implications for China’s energy use.
  • We have looked at whether economic growth in China could be constrained by the physical development of the energy distribution network.