The Clean Development Mechanism and Sustainable Development in China's Electricity Sector

1 INTRODUCTIONEnergy and environmental issues in China have receivedsignificant attention in both the peer-reviewed literatureand in international energy and environmental policymaking in the last number of years. China's coal dominatedenergy consumption results in significant regional pollutionproblems, most notably acid rain that affects nearly 1/3rdof China's landmass and air pollution that plagues manyof its major cities. China now ranks as the top emitterof sulphur dioxide (SO2) pol…

The Clean Development Mechanism and Sustainable Development in China's Electricity Sector

The Clean Development Mechanism,a flexibility mechanism contained in the KyotoProtocol, offers China an important tool to attractinvestment in clean energy technology and processesinto its electricity sector. The Chinese electricitysector places centrally in the country's economy andenvironment, being a significant contributor to theacid rain and air pollution problems that plague manyof China's cities and regions, and therefore a focusof many related energy and environmental policies.China's electricity sector has also been the subjectof a number of economic analyses that have showedthat it contains the highest potential for clean energyinvestment through the Clean DevelopmentMechanism of any economic sector in China. Thismechanism, through the active participation frominvestors in more industrialized countries, can helpalleviate the environmental problems attributable toelectricity generation in China through advancingsuch technology as wind electricity generation, cleancoal technology, high efficient natural gas electricitygeneration, or utilization of coal mine methane. Inthis context, the Clean Development Mechanismalso compliments a range of environmental and energypolicies which are strategizing to encourage thesustainable development of China's economy.