(Economic Observation) Facing the challenge of energy security, China's energy revolution will benefit the world
China News Service, Beijing, August 30 (Reporter Wang Qingkai) As a major energy consumer, energy issues are related to China's national security and economic and social stability. But since the beginning of this year, due to multiple factors such as the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the risk of uncertainty in the global energy market has increased sharply.
The above-mentioned complex situation has affected China's clean energy transition process. Faced with the challenges of energy transition, how China eliminates interference and effectively achieves its "decarbonization" and "emission reduction" goals has attracted global attention.
According to official reports, China's total energy consumption in 2019 was 4.86 billion tons of standard coal, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%. Among them, coal consumption is about 4 billion tons, oil consumption is 650 million tons, and natural gas consumption is 306.7 billion cubic meters.
Coal still accounts for the bulk of China's energy consumption. However, data from the World Mining Conference show that according to the analysis of the proportion of coal production and coal reserves in 2011, the world has proven coal reserves for 112 years of mining. Among them, the United States has proven coal reserves that can be mined for 240 years, Russia has more than 470 years, and China has only 33 years.
In fact, China imports far more coal annually than natural gas. From the perspective of energy security, China faces greater challenges. In the face of reducing emissions and achieving temperature control targets, "decarbonization" has become an effective path for China's energy revolution.
According to the plan, during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period (2021-2025), China's new electricity demand mainly depends on the increase of new and renewable energy sources, coupled with the continuous decline in the use of bulk coal in the terminal sector. Coal consumption is expected to continue to decline.
At present, China's economic recovery should adhere to the green recovery and the concept and policy of low-carbon transformation. This has become a consensus. He Jiankun, former executive vice president of Tsinghua University, said at the China News Agency a few days ago that China’s economic recovery must strictly control the rebound in coal consumption and significantly reduce the use of coal in the terminal sector.
At present, China is strictly controlling the expansion of coal power capacity to avoid overcapacity of coal power in the future. It is planned to build a near-zero emission system with new energy and renewable energy as the main body by the middle of this century, to fundamentally end the dependence on oil and natural gas imports, and to ensure the security of national energy supply. This is also a fundamental countermeasure to control the discharge of conventional pollutants from the source and improve the quality of the atmospheric environment.
Experts believe that China's energy revolution will proceed from three aspects:
The first is to accelerate industrial transformation and upgrading and establish an industrial system for green and low-carbon circular development. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, carbon dioxide emissions from high-energy-consuming industries will be the first to reach their peak.
The second is to accelerate the development of renewable energy, maintain the progress of new installations of wind power and solar power, and ensure the safe and stable operation of the power grid.
The third is to accelerate the consumption and utilization of electricity in the transportation terminal sector of industrial buildings to replace fossil energy. The current proportion of electricity in terminal energy consumption is about 25%, and it will increase to more than 30% by 2030. Electricity's replacement of fossil energy will play an important role in energy conservation and emission reduction in the terminal sector, while also providing strong demand and market space for the development of renewable electricity. (Finish)