Fri, Aug 2, 2013 - Country's
Success in Improving Resource Efficiency
Must be Accelerated to Avert Increased Environmental
Damage
Kubuqi (China)/Bangkok, 02 August 2013-
China has surged ahead of the rest of the
world in material consumption, creating
intense environmental pressures, but the
country also remains among themost successful
in improving resource efficiency, according
to a new report released by the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP) today.
The report found that
China's growing affluence has made it the
world's largest consumer of primary materials
(such as construction minerals, metal ores,fossil
fuels and biomass), with domestic material
consumption levels four times that of the
USA.
From 1970 to 2008, China's
per capita consumption of materials grew
from one third to over one and a half times
the world's average levels.
Domestic consumption
of natural resources per capita increased
at almost twice the rate of the whole of
the Asia Pacific region due to massive investmentsin
urban infrastructure, energy systems and
manufacturing capacity. The report notes,
however, that some 20 per cent of the resource
use in China goestowards the production
of goods which are eventually consumed abroad.
"China has seen
dramatic growth in past decades and the
effect of this transition on global demand
for natural resources is unprecedented,"
said UNUnder-Secretary General and UNEP
Executive Director AchimSteiner.
"While that growth
has lifted millions out of poverty, it has
also come with rising environmental challenges
linked to the extracting, processing and
useof those natural resources. This report
underlines that China, in common with other
emerging economies, needs to make significant
investments in moreresource-efficient infrastructure,
such as green buildings and public transport,
but also in human capital and governance
capacity, if a transition to asustainable
economic model is to be truly realized,"
added Mr. Steiner.
The UNEP report underlines
China's relative improvements in energy
efficiency. While the country's absolute
energy efficiency is below the average for
theAsia Pacific region and the rest of the
world, its energy efficiency improved faster
than anywhere else over the past four decades.
However the report notes
these improvements in energy efficiency
alone are not enough to stabilize environmental
pressures. It states that if China's mostrecent
policy initiatives - which include targets
to reduce water consumption and losses of
arable land, and to increase the up-take
of non-fossil fuels -fail to accelerate
resource efficiency gains beyond current
rates, environmental pressures can be expected
to increase rapidly.
The report underlines
the effects of China's massive urbanization,
and related infrastructure investments.
As a proportion of total domestic consumption
ofmaterials, the proportion of biomass dropped
from 63 per cent to 15 per cent between
1970 and 2008, while consumption of construction
minerals increasedfrom 8 per cent to 63
per cent and metal ores and industrial minerals
doubled their share from 4 per cent to 8
per cent.
Over the same period,
the absolute level of consumption of fossil
fuels increased more than sevenfold, at
an average annual growth of 5.3 per cent.
Of the fossil fuels,
coal supply grew most rapidly, increasing
from 1970's 49 per cent to 2009's 67 per
cent of total primary energy supply. The
large andincreasing share of coal also contributes
to fast rising carbon dioxide emissions.
China emits more than four times the world
average of greenhouse gasesper unit of economic
output, and twice that of the Asia Pacific
region.
As a response to such
pressures, the UNEP report notes that recent
government planning in China has seen a
major sustainability shift in terms of theobjectives
of economic policy. The previous and current
Five-Year Plans for Social and Economic
Development (FYPs) have an increased focus
on more balancedgrowth, greater resource
and energy efficiency, better living standards,
and sustainable rural-urban development
The Chinese government
has adopted a number of policy instruments
to strengthen the economy and conserve resources,
including a US$586 billion stimuluspackage
with a green focus, incentives for more
efficient vehicles, and setting targets
for a more energy efficient building sector.
Mainstreamingsustainability into national
development plans and decoupling resource
use from economic activity may prove to
be very successful strategies to improveenvironmental
quality while ensuring further investment
into economic growth and human development.
China is also one of
the first countries to embrace the circular
economy approach as a new paradigm for economic
and industrial development. China's Circular
Economy Promotion Law came into force in
2009 and aims to improve resource efficiency,
protect the environment and achieve sustainabledevelopment.
According to a UNEP-backed
study released earlier this year, China
consolidated its position in 2012 as the
world's dominant renewable energy market
player- up 22% to US$67 billion - thanks
largely to a jump in solar investment.
Despite such positive
steps, the UNEP report released today finds
there remain many challenges for China in
its transition to a green economy, particularlywater
and waste issues. Key governance concerns
include weak implementation and policy enforcement,
and poor monitoring due to lack of technical
andfinancial resources as well as human
capital.
The UNEP study recommends
the development of national indicator systems
so policy makers can gauge the effectiveness
of their policies and strengthen thecapacity
of local governments to implement and enforce
policies.
China is one of over
30 countries currently availing of UNEP's
Green Economy Advisory Services. The support
package consists of policy advice, technicalassistance
and capacity building provided to governments
in support of their national and regional
initiatives to transform and revitalize
their economies.
Notes to Editors
The 'Resource Efficiency:
Economics and Outlook for China' report
supplements the 'Resource Efficiency: Economics
and Outlook for Asia and the Pacific' report
published by UNEP in 2011, with more detailed
data and analysis specific to China.
• This report, a joint effort of UNEP and
its regional partners, the Commonwealth
Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
(CSIRO) of Australia andthe ChineseAcademy
of Sciences, intends to quantify environmental
pressures through deeper analysis of resource
use patterns, resource efficiency, driversof
resource use, greenhouse gas emissions and
resource efficiency policy in China.
China's rapidly improving
material standards of living have come with
a greatly increased per capita demand for
natural resources, and a corresponding increase
in the environmental pressures associated
with extracting, processing, and using these
natural resources.
The efficiency with
which China converts energy into economic
output, as measured by TPES/GDP (energy
intensity), improved greatly over the period
1970 to 2009. Over the full period, energy
intensity (EI) decreased at an average rate
of 3.91% p.a. compounding. The Chinese improvement
in energy efficiency by far exceeded the
improvements for the world (0.68% per annum)
and for Asia and the Pacific (0.13% per
annum).
Material intensity (MI)
indicates the extent to which an economy
has managed to decouple its growth from
ever increasing inputs of raw materials.
For most of the period 1970 to 2008 China
exhibited a clear trend toward decreasing
(improving) MI, decreasing by around 2%
p.a. compounding, between 1970 and 2000.
Unfortunately, since the year 2000, coinciding
with a period of extremely rapid economic
growth in China, the ongoing improvement
in MI has almost stagnated, with MI decreasing
by less than 1% p.a.
China's per capita energy
consumption, as measured by total primary
energy supply (TPES), has increased from
31% of the world average levels in 1970
to over 74% of the world average in 2005
and 95% in 2009.
China's growth in total
water withdrawals was subdued over the period
1980 to 2005, when compared to the extremely
rapid rates of growth in consumption of
materials and energy. The total changes
for the three sectors over the full twenty
five year period were: agriculture -8%,
industry +81%, municipal +797%, total +
25%.
China clearly achieved
major decreases in its GHG intensity over
most of the period 1970 to 2005, notably
from the late 1970s to the early 2000s.
Despite these improvements in GHG intensity,
GHG emissions per capita grew rapidly over
the same period, by an average of 4.1% p.a.
compounding, with growth accelerating from
the turn of the millennium.
By the end of 2010,
China had basically realized the targets
of energy conservation and emissions reduction
set up in the 11th FYP, including reducing
accumulated CO2 by 1.46 billion tonnes,
energy intensity by 19.1%, annual SO2 by
14.29% and COD emissions by 12.45%.
China is the world's
largest market for new construction projects
with around 2 billion m2 of floor space
added annually, mostly in urban areas. While
60% of these new buildings are classified
as residential, 30% are public buildings
(i.e. non residential buildings) and the
remaining 10% are used for industrial purposes.
At present, the building sector accounts
for nearly 30 per cent of China's total
energy consumption, and this proportion
is growing steadily.
China is a leading producer
and consumer of motor vehicles and it has
overtaken the United States as the biggest
automobile market in the world. The number
of registered cars increased from around
1 million in 1994 to nearly 33 million in
2008 (Pan, 2011).
China is world leading in its effort to
align economic development objectives with
environmental objectives through well designed
public policies that increase human wellbeing
and reduce environmental degradation through
promotion of a circular economy and cleaner
production.