Chinese Energy Policy Research Articles

The time-varying dynamic impact of US renewable energy prices on agricultural prices in China: the case of fuel ethanol.

This paper intends to look into the time-varying dynamic impact of US fuel ethanol, one of the renewable energy sources, on the prices of agricultural products (specifically corn, soybeans, rice, and wheat) in China based on monthly price data from January 2000 to January 2023. To achieve this, a time-varying parameter vector autoregressive (TVP-VAR) model is employed, which takes into account structural changes in emergencies through time-varying parameters. The empirical results show that the equal-interval impulse responses of price fluctuations in agricultural commodities are primarily positive to variations in fuel ethanol prices and production. And the intensity and direction of the effects vary at distinct time lags. Additionally, the magnitude of these responses is most pronounced in the short term for all agricultural commodities except for corn, and the duration of the impulse responses at different time points is generally longer for corn prices compared to other commodities. The study also reveals that the influence of US fuel ethanol on Chinese agricultural commodity prices is not substantial on the whole. Therefore, there is a necessity to advance the growth of biofuels and provide policy support and financial subsidies for agricultural products earmarked for food production. These actions could shed insights into the progression of Chinese renewable energy and food policies, ensuring the stability of the market in the long run.

Indirect rebound effect analysis of Chinese residential energy consumption and policy recommendations for the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals

Indirect rebound effect analysis of Chinese residential energy consumption and policy recommendations for the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals

Do the photovoltaic poverty alleviation programs alleviate local energy poverty? —Empirical evidence of 9 counties in rural China

As an innovation of the Chinese government energy policy, solar photovoltaic poverty alleviation projects (PPAPs) play a positive role in solving energy shortages and poverty reduction. However, there is limited research on energy poverty in China's PPAP areas. This study has proposed a three-dimensional theoretical model for energy poverty, evaluated the energy poverty in the PPAP areas and analyzed its influencing path. The results show that: (1) The implementation of PPAPs has improved energy poverty to various degrees in all three types of solar resource areas; (2) The availability of energy services is the most prominent problem in energy poverty, and the PPAPs improve the availability of energy services the most; (3) Farmers' economic status and education have the greatest impact on alleviating energy poverty, and (4) The PPAPs directly improve the availability of energy services by increasing power generation and stability of the grid, and indirectly affect the cleanliness of energy consumption and energy affordability through farmers per se, thus affecting local energy poverty. Thus, public policies for promoting clean energy and energy utilization technologies (such as solar PV, etc) would help alleviate energy poverty in the rural areas.

A review of publicly available data sources for models to study renewables integration in China's power system

The ongoing transformation of the world's energy system requires detailed power-system models that help plan a cost-effective and reliable integration of variable renewables and demand-side resources. The quality and depth of the results of these models depend on the existence of trustworthy, complete, and high-resolution data on extant electric power assets and the demand they serve, wind and solar resources, and projections on costs and performance of technologies that could be developed during the next three decades. This paper assesses the quality of China's power system's publicly available data compared to the U.S. It concludes that despite growing use of power system models to inform and analyze Chinese energy policy, the availability of necessary data is still a significant barrier that severely limits the transparency, replicability, relevance, and usefulness of their results.

Do provincial energy policies and energy intensity targets help reduce CO2 emissions? Evidence from China

The effects of Chinese local governments' energy policies and top-down target management on CO2 emissions have received little attention to date. The current study uses 18 years of panel data from Chinese provinces to empirically investigate the impacts of provincial circular economy development policies, energy saving policies, comprehensive resource utilization policies, and energy intensity targets set by the central government on CO2 emissions. The results indicate that provincial circular economy development policies and energy intensity targets are conducive to reducing CO2 emissions, while provincial energy saving policies and comprehensive resource utilization policies have no significant impact. The findings confirm the effectiveness of China's target management tools in addressing climate change, and provide guidance for local governments on actively implementing local policies to promote local CO2 emission reduction.

Improving Design by Partnering in Engineering–Procurement–Construction (EPC) Hydropower Projects: A Case Study of a Large-Scale Hydropower Project in China

Hydropower, as a renewable energy resource, has become an important way to fit for Chinese long-term energy policy of energy transformation. Engineering–procurement–construction (EPC) has been increasingly adopted for improving hydropower project delivery efficiency in the utilization of water resources and generation of clean energy, where design plays a critical role in project success. Existing studies advocate the need to use partnering for better solutions to designs in EPC hydropower projects. However, there is a lack of a theoretical framework to systematically address design-related issues considering different participants’ interactions. This study coherently examined the causal relationships among partnering, design management, design capability, and EPC hydropower project performance by establishing and validating a conceptual model, with the support of data collected from a large-scale EPC hydropower project. Path analysis reveals that partnering can directly promote design management and design capability and exert an effect on design capability through enhancing design management, thereby achieving better hydropower project outcomes. This study’s contribution lies in that it theoretically builds the links between intra- and inter-organizational design-related activities by systematically mapping EPC hydropower project performance on partnering, design management, and design capability. These findings also suggest broad practical strategies for participants to optimally integrate their complementary resources into designs to achieve superior hydropower project performance.

A joint test of policy contagion with application to the solar sector

This paper examines the impact of China's 2005–2020 solar power energy policies on the stock performance of nine economic sectors in China, Japan, Germany, and the U.S. In order to model how policy shocks affect market performance, we develop a joint contagion test of higher-order co-moments, defining policy contagion as significant changes in the third- and fourth-order co-moments in the post-announcement period as compared to the pre-announcement period. The results show that eight Chinese solar energy policies have significant impacts on nine economic sectors in China, with weaker effects in Germany and the U.S., and the least significance in Japan. Among the eight energy policies, policy supporting plans (i.e., three national five-year plans from 2006 to 2020) provide stronger evidence of contagion to international markets than economic instruments (i.e., feed-in tariffs and subsidies).

Charging Chinese future: the roadmap of China's policy for new energy automotive industry

China's new energy vehicle (NEV) industry, which survives with powerful policy intervention and fostering, is an important branch of Chinese green energy policy revolution against climate change and circumstance issues. In the study, the roadmap of China's policy exploration on developing China's NEV industry within the time window of 2001–2020 was investigated systematically. Powerful policy intervention plays an important role in initializing the framework of China's NEV industry under the comprehensive situation when China's innovation capability and automobile technology were both at unsatisfactory state. China's policy of developing NEV market demonstrates that intense government intervention is necessary and successful at the starting stage of the NEV industry. Delicate balance between governmental intervention and market self-adjustment should be intensified by suitable policies. The pilot innovations and the serious lessons of China's policy explorations are of both practical and research significance for other developing countries.

Chinese energy policy and prospects for Russian natural gas exports

Chinese energy policy and prospects for Russian natural gas exports

The energy policy of the European Union and China toward the Arctic in view of falling oil and gas prices, climate change and low-carbon economies

Energy has become one of the most important fields of international policy since many countries are now aware that traditional (fossil) energy sources are finite. The European Union and China among the others try to ensure their sustainable energy supply and energy security. Both of them are net importers, their growing economy based on external energy sources. The Middle – East Africa and Eurasia have been the energy supplier regions in the world, but today the taut situation in those regions and the fierce competition between the EU and China force them to find new energy fields. The Arctic region is rich in hydrocarbon and other energy sources that have not been exploited yet. That is why the EU and China pay more attention to this region. This article attempts to reveal the different energy policies of the EU and China towards the substantial fossil energy resources of the Arctic taking into consideration the increasing need for renewable energy sources and the growing demand to phase out fossil fuels, particularly coal. First, a brief overview of the energy sources and institutions of the Arctic region illuminates the major role of the Arctic Council, then the European Union’s and China’s energy policy and their current energy situation are analyzed. The next paragraphs reveal the recent steps, future targets, and achievements of the European and Chinese energy policy towards the Arctic. These paragraphs describe the Neo-Liberal energy policy of the European Community and the Realist or Neo-Liberal ways of Chinese energy strategy, unfortunately, based mainly on fossil fuels. However, due to increasing political pressure because of climate change and environmental pollution, the development of renewable energy sources is imperative, often integrated into one “more sustainable” system with the traditional fossil energy sources. The central question is: Whose policy will win the battle for the Arctic region’s energy sources? It means whose policy will be more effective to obtain energy sources, both fossil and renewable ones. Finally, it sums up and compares the differences between the two international actors’ energy policy regarding their strategies for explorations of fossil fuels and renewables and highlights the different ways and tools of their energy diplomacy.

Chinese renewable energy industries’ boom and recession: Evidence from bubble detection procedure

This paper considers bubbles specific to Chinese renewable energy industries, including wind, solar and hydro through the Generalized Supremum Augmented Dickey-Fuller test. It applies the recursive procedure and cross-time occurrence to identify starting and ending points in each bubble. Combining with the bubble model, the empirical results reveal that renewable energy industrial stock price may deviate from their market value, and bubble behaviours exist in these industries. The potential reasons can be contributed to economic growth, trade barrier, government supportive policies, global financial crisis, and environmental protection pressure. More attention is further paid on special factors such as extreme windy weather, unfair anti-dumping investigation and less policy support which can explain certain bubbles in wind, solar and hydro industries. The renewable energy industries' boom and recession that evidence from bubble behaviour, would harm industrial development, influence thousands of people's lives, and bring challenges for Chinese energy structure and policies. Therefore, depending on the timely identification of explosive behaviours and bubbles, policymakers could set up prudent policy framework, reduce government intervention and render firms autonomy to maintain the sustained and healthy development of industries. More importantly, enterprises should increase research and development expenditure, upgrade technical standard and exploit international renewable energy market.

Atmospheric environmental productivity across the provinces of China: Joint decomposition of range adjusted measure and Luenberger productivity indicator

This paper adopts data envelopment analysis, namely the range adjusted measure (RAM) which is based on the additive structure, to measure the technical efficiency and productivity change. Note that we distinguish among energy and non-energy inputs in the analysis. The Luenberger productivity indicator is decomposed for the provinces of China for the period of 2006–2015. Specifically, we seek to identify the key directions for energy conservation and emission reduction by analyzing the environmental productivity change decomposition. The results show that sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide emissions from primary energy consumption along with primary energy consumption are important variables contributing to atmospheric environmental inefficiency in Chinese provinces. Furthermore, static efficiency scores associated with energy consumption and atmospheric emission (sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide emissions) are lower for Hebei, Shandong, Henan and Shanxi in North China, whereas Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong and Fujian show higher values of this kind of efficiency. Atmospheric emissions contribute to the growth in the atmospheric environmental productivity to a higher extent if compared to energy consumption. Therefore, Chinese energy policy should address the environmental regulation of energy consumption. • Joint decomposition of RAM and Luenberger productivity indicator. • Identify the key directions for energy conservation and emission reduction. • Atmospheric emissions contribute to the growth in the productivity. • Government can opt for source control or end-of-pipe control.

Analysis of Chinese pupils’ intents in using bioenergy through the application of structural equation modeling approach

The present study, based on the structural equation modeling approach and with the help of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), analyzed Chinese pupils' bioenergy related behavioral intentions. Total 453 high school students participated in the study from three Chinese cities. Two structural models were constructed – a standard TPB model with the constructs attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention, and an extended TPB model with additional constructs of anthropocentric and biocentric beliefs. Result showed that the predictor attitude had positive and the strongest effect on the Chinese students' intents in using bioenergy. The effects of the other TPB predictors and the additional belief constructs were of insignificance. It is concluded that positive attitudes among the Chinese students related to bioenergy could influence their plans to adopt bioenergy in the future. Therefore, the Chinese educators and energy policy makers should consider these findings to improve students’ awareness and attitudes concerning bioenergy in China.

Residential energy consumption and its linkages with life expectancy in mainland China: A geographically weighted regression approach and energy-ladder-based perspective

Spatially variation of the relation between residential energy consumption and life expectancy at birth in mainland China was illustrated. Close associations were found between household coal/household electricity and life expectancy at birth at the provincial level in mainland China in 1990, 2000 and 2010. Household coal and electricity consumption showed significant negative/positive relations to life expectancy at birth in Chinese rural areas than urban areas. Furthermore, geographically weighted regression showed spatial non-stationary of the relations between residential energy consumption and life expectancy at birth in mainland China, especially for the household coal and household electricity. The negative correlations of household coal and life expectancy at birth denoted that household coal in the western part was more serious than the eastern part of China. In comparison, positive correlations between household electricity and life expectancy at birth showed an increasing trend from the east to the west, which indicated the positive effects of electricity, especially in western China. The results provided new insights into Chinese residential energy policy implications with spatial feature, which highlighted the higher priority in the energy ladder model to improve the household coal quality and increase the household electricity utilization especially in western rural areas in China.

Residential Energy Sustainability in China and Germany: The Impact of National Energy Policy System

The energy consumption and carbon emission of Chinese households is growing rapidly and will continue to do so for the near future. Currently, Chinese energy policies mainly focus on the industrial sector instead of the residential sector. Among industrialized countries, Germany has performed relatively well in the residential sector, which can provide valuable lessons for China. This paper investigates the policy-making, implementation, and resulting patterns of Chinese and German residential energy policies from a multi-level perspective. The policy system study provides a holistic view over the factors influencing residential energy sustainability. The main findings are: (1) the German residential energy policy system follows a hybrid policy model, combining top-down and bottom-up policy designs, with more demand-side or market-oriented policies, and a high level of public participation, resulting in remarkable headway toward sustainability in the residential energy sector; and (2) the Chinese energy policy system is characterized by top-down, supply-side oriented market policies with limited public participation. The policy implication of this study for China is to shift its top-down policy paradigm to a hybrid policy model that facilitates public participation in the residential energy sector.

Fueling Threats: Securitization and the Challenges of Chinese Energy Policy

Since the early 2000s, energy security has appeared frequently in Chinese policy statements. The focus is on security of supply, even if the discourse is becoming more attentive to other dimensions, such as environmental sustainability. Securitization theory can shed light on this specific threat construction and its implications for China and Chinese foreign policy. Applying securitization theory and reviewing existing debates, I show how the construction of an external threat and a focus on securing access to oil downplay other vulnerabilities and contribute to the perception among China's neighbors and others of a Chinese threat, despite new Chinese security discourses to the contrary. I argue that two factors contribute to this threat construction and its resilience: the role of national oil companies and the limited mobilizing power of environmental and climate security discourses.

Sovereign Wealth Fund investments in Europe as an instrument of Chinese energy policy

Chinese Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) are new instruments of Chinese ‘Go Global’ strategy and the politics of maintaining raw materials and energy security. Europe has lured 60% of the total USD 27.3 billion invested by Chinese SWFs in the energy sector globally, which provokes the question as to how important SWF investments are in the political sense and what security concerns they bring. This paper is the first that presents a comprehensive picture of Chinese SWF investments in the European energy market and one of the very few papers about SWFs based on multiannual, comprehensive empirical data. The author argues that Chinese SWFs are different players on the energy market than private investors, could be potentially harmful for some European interests. By installing representatives on the company boards, China gains access to sensitive information that could be then transferred to Chinese competitors. Moreover, through its SWFs China could take control over energy companies or critical infrastructure and increase its political influence in European countries, making them more vulnerable to political pressure. Therefore, the European policy-makers should consider taking special steps to monitor and maybe limit Chinese SWFs expansion in the energy sector.

On the optimal mix of wind and solar generation in the future Chinese power system

China is one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world. Until now, the corresponding growth of electricity consumption has been mainly provided by coal. However, as national reserves are limited and since burning coal leads to severe environmental problems, the employment of alternative sources of energy supply has become an important part of the Chinese energy policy. Recent studies show that wind energy alone could meet all of China's electricity demand. While our results validate these findings with regard to annual production, we look at the hour-by-hour resolution and uncover a major limitation: wind generation will not match the demand at every given point in time. This results in significant periods with over- and undersupply. Our study shows that combining wind and solar generation in the power system reduces overproduction significantly and increases the capacity credit of the combined VRE (variable renewable energy sources). The article demonstrates that up to 70% of VRE comprising 20–30% solar generation in the form of photovoltaics (PV) can be integrated into China's electricity system with moderate storage requirements. We encourage planners to consider those findings in their long-term planning in order to set up a sustainable power system for China at low costs.

The integration of Chinese and European renewable energy markets: The role of Chinese foreign direct investments

In the renewable energy (RE) sectors, foreign direct investments are becoming an important mean of regional integration between China and Europe, as a result of the combined effect of Europe–China dialog on energy issues; Chinese energy policy; and Chinese Go Global policy.Using a firm level data set from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, we perform an analysis on location choice by Chinese RE firms from 2004 to 2013, within Europe. We depict a map of “where to where” (home province vs. host country) and “who to where” (firm level characteristics vs. host country), to find out how characteristics of home and host regions affecting the integration of Chinese and European RE markets.Main results are the following. Investment pairs in RE sectors reflect a duality: firms tend to seek countries with similar institutional environment, compared with their origin regions. Countries with weak and immature institutions are attractive for immature and inexperienced Chinese firms.Main features of Chinese investors are the following: private, non-listed firms, entering through greenfield, focusing on sales. Market-seeking investors tend to enter countries with both well-developed institutional environment and industry development base. R&D-oriented investments are more likely to flow to countries with well-developed institutional environment.

The political economy of China's energy and climate paradox

This communication argues for the existence of a fundamental paradox related to Chinese energy and climate policy, made all the more discernible by trends in the electricity sector, urban development, and transportation. It first makes the case for the “browning” of China, identifying trends in electricity, pollution, and transportation that highlight the unsustainable nature of their present predicament. The second section, however, points to countervailing trends suggesting that China is also “greening,” becoming cleaner and less carbon intensive. The article concludes by noting that Chinese governance is excessively fragmented and that environmental sustainability may be incompatible with the accepted model of economic growth.