China Leads Global Investments in Renewable Energy

The world's largest consumer of energy, China, is poised to spend $473.1 billion on clean energy investments in the next five years.

The investment, according to Wang Yuqing, deputy director of the National Commission on Population, Resources and Environment, is part of government efforts to develop a green economy and promote environmentally friendly industries amid its growing population and rapid urbanization.

The planned investment is part of China's 12th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development (2011-2015) which aims for an installed solar energy capacity of 10 gigawatts by the end of the period.

China also wants 20 per cent of its total energy demand to be met by wind and solar by 2021.

In 2010, the world's second-largest economy invested over $47.31 billion in various renewable energy sources projects.

Renewable energy is poised to grow faster than other electric generating alternatives, accounting for nearly one-third of the world's electric generating capacity by the end of 2035, with China and India projected to consume one-half of that energy growth.

Earlier, according to BP's Statistical Review of World Energy 2011, China had been ranked as the world's largest consumer of energy surpassing, the U.S. and EU. The report showed that in 2010, China used up 20.3 per cent of the world's energy, overtaking the U.S. at 19.0 per cent and the EU at 14.4 per cent.

The International Energy Agency echoed the findings and said China will consume more energy than India, Brazil, even more than the European Union and the U.S. combined.

China will exchange positions with the United States as it becomes the world's largest consumer in 2035, IEA said. The agency predicts China will consume nearly 70 per cent more energy than the U.S.

In the next 25 years, 90 per cent of the projected growth in global energy demand will come from non-core economies. China alone will account for more than 30 per cent.