BEIJING — Chinese
President Hu Jintao and U.S. and European officials called Monday for a
sharp rise in the world's use of solar and other nonpolluting power
sources as they opened an international meeting on renewable energy.
Some 1,200 delegates from 80 countries joined Chinese leaders at
the Great Hall of the People, the seat of China's legislature in central
Beijing, to discuss using solar power, wind energy and hydropower instead
of coal and oil.
"Strengthening the development and use of
renewable energies is a must for us to address the increasingly serious
energy and environmental issues," Hu said in a statement that was read to
the conference by Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan.
Participants in the
conference included European Cabinet ministers and U.S. Energy Department
officials.
China, the world's second-biggest producer of
greenhouse gases after the United States, has promoted cleaner and
renewable energy in hopes of reducing air pollution from its surging
fossil fuel use and the potential security risks of growing dependence on
imported oil.
The government says China relies on renewable energy
for 7 percent of its needs but wants to raise that to 15 percent by 2020.
"With this Beijing conference, one of the world's boom regions is
sending an important signal for sustainable development worldwide and a
signal for global climate protection," said Jurgen Trittin, Germany's
environment minister.
Worldwide, hydroelectric dams and other
renewable sources account for 4 percent of power generation, with a total
generating capacity of 160 gigawatts, according to Trittin. A terawatt is
1,000 gigawatts.
By 2050, that generating capacity is expected to
grow by more than eight times to 1 terawatt, said Dan Arvizu, director of
the U.S. Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
"But what we need is 20 terawatts," Arvizu said in a speech at the
two-day conference. "We all need to do much more than any of us is
currently doing."
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a
statement read out at the conference, cited the potential economic
benefits of renewable energy for poorer countries.
"Oil price
increases which hit importing developing countries especially hard
highlight the need for alternate energy supplies," Annan's statement said.
China is trying to promote cleaner energy even as it constructs
dozens of new power plants to meet the demands of a booming economy that
is expected to grow by 9 percent this year.
Areas throughout China
suffer from chronic power shortages, prompting many cities to schedule
blackouts in summer to reduce the strain on their generating stations.
"China attaches great importance to ... renewable energy and takes
it as one of the most important instruments for promoting social and
economic development," Hu's statement said.
The government says it
plans to build 31 nuclear power plants by 2020 and is constructing
clusters of windmills off several areas of its east coast.
In
China, oil and inexpensive but dirty coal still account for most energy
consumption.
"It is a pressing need for China's electricity sector
to use renewable energy," said Zhou Dabing, president of China Guodian
Corp., a government-owned power company.
"Compared to developed
nations, we are lagging behind in terms of technical progress and our
speed of progress," Zhou said.
Arvizu called China's target of
obtaining 15 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020 "pretty
aggressive." But he said Beijing should consider setting an even higher
target.
resource：Associated Press
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