"China advancing at an 'astonishing' pace on green technology"

Back in February, I mentioned Alan Anson's competition to make four specific predictions for 2010.  Mine are here.  I'm not doing too badly, with the iPad being the huge seller, the Ausdollar upwards of 0.93 to the US dollar, Sharia law very much in the news in the wake of the row over the mosque at Ground Zero (though not yet to Congressional enquiry level), and now China showing some remarkable steps on the "being green" front.  There's this South China Morning Post story on the creation of a national carbon-trading market and also the one below on the growth of China's green technology...
[photo: workers in China smooth the surfce of a blade for a wind turbine.... courtesy SCMP]




China advancing at an 'astonishing' pace on green technology




Beijing's climate negotiators are moving too slowly, but the country's green-energy companies are advancing at an "astonishing" pace and threaten to outpace Western competitors, according to Europe's climate chief.

Connie Hedegaard's comments came as part of a warning that Europe would not automatically sign up again to the UN's Kyoto Protocol, the main global deal to tackle climate change.

"I was a bit disappointed in Geneva," she said of UN climate talks earlier this month. "China was represented by an undersecretary from the local embassy, that was not a good sign. China is a key player and they have to commit strongly."

At the same time, she warned business leaders at the European Policy Centre against underestimating Chinese rivals in the race for global dominance of the green technology sector.

"I really strongly believe that it's very foolish if one mistakes the way [China] are slow around the negotiating table with what is happening in reality in China," she said.

Three Chinese wind-turbine makers are in the global top 10, up from zero 10 years ago, and China controls half the global solar market.

"Coming from Denmark, where it took 30 years to build the world [wind power] brand Vestas, I'd say that's astonishing how you can build three companies in the top 10 globally in less than 10 years," she added.

"It tells us something about how fast they are moving when they are moving."

Hedegaard said progress looked "very difficult" in the lead-up to talks in Cancun, Mexico in November, and that nobody should expect the EU to sign an extension of the Kyoto Protocol unless loopholes were closed and other big players committed.
South China Morning Post, September 15Reuters in Brussels
Updated on Sep 15, 2010


REF: "National carbon-trading market mooted", SCMP, 15 Sep 2010. PDF
"Rules to tighten on energy use and pollution", SCMP, 15 Sep 2010.  Here