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China’s escalating energy consumption places increasing stress on the world’s energy prices, leading to mounting global pressures to seek potential energy supplies through technology and exploration.
Chinese energy demand has more than doubled during the past decade. According to the study “China’s Quest for Energy Resources on Global Markets” published in Pacific Focus by Wiley-Blackwell, China will consume about 41% of global coal consumption and 17% of global energy supply by 2050.
“The economic prosperity of China partnered by its rising energy demands will affect global energy sectors, commodity stock exchange market, energy trading strategies and environmental policies. Availability of fossil fuels, both in the near and long term, will become also increasingly scarce as China absorbs a growing global share of demand”, says co-author Dr. Zhang Jian, a research economist at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.
China became a net importer of petroleum in 1993, and is now the third largest importer and consumer – after the U.S. and Japan. As one of the world’s top carbon emitters, its energy profile is heavily weighted towards fossil fuel technologies, petroleum and coal at a time when reductions are urgently needed to stabilize global climate change.
While China has expressed willingness to participate in global negotiations over greenhouse emission reduction, their present domestic policy continues to rely on growing energy consumption.
“Although higher prices will stimulate innovation and research on renewable and alternate energy sources, the expansion of global energy supply is still not adequate to compensate China’s energy demand growth. The rest of the world will still have to manage and reduce energy demand through conservation”, said Dr. Zhang.
This paper is published in the November 2008 issue of Pacific Focus (Vol.23, Issue 3).
Media wishing to receive a PDF or schedule media interviews with the authors should contact Alina Boey, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications.
About Pacific Focus
Pacific Focus is published on behalf of the Center for International Studies, Inha University, South Korea. The Journal is a peer-reviewed and indexed and abstracted in the Social Sciences Citation Index, Journal Citation Reports/Social Sciences Edition.
Pacific Focus' scope encompasses the wide range of research interests concerning the Asia-Pacific, including security, regionalism, environment, migration, civil society and multi-culturalism.
The journal does not represent a particular approach or methodology. Instead, it seeks to foster diverse perspectives, embracing all conceptual, normative, and empirical research of major sub-areas of regional political economy. Pacific Focus aims to stimulate and disseminate high quality research and scholarship of the Asia-Pacific region throughout the international academic community. The Journal also aims to provide policy makers in Asia-Pacific countries with in-depth analyses of current issues and policy alternatives.
About Wiley-Blackwell
Wiley-Blackwell was formed in February 2007 as a result of the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and its merger with Wiley’s Scientific, Technical, and Medical business. Together, the companies have created a global publishing business with deep strength in every major academic and professional field. Wiley-Blackwell publishes approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books with global appeal.
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