China and Renewable Energy: a Policy Analysis. Focus on Wind Energy

Starting from the 21st Century, the world has become increasingly concerned with the global environmental degradation issue, which appears to be in a state of irreversible crisis. It has been twenty years since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, and humanity is still on the road to achieving a sustainable future. Although governments are eager to find a concrete solution for the global environmental emergency which jeopardizes the prospects of future generations; the global decision making process has found difficulties in achieving consensus. This paper will analyze the sustaining policies, which support and encourage the increase of renewable energy consumption and production in China. This country plays today a major role in the struggle against climate change due to the impact of its fast economic and demographic growth. In order to effectively highlight the policies and goals of renewable energy in China, wind energy will be analyzed as a case study. China is promoting renewable energy with the support of its policy, reaching diverse results on the consumption and the production availability of it. Indeed in 2010 China reached the first global position in production and consumption of renewable energy, where the production is much higher than the consumption. There is a gap between what the country produces and what it is able to use. As China has a big capacity on wind energy development; it is important to understand why China can\'t consume as much energy as produce.