China's energy technologies to 2050 - Grantham Report 2

Project Lead: Ajay Gambhir
Project Team: Neil Hirst, Tamaryn Brown, Keywan Riahi, Niels Schulz, Mark Faist, Sam Foster, Mark Jennings, Luis Munuera, Danlu Tongand Lawrence K C Tse
Published: January 2012

Overview

The future course of China’s CO₂ emissions is of critical importance for climate change mitigation. These emissions have more than doubled since 2000 and, on business as usual assumptions, could represent nearly 30% of global emissions by 2050. This reflects China’s status as the most populous nation on earth with a rapidly developing (largely coal-based) economy. As for other countries, climate change mitigation is only one of the objectives of China’s energy policy. In addition to China’s economic development objectives, energy security is a growing concern for China as its oil imports increase, and the health impacts of local air pollution remain a key political and economic issue.

This Research Report examines the pathways through which China could reduce energy related CO₂ emissions by 2050, to levels that would be broadly consistent with the global 2^oC objective. It highlights the technologies that would be required, the barriers to their deployment, and the wider implications for China’s energy policy.

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