From top: Giulia Marchi/The New York Times/Redux; Imagine China/Newscom. Opposite page, from top: Rebecca Greenfield for NRDC; Yu Zinhua/eyevine/Redux
But such rapid, explosive growth brings myriad challenges. Choking air pollution, water pollution, and toxic soil contamination are now a part of everyday life for tens of millions of Chinese citizens. In addition, the world’s most populous country is the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, responsible for almost 30 percent of humanity’s global carbon footprint. These were some of the very issues that led to the formation of NRDC’s China program in the mid-1990s, and that continue to inform its mission. When Qian joined the program in 2002, she brought its tiny staff to a total of four; today more than 30 people work in NRDC’s China office.
At the top of today’s priorities list: finding a way to ramp up renewable energy while simultaneously reducing China’s dependence on coal. So far, progress has been slow and steady—coal’s power share was reduced from 64 percent to 62 percent between 2015 and 2016, and was expected to drop to 60 percent at the conclusion of 2017—which, Qian emphasizes, “is still too large.” But the fact that coal consumption has finally begun to level off in the last few years, after more than two decades of steep increase, is significant. What’s more, China now leads the world in clean energy jobs, having added 3.64 million jobs in 2016. The country also plans to spend more than $360 billion on clean energy in the next three years, creating an additional 12 million jobs. All this progress will go a long way toward helping China meet its goals for the Paris Agreement by its target date of 2030. As part of the accord, China pledged to increase the share of non–fossil fuels in its energy mix to around 20 percent. To get there will require concerted efforts across all energy-use sectors, from industry to transportation to urban development—and on a massive scale. “The good news is that China is emerging as a global leader in renewable energy production,” Qian says, and is well on its way to making good on these commitments.
“We started with one energy efficiency project that introduced green-building and demand-side management concepts to China,” Qian recalls. These days, she and her colleagues seek to address China’s unique environmental situation as the country adjusts to becoming a global superpower.
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