The World in 2030

The World in 2030 175
is claimed that China is far more aware of the need for
a switch to renewable energy sources than most people
in the West believe. Writing in The Birmingham Post
two analysts of China’s energy policy reported in
September 2006:
The Chinese Government has devised a comprehensive
renewable energy strategy designed to make power
generation from renewable energy sources as economically
competitive as coal-fired power generation.
In 2003, renewable energy consumption accounted
for only 3 per cent of China’s total energy consumption.
The Renewables Law seeks to increase
the proportion to 10 per cent by 2020, repre sen -
ting a significant rise particularly given the rapid
and continuing increase in China’s overall power
consumption. 335
And The Economist reported 336 in June 2007 that solar
power already heats about 80 per cent of China’s hot water
supply – an astonishing statistic.
In Eastern Europe there is plenty of potential renewable
energy available but, as the International Herald Tribune
reported in March 2007 there is, at present, a reluctance to
begin the shift away from fossil fuels:
Sun-baked Bulgaria, windy Poland and farm-rich
Hungary have thousands of megawatts in untapped
renewable energy that the European Union wants
used to fight global warming.