Sustainable Development and Energy Transition in Europe and Asia

3China’s “Ecological Civilization”: Geopolitical and Geo-economic Insights

China has begun re-organizing its energy technologies, but the country continues to build on its position as the leader in the global coal market, as it is reaching significant over-capacity levels in coal supply and facing remarkable challenges to diversify its energy sources. The country remains a largely black energy power with the dependence on coal for power generation, which marginally increased in 2017 after successive falls each year since both coal consumption and production peaked in 2013. This chapter presents a critical assessment of the extant literature to help identify geopolitical and geo-economic challenges associated with China’s energy revolution as the country commits to clean energy and the concept of an ecological civilization.

3.1. Introduction

While long-time global influential players are abdicating leadership on the issue of climate change, China has moved in the opposite direction. Chinese leaders have taken a proactive stance in the United Nations (UN) climate negotiations, and now the country is leading the world in renewable energy deployment. Chinese authorities’ change of direction has made China one of the world’s leading countries in the fight against climate change under its particular environmental policy view. This follows more than 30 years of Chinese economic success, with the cost of explosive economic growth that neglected economic externalities. The country is ...