Dismal wind power progress in world's second largest CO2 emitter

Wind power in China is going nowhere very fast, according to Carol-Ann Brown of the Environment Change Institute at the University of Oxford in England. Summing up her verdict on the status quo of the Chinese renewables market at the start of the 21st Century she says there is no market pull, no comprehensive and coherent energy policy, only a short pay-back period for loans, a lack of competition in project development and an "environment tokenismâ attitude to wind energy." She warns: "Some believe that without climate change obligations, as in Europe, the environment protection motivation is not strong enough to commercialise wind power in China, the second largest emitter of CO2 after the United States in the world." As Brown makes clear, the Chinese government needs to make far reaching political changes to seriously open the road for wind power. Brown was sharing her first hand experience of China at the European Wind Energy Conference held in Kassel, Germany, in late September, on her return from an extended visit to the country.