Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - China - energy policy

China Moves Cautiously Ahead on Nuclear Energy

Hui Zhang and Shangui Zhao — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:12:18 -0500

"Although China has every intention of continuing nuclear energy development, in the aftermath of Fukushima it has approved a number of plans to enhance safety standards. All of them emphasize that the pace of growth should be controlled to minimize risk."

From the Director

Graham Allison — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:48:58 -0500

"The strategic partnership between Harvard and China is unique among universities of the world," writes Belfer Center Director Graham Allison, "this relationship is reflected in decades of scholarship in Cambridge, tens of thousands of Chinese graduates of Harvard graduate and executive programs, and the policies of both governments that have brought us to this point."

Belfer and Ash Centers Expand U.S.-China Bridge-Building

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 07:43:24 -0500

Sponsored by the Institute for China-U.S. People-to-People Exchange and by Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer and Ash Centers, the “Challenge and Cooperation” conference at Peking University in January dissected the implications of China’s new leadership and President Obama’s second term. Participants examined the roles the two countries should play in international security and in trade and investment issues.

More than One Way to Skin a Policy

Andrew Facini — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 17:00:28 -0600

Washington Post national environment reporter Juliet Eilperin spoke on the political difficulties of pursuing environmental policy in a seminar titled "Covering Environmental Controversies in a Political Environment" at the Harvard Kennedy School.

'Energy Independence' Alone Won't Boost U.S. Power

Meghan L. O'Sullivan — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:22:00 -0600

“We are finally poised to control our own energy future,” said President Barack Obama in his State of the Union message, noting the drastic increase in American energy production from unconventional oil and gas resources.

Controlling our energy future means more than just producing a greater amount of our own energy. It also means harnessing this energy renaissance to meet our global geopolitical needs. We’ve begun to reap the many economic benefits this boom brings—such as easing the trade deficit and lowering carbon emissions. But we have only started to appreciate how this energy renaissance affects our larger strategic environment. And, not surprisingly, many readers of the tea leaves have confused reality with desire, by hoping more energy at home will mean keeping out of the volatile politics and economics of the Middle East.

New Book by Graham Allison and Robert Blackwill Explores Global Insights of “Grand Master” Lee Kuan Yew

Sharon Wilke — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 11:03:20 -0600

When Lee Kuan Yew speaks, who listens? Presidents, prime ministers, chief executives, and all who care about global strategy.

Graham Allison and Robert D. Blackwill, two leading strategic thinkers, asked Lee Kuan Yew the toughest questions that matter most to thoughtful Americans weighing the challenges of the next quarter century. The result is their new book, Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World – published today by MIT Press.

Missions-oriented RD&D Institutions in Energy Between 2000 and 2010: A Comparative Analysis of China, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Laura Diaz Anadon — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:51:20 -0600

By analyzing the institutions that have been created to stimulate energy technology innovation in the United States, the United Kingdom, and China—three countries with very different sizes, political systems and cultures, natural resources, and histories of involvement in the energy sector—this article highlights how variations in national objectives and industrial and political environments have translated into variations in policy.

Securing China’s Weapon-Usable Fissile Materials and Nuclear Facilities

Hui Zhang — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 14:13:19 -0500

Presentation at the 13th PIIC Beijing Seminar on International Security: Building a World of Sustainable Peace and Stability, Oct.31 – Nov.3, 2012, Beijing, China

Measuring the Energy Consumption of China's Domestic Investment from 1992 to 2007

Feng Fu, Hongtao Liu, Karen R. Polenske and Zheng Li — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 15:56:13 -0500

The key findings derived from this study improve the understanding of the effects of China's domestic investment on its energy consumption expansion and reflect the fact that China's rapid urbanization and industrialization processes are among the main reasons for the large amount of energy consumption in China. The authors provide some quantitative information for further determining the energy-saving potentials of China's economy during these processes.

Climate Change: The Clock Keeps Ticking

William R. Moomaw and Kelly Sims Gallagher — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 17:36:23 -0500

"With its extensive manufacturing capacity, China could continue to forge alliances with private companies in the United States, Europe and Japan to transform not only its own economy, but help to build the carbon protective, low carbon energy systems for the world."

China Responds to Fukushima

Yun Zhou — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:16:44 -0500

June 28, 2012

Before the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, China had big nuclear expansion plans, with more than 40 reactor units under construction or in planning. The Fukushima disaster led China to conduct safety inspections of all its reactors and to suspend nuclear project approvals until a new nuclear safety plan could be adopted. Under Beijing's new safety regulatory system, reactors that are operating or under construction will be spared major redesign, but future projects will face re-engineering, perhaps leading the Chinese to adopt safer third-generation reactor designs created by Chinese firms.

Oil Development in China: Current Status and Future Trends

Linwei Ma, Feng Fu, Zheng Li and Pei Liu — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:13:47 -0500

This paper attempts to present a full picture of the current status and future trends of China's oil development through system analysis. The authors design three scenarios of China's oil demand in 2030 and analyze policy implications for oil conservation, automotive energy development, and energy security. From their analysis, they draw some conclusions for policy decisions, such as controlling total oil consumption to avoid energy security risks, enhancing oil conservation in all sectors with the emphasis on road transportation, and increasing investment in oil production and refining to secure oil supply and reduce emissions.

China and Pakistan: Fair-Weather Friends

Michael Beckley — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:28:11 -0500

Two assumptions dominate current debates on US foreign policy toward Pakistan. First, Pakistan shares a robust "all-weather" friendship with China centered on core national interests. Second, Pakistan's ability to turn to China in times of need insulates it from US pressure and renders hardline US policies counterproductive. Both of these assumptions are mistaken.

The Price of Wind Power in China During its Expansion: Technology Adoption, Learning-by-doing, Economies of Scale, and Manufacturing Localization

Yueming Qiu and Laura Diaz Anadon — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:18:03 -0500

Using the bidding prices of participants in China's national wind project concession programs from 2003 to 2007, this paper built up a learning curve model to estimate the joint learning from learning-by-doing and learning-by-searching, with a novel knowledge stock metric based on technology adoption in China through both domestic technology development and international technology transfer. The paper describes, for the first time, the evolution of the price of wind power in China, and provides estimates of how technology adoption, experience building wind farm projects, wind turbine manufacturing localization, and wind farm economies of scale have influenced the price of wind power.

China’s Nuclear Energy Industry, One Year After Fukushima

Yun Zhou — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:11:51 -0600

March 5, 2012

It has been one year since the disastrous nuclear accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011. Experts now view Fukushima as the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

In the aftermath, the Chinese government promptly reaffirmed that nation’s nuclear energy policy. Yet China also became the only nation among all major nuclear energy states that suspended its new nuclear plant project approvals. Before it would restart approvals, China said it would:

1) Conduct safety inspections at all nuclear facilities

2) Strengthen the approval process of new nuclear plant projects

3) Enact a new national nuclear safety plan

4) Adjust the medium and long-term development plan for nuclear power

Where is China on this path, and what is the future of its nuclear power industry?

China's Commercial Reactors

Jonathan Hinze and Yun Zhou — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 18:28:43 -0600

China's approach to civil nuclear power reactor development will determine the overall tenor of its nuclear power programme long into the future. Its approach, both domestically and through imports, is analyzed, with a focus on the next decade of deployment.

Harvard Project on Climate Agreements Hosts Chinese Climate Change Study Tour

Robert C. Stowe — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:18:49 -0600

The Harvard Project on Climate Agreements hosted, on January 10, 2012, a study tour of Chinese officials working in climate and energy policy. The tour was organized by the World Resources Institute's China office. The study tour and several members of the Harvard faculty discussed options and prospects for international policy to address global climate change.

Behind the Development of Technology: The Transition of Innovation Modes in China's Wind Turbine Manufacturing Industry

Peng Ru, Qiang Zhi, Fang Zhang, Xiaotian Zhong, Jianqiang Li and Jun Su — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:02:13 -0600

The market scale of China's wind turbine manufacturing industry has grown immensely. Despite China still having a limited capacity in terms of technology innovation, the institutional support has promoted the technology capability development of the wind turbine manufacturing industry. This paper explores the driving forces underlying this development by reviewing the transition of the innovation modes and the dynamic interactions among the technology capability, innovation modes, market formation, and wind energy policy. The innovation mode in China began with imitative innovation, then transitioned to cooperative innovation, and has more recently set its sights on attaining truly indigenous innovation. Public policy serves as a key driving force for the evolution of innovation modes, as well as the development of the market.

Characteristics and Advantages of the Advanced Small Pressurized Water Reactor

Peipei Chen and Yun Zhou — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 12:11:29 -0600

The Advanced Small Pressurized Water Reactor (ASPWR) can be used in remote power grids and replaces mid/small size fossil-fuel plants economically. Current ASPWR deeply adopts modular and integrated pressure vessel design—and a passive safety system—which effectively improves plant safety and economy. This paper performs the comparative study of safety and economy features in ASPWR and large PWRs. The authors suggest that China should start R&D programs in ASPWR.

China's Aircraft Carrier: Chinese Naval Nationalism and Its Implications for the United States

Robert Ross — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:05:14 -0500

China's carrier program reflects the Chinese Communist Party leadership's surrender to the forces of nationalism....As Chinese domestic instability has grown, the increasingly insecure Communist Party leadership has used the carrier program to bolster its nationalist legitimacy—just as it used the 2008 Olympics, the 2009 Shanghai Expo, high-speed rail, the 'world largest airport,' and other high-profile projects for this purpose."

China's Nuclear Safety Regulatory System: Current Status and Challenges

Yun Zhou — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:30:07 -0500

Although China is one of the major contributors in the global nuclear expansion, China's nuclear power industry is relatively young. Its nuclear safety regulators are less experienced compared to those in other major nuclear power countries. To realize China's resolute commitment to rapid growth of safe nuclear energy, detailed analyses of its nuclear safety regulatory system are required.

A Network-based Modeling Framework for Stakeholder Analysis of China's Energy Conservation Campaign

Feng Fu, Wen Feng, Zheng Li, Edward F. Crawley and Weidou Ni — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:52:43 -0500

This paper proposes a network-based modeling framework to facilitate the development of stakeholder analysis of China's energy conservation campaign. Given the proposed framework, an illustrative case study is provided to elaborate how to integrate a set of techniques to further develop a quantitative model, as well as to demonstrate the practicability of the proposed framework. The results derived from the case study shows that the proposed framework and the model can be used as analytical tools to improve the government's policymaking process in term of providing a systematic perspective of stakeholder interrelations.

Preparing to Ramp up Large-scale CCS Demonstrations: An Engineering-economic Assessment of CO2 Pipeline Transportation in China

Hengwei Liu and Kelly Sims Gallagher — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:45:19 -0500

An integrated carbon dioxide (CO2) capture and storage (CCS) system requires safe and cost-efficient solutions for transportation of the CO2 from the capturing facility to the location of storage. While growing efforts in China are underway to understand CO2 capture and storage, comparatively less attention has been paid to CO2 transportation issues. Also, to the best of our knowledge, there are no publicly available China-specific cost models for CO2 pipeline transportation that have been published in peer-reviewed journals. This paper has been developed to determine a first-order estimate of China's cost of onshore CO2 pipeline transportation.

Preventing the Next Fukushima

Matthew Bunn and Olli Heinonen — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:16:22 -0500

This week, when the leaders of the G8 industrial democracies gather in France, their meeting will include discussions of what steps must be taken to strengthen global nuclear safety and global nuclear security in the aftermath of the tragedy at Fukushima. The Belfer Center's Matthew Bunn and Olli Heinonen suggest new actions the world community should take in five key areas in order to prevent another Fukushima.

China's Spent Nuclear Fuel Management: Current Practices and Future Strategies

Yun Zhou — Thu, 19 May 2011 10:24:55 -0500

Although China's nuclear power industry is relatively young and the management of its spent nuclear fuel is not yet a concern, China’s commitment to nuclear energy and its rapid pace of development require detailed analyses of its future spent fuel management policies. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of China's fuel cycle program and its reprocessing policy, and to suggest strategies for managing its future fuel cycle program.

Integrated Energy Strategy for the Sustainable Development of China

Linwei Ma, Pei Liu, Feng Fu, Zheng Li and Weidou Ni — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:53:47 -0600

The authors of this article propose, summarize, and present strategic ideas as policy implications for China's decision-makers. In conclusion, they determine that China should enhance strategic planning and regulation from a life cycle viewpoint of the whole society, prioritize energy saving, continuously improve incumbent energy, and rationally develop alternative energy.

Advancing Carbon Capture and Sequestration in China: A Global Learning Laboratory

Craig A. Hart and Hengwei Liu — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:26:11 -0600

China's dependency on coal fuels the country's phenomenal economic growth but at a major cost to the country's air and water quality, ultimately threatening human health and the country's continued economic growth. The Chinese government's efforts to put China onto a cleaner, low carbon development path have been substantial; however China's pollution and greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow. In an attempt to develop its own advanced coal generation technologies to improve the country's air quality and energy efficiency, the Chinese government is investing heavily in gasification and other technologies that can be employed in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) applications. This investment has turned China into a global laboratory for CCS pilot projects, attracting foreign governments, multilateral institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and business partners.

Is China Ready for Its Nuclear Expansion?

Yun Zhou, Christhian Rengifo, Peipei Chen and Jonathan Hinze — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:19:15 -0600

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of the Chinese nuclear energy program and policy, reviewing its past, present, likely future developments, as well as to consider potential challenges that deserve further attention. This paper will explore reasons that have caused the existing industry, describe China's nuclear bureaucracy and decision making process to understand how different stakeholders play a role in China's nuclear energy development. This study concludes that China's existing nuclear program and industry, in combination with its current stable economic and political environment, provides a sound foundation for the planned nuclear expansion. However, challenges which are crucial to the success of the nuclear expansion will need to be addressed.

Governmental Energy Innovation Investments, Policies and Institutions in the Major Emerging Economies: Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, China, and South Africa

Ruud Kempener, Laura Diaz Anadon and Jose Condor Tarco — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 11:03:26 -0600

Over the past decade, countries with emerging economies like Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, China, and South Africa have become important global players in political and economic domains. In 2007, these six countries consumed and produced more than a third of the world's energy and emitted about 35 percent of total greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. The changing global energy landscape has important implications for energy technology innovation (ETI) nationally and internationally. However, there is limited information available about the investments and initiatives that are taking place by the national governments within these countries. This paper presents the information available on energy RD&D investments in the emerging economies.

Energy Innovation Policy in Major Emerging Countries

Ruud Kempener, Laura Diaz Anadon and Jose Condor Tarco — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 00:29:24 -0600

New Harvard Kennedy School research finds that energy research, development, and demonstration (ERD&D) funding by governments and 100 percent government-owned enterprises in six major emerging economies appears larger than government spending on ERD&D in most industrialized countries combined. That makes the six so-called BRIMCS countries—Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico, China, and South Africa—major players in the development of new energy technologies. It also suggests there could be opportunities for cooperation on energy technology development among countries.