Download The Research of the Advantages and Impacts of the Low-Carbon

ORIENT ACADEMIC FORUM
The Research of the Advantages and Impacts of the Low-Carbon
Energy Economy Developing in The Ethnic Regions in Sichuan
Province
ZHANG Shufang
Southwest University for Minorities, China, 610041
Abstract: Development of low-carbon economy is an important way to change the economic growth of
China. As a less developed area in China, the ethnic regions in Sichuan province have a good condition
to develop the low-carbon energy economy. They have an area of 41,450,000 mu of wasteland, 2
hundred million mu of grassland. They also have huge amount of water and solar energy. The reserved
water resource is more than 1.6 hundred million kilowatt, of which 60,000 thousand kilowatt can be
utilized. On the other hand, the time of sunshine is 2000-2500 hours throughout the year, and the total
solar radiation in a year could be 5000-6800 MJ/ . The construction of low-carbon energy economy
will improve the development of education in the region, and hence to solve the shortage of the skilled
people and scientific innovation. We should adjust the industrial structure to build the low-carbon
industry, and develop the low-carbon products and services to increase employment. Then, we can speed
up the industries with local advantages and finally improving the sustainable development of the ethnic
regions.
Keywords: ethnic regions in Sichuan, low-carbon energy economy, advantage, impact
So far, the research of the low-carbon energy economy in ethnic region is still at an initial stage. In the
pager “Where Is the Way of the Low Carbon Economy Development in Ethnic Regions (Challenge
Version)”(Li Ruijie China Nation 2009-12-11), the people in ethnic regions do not have enough related
technology and funds to make use of the clean energy to build the low-carbon economy. How to get the
industrial upgrading through developing the low-carbon energy economy is also a big problem. The lack
of technology is a bottleneck of developing low-carbon energy economy in ethnic regions, and on the
other side, carbon trading is a new thing in China and do not have any appropriate regulation and
protection. The paper “The Restricts and Solutions Research of the Low Carbon Economy Development
in Sichuan Ethnic Regions”(Chen Xiyong, Ethic Studies in Gui Zhou, No.3 2010) said, “low-carbon
agriculture is a definite choice to deal with the climate change in Sichuan ethnic regions. The developing
of low-carbon energy economy in Sichuan ethnic regions will be faced with many constraints, such as
the lag of the concepts, inadequate investment in agriculture, underdeveloped infrastructure, lack of
agricultural technology and institutional mechanisms for low-carbon agriculture. People in Sichuan
ethnic regions should follow the rule of “low emission high absorption”, and develop low-carbon
livestock, planting and forest carbon sinks, improve the incentive policies of the investment in
low-carbon agriculture, implement the certification system of low-carbon agricultural products. The
government could do the purchasing in a low-carbon way and establish the carbon emissions right
trading system.”
The problem in those studies above is that they haven’t took use of the natural advantages into the
construction of the low-carbon energy economy, but only analyzed it in the aspects of funds, technology
and industrial structure. This paper focused at the natural advantages in Sichuan ethnic regions. In the
area, people can develop clean renewable energy by a low cost. In this way, we can transform the
resource advantages into the economic advantages. Developing low-carbon energy economy in the area
will lead the improvement of the education, employment and the featured industry.
1 Problem Statement
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There will be a lot of problems in the development process of human society. In the process, economic
development is accompanied by economic crisis, and the industrial economic development is
accompanied with energy crisis and environmental crisis. Industrial development causes a large number
of non-renewable fossil energy consumption, and it would lead to the rapid decrease of oil, coal and
other fossil fuels resources. On the other hand, the consumption of fossil fuels would bring a lot of
carbon emissions. Once the carbon get into the atmosphere, it will not disappear in decades, and that is
where the greenhouse effect, environmental degradation and ecosystem degradation begins. So, it is the
time we must reduce the carbon emission, and develop the energy economy, green economy to protect
our environment, which is called the low-carbon economy. Low-carbon economy, is a develop model
based on low power consumption, low pollution, low emission, which means reducing carbon emissions
from fossil energy resources via the ways of technological innovation, industrial restructuring, new
energy development and so on, finally to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Since we want both efficient
economic development and the good environment protection in the same time, low-carbon economy is a
must choice for us.
China is a developing country, and also a big manufacturing country in the world, we cause a large
amount of coal, oil and other fossil energy consumption and carbon emissions. So, considering our
energy supply, environmental pollution factors, if we want to make our economy to develop in a
sustainable way, we should also develop the low-carbon economy. In addition, we must continually
carry out the technological innovation and system innovation to occupy the opportunities in the global
economy in this field. So far, a number of developed countries take the low-carbon economy as an
important way to stimulate economic growth, adjust the industrial structure, increase employment and
get the top of the global economy. For example, 2009.02, president Obama signed the “2009 Economic
Stimulus Plan”, in which 150 billion dollar has been settled for green economy such as alternative
energy, and 5 million employment opportunities have been planned. European Union planned to
investigate 105 billion euro into the environment protection project and related employment before 2013,
to support the green industry in European Union area, and maintain the leading position in the field of
green technology in the world. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao said, “We should make great efforts to
develop low-carbon technologies, promote efficient energy-saving technologies and develop new energy
and renewable energy”, “We should also establish the industrial system and consumption pattern
featured as low-carbon emission”. And we can see that, the low-carbon economy will be an opportunity
for a new round of economic growth.
The ethnic regions in Sichuan are some less developed areas, especially in the economic aspect. In the
era of industrial economy, many factors restricted their development, so the economy there developed in
a slow and small way. However, the new round of low-carbon economy brings them new opportunities.
The regions are scarcely populated areas, and have large areas of forest and grassland, so they have a
good condition to absorb the carbon dioxide. At the same time, there is abundant hydropower, solar and
other clean energy, so they have enough clean energy resource for low-carbon economy. Hence,
considering the requirements of economic development and the local natural advantages, the
government should put Sichuan ethnic regions an appropriate position when carrying out the low-carbon
economy industrial distribution. So that the ethnic region can transform their natural advantages into the
economic advantages, and on the other hand, make use of the investment of the low-carbon technology
and low-carbon industry from the government, to improve the technological level other industries, and
finally promote the economic and social progress.
2 Sichuan Ethnic Regions Have the Natural Advantage to Develop the
Low-Carbon Economy
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2.1 Sichuan ethnic regions have the natural condition to develop the low-carbon economy
Sichuan ethnic regions are mainly composed of Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture (18 districts
included), Aba Tibetan Qiangzu autonomous prefecture (13 districts included), Liangshan Yizu
autonomous prefecture (17 districts included, in them there is Muli Tibetan autonomous country),
Mabian Yizu autonomous prefecture, Ebian Yizu autonomous prefecture and Beichuan Qiangzu
autonomous prefecture.
According to the fifth national census statistics in 2000, the number of minority population is 4,150,000.
, which is 62.9% of the whole province. Sichuan
And the area of the autonomous land is 305,000
ethnic regions have large land area with a small population, and are also rich of natural resources. There
are 41,450,000 mu of wasteland, 0.2 billion mu of grassland in Ganzi and Aba prefecture which is the
fifth large in the country, and it is one of the five big feeding areas. There are also abundant water
resources. The reserved water resource is more than 1.6 hundred million kilowatt, of which 60,000
thousand kilowatt can be utilized. The time of sunshine is 2000-2500 hours throughout the year, and the
total solar radiation in a year could be 5000-6800 MJ/
, which is one of the richest solar energy areas
in the country. [1] All of these natural resources can be exploited and utilized to get the clean energy.
Table 1
Composition of land use in Sichuan ethnic regions in 2000
Unit 10,000 Hectare
：
Agriculture land
area
total
arable land
orchard
woodland
grassland
water surface
Sichuan province
4080.93
643.47
62.69
1920.19
1375.18
79.40
Aba prefecture
772.02
9.62
1.45
307.63
448.07
5.26
Ganzi prefecture
1259.94
11.83
0.29
494.81
743.41
9.61
Liangshan prefecture
533.37
47.41
4.37
340.76
134.58
6.25
Construction land
Sichuan province
170.22
Residential
and
Mining land
128.55
Aba prefecture
2.42
1.16
area
total
Unused
land
Total
area
12.23
589.41
4840.56
0.04
49.39
Traffic
land
Water facilities
land
29.45
1.22
Ganzi prefecture
2.65
1.15
1.44
0.05
214.22
Liangshan
8.65
5.37
2.50
0.78
62.20
prefecture
source China Land Science Society “About Western” www.zgtdxh.org.cn/app/cms/html/column/pop
：
823.83
1476.81
604.23
We can see from above that, the forest area of the ethnic regions accounts 60% of the total province area,
grassland accounts 100%, water surface accounts 26%, unused land accounts more than 55%. These
lands have the effect of carbon reserving, and can be used as the edge natural conditions to develop the
low-carbon economy. In addition, Sichuan ethnic regions also have the industrial base of the low-carbon
economy, such as the ecological agriculture and animal husbandry, plateau eco-tourism, minority
characteristic culture industry, hydroelectric power, solar energy, agricultural and animal products
processing.
Compared with the other regions in Sichuan, the ethnic regions have less modern industries and the
environment is less polluted. There are large areas and small population, and many natural resources
could be utilized, especially the clean energies like water resource and the solar energy which are
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qualified with the requirement of the low-carbon economy.
2.2 Sichuan ethnic regions have plenty of renewable clean energy – hydro energy and solar energy
Renewable energy (new energy) means the kinds of energy come from the sun or inside earth directly or
indirectly, except from coal, petroleum, natural gas and other non-renewable fossil energy. The United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) classified the new energy into the following three categories:
Large and medium hydropower; new renewable energy which include small hydropower, solar energy,
wind energy, modern biomass energy, geothermal energy, ocean energy; traditional biomass energy.
The common features of the new energies are that they have abundant resources, can be recycled, and
do not have or have little pollution.
The essence of low-carbon economy is reducing the carbon emission, while the essence of the reduction
of carbon emission is the energy problem. Industrial economy is the era of the fossil energy, and China
is now at the stage in the middle of the industrial economy and the rapid economic growth period, so we
have a large demand of energy. The energies we are using are mainly coal, petroleum and some other
fossil energy. 52% of our using petroleum is imported, and the coal is starting to import now, but the
global fossil energy will inevitable run out someday before the end of the 21st century. According to “BP
World Energy Statistics 2008”, the global petroleum reserves can be used for another 40 years, the
number of natural gas and coal are respectively 60 and 133. So, considering the supply and demand
relationship between economic development and fossil energy, we should put grate efforts into the
development of the new renewable energies, and it is also the energy strategic of our country. Nowadays,
the utilizable renewable clean energies in our country are mainly hydro energy, wind energy, solar
energy and so on.
Sichuan ethnic regions have great potential to be exploited because of their abundant water resources.
The altitude of the mountain area at the boundary of the basin is very high, and there is abundant rainfall.
In many years, the average rainfall is between 1200mm and 1600mm. The average water resource of
Jinsha River which is located at the alpine plateau area in western Sichuan, accounts 38.4% of the total
province water resource. The rivers in Sichuan are originated from the northwest Sichuan plateau or the
mountain at the basin margin (mainly the ethnic regions), so most of the rivers have a characteristic as
that of the stream river, which are steep valley, narrow bed, big drop, rapid flow. Among the rivers,
Jinsha River has a 4920m-drop, accounted 95% of the total drop of Chang River, and it has plenty of
water resource which is an edge of the hydropower cascade development. Since the population of the
coastal area in Sichuan ethnic regions is small, the cost of exploitation is low. The water resource
reserve in Sichuan accounts one fourth of that of the entire country, plus there many good dam site in
the gorge area with less inundation loss, so, it is the ideal place to cascade build the large power station,
and this development has a great prospect. And it is also suitable for building medium or small
hydropower stations. For example, the hydropower resource in Sichuan Liang Mountain is abundant.
The technology development there could be 58.16 million kilowatts, which accounts 15% of that of the
entire country and 57% of the entire province. Nowadays, although the absolute value of the
hydroelectricity consumption is large, it only accounts 16%--20% of the total power generation.
The area of the wasteland and the grassland in Sichuan ethnic regions is large. There are 41.45 million
mu wasteland and more than 0.2 billion mu grassland. The ethnic regions is the area of Plateau
Mountains, the duration of sunshine there is long, so the reserve of the solar energy is large which could
be highly exploited. “There is large area with small population is the western area in our country. The
duration of sunshine there is long and the solar radiation is strong, which means the solar energy there is
rich. The yearly total solar radiation per square meter is in the range of 3350-8400 MJ, at the average
number of 5860 MJ (equals to 199kg standard coal). The annual land surface absorption of solar energy
in China is about the energy of 2.4 trillion tons of standard coal, which is the same as 800 times as the
total national energy consumption in 2009 (3 billion tons of standard coal).” “According to the statistics
from the MIIT, the total installed capacity of national power in 2009 is only 874 million kilowatts. Take
‘the three prefectures’—Liang Mountain, Ganzi, Aba in western Sichuan as an example, 1% usage of
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local grassland could be turned out to 276.816 billion degree of the annual power
generation.”[2]Moreover, if we could install the Grid PV (Photovoltaic) power system in the desert,
wasteland and grassland, the transformation from solar energy to electrical energy would become a
prospective industry. There are large areas of desert, wasteland and grassland in the middle and western
China, and the solar energy resource there is rich, so we should develop in the western area and turn it
into the base of clean energy in the future. If so, the economy of the western ethnic regions could be
developed and the local industry there could be optimized as well. And at the same time, the structure of
the energy resource would be changed in a better way, the carbon emission and the use of coal and
petroleum would be reduced, the goal of saving energy and reducing consumption could be realized at
last.
From the situation of global solar energy and PV industry development, “The revenues of the global
solar industry reached 20.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2007. In many years, the PV industry is one of the
fastest growing and the most stable industry field in the world. It is expected that the production of the
PV component will grow at a increasing speed of more than 20%-30% in future 10 years. More and
more governments and financial communities (e.g. the World Bank) are aware of the prospect of PV
industry. Many developed countries and regions are planning the PV development. For example, the
United States planned to install 4.6 GW of PV system before the end of 2010 (include the Million Roofs
Program). EU planned to install 3.7 GW of PV systems (the renewable energy white book). Japan
planned to install 5 GW of PV systems (the NEDO Japan New Sunshine Program). Some other
developing countries are about to install 1.5 GW of PV systems (approximately 10%). It is planned that
the total amount of installation is in the range of 14 GW--15 GW. The PV energy will become one of the
basic energy in the middle period of 22nd century. ” [3]Large-scale development of solar energy will face
many problems such as high cost and technological puzzles. All these will make the exploitation
difficult. So we should work out a suitable development strategic of the solar energy and the PV industry
to exploit the solar energy in the western area thus to ensure the sustainable development of China's
low-carbon economy.
As its low cost and mature technology of hydroelectric power, Sichuan has entered the peak period of
development. According to the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” energy development and the 2020 vision plan,
Sichuan will strive to add more than 15 million kilowatts to the installed capacity of hydropower in the
"Eleventh Five-Year" period. The installed capacity of hydropower in the whole province will reach
about 75.3 million kilowatts and the capacity of delivering electric power to other provinces will reach
about 33.3 million kilowatts to the end of 2020. “SDIC Electric Power recently purchased 48% equity of
Ertan Hydropower. After the acquisition (4%), the shares of Ertan Hydropower that SDIC Electric
Power held will increase from 48% to 52%. SDIC Electric Power became the absolute controlling
shareholder and since then, the SDIC Electric Power will lead the development of the rich hydropower
resources of the Yalong River…After the completion of the project, it can transport about 30.5 billion
KWh to Shanghai per year and replace about 15 million tons of coal which will reduce 25 million tons
carbon dioxide emissions, 0.20 million tons sulfur dioxide emissions and 40,000 tons of nitrogen oxide
emissions.”[4]In addition to the large-scale hydropower, the development of small and medium
hydroelectric is more meaningful to the economic development in ethnic regions in Sichuan and they
protect the environment better.
There are renewable water and solar energy resources in ethnic regions in Sichuan. The exploitation of
the resources will reduce the consumption of coal, oil, gas and other fossil energy and at the same time
will promote socio-economic, development of science and technology education in ethnic regions in
Sichuan.
3 Positive Impacts on the Socio-Economic of Low Carbon Economic Development
in Ethnic Areas in Sichuan
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3.1 Promote the development of education, Establish the innovation system
As the rapid development of modern science and technology today, ethnic regions in Sichuan should not
be allowed to last a long-term backward. Effective measures must be taken to stimulate the technology
development and help them solve the manpower shortage and lack of scientific and technological
innovation. According to the process of human society development, the basic approach to solve it is to
develop the modern education in the region and build modern factories. The research of Ingles that
surveys more than 30 agencies shows that schools and factories are main places to promote the
modernization, and the research shows that people with modern-quality in the "less educated" shares an
average of 30%, while the percentage reaches 49%. It is visible that technological innovation depends
on technology in education. To develop low-carbon economy in ethnic regions in Sichuan, building a
"technology innovation system which takes enterprises as the mainstay, market-oriented, combining
production and study with research" is needed. To enhance innovation efforts of low-carbon technology
of related companies, efforts based on Own R & D should be taken.
Although education has been greatly developed in ethnic regions in Sichuan, it still can not meet the
development needs of a modern society. Compared with the developed areas, the basic education,
vocational education and higher education there still have a very obvious gap in quantity and quality.
The development course of human social shows that social progress and economic development are
inseparable from the development of education. So, people in the ethnic regions in Sichuan should seize
the opportunity of developing a low carbon economy to develop their education.
3.2 The development of low-carbon economy will increase employment opportunities for ethnic
regions in Sichuan and promote local economic development
Always following the economically developed areas in southeast, backward areas develop first and then
govern which expense of the environment in return for economic growth. These have been proved to be
short-term behavior and can not be sustainable development and virtuous cycle. There are advantages of
a large number of natural and good ecological cycles in ethnic regions in Sichuan and never again
should such economic growth repeat. Local rich natural resources and the advantages of a good
ecological environment should be taken advantage according to local conditions to develop cleaner and
low-carbon economy.
"In recent years, global environmental protection market demand for products and services reached 1.3
trillion U.S. dollars annually." [5]This shows that the demand for low-carbon industries will promote
their supply; the developed countries will take low-carbon economy as an opportunity for economic
development and employment increase. For instance, it is said that the draft policy “Green Economy and
Social Change” in Japan will make the field of environment market in Japan in 2020 grow to 120 trillion
yen. This shows that low-carbon economy has become the driving force of economic development.
From the current view, the low carbon economy has made great achievements. "From the domestic
market, in 2008, national energy-conserving and environment-protective (including renewable energy)
industry output reached 1.41 trillion Yuan, accounting for 4.7% of GDP, improved employment 2,500
people. China's potential of technically feasible, economically reasonable energy-saving can be more
than 400 million tons of standard coal and can spur thousands of billions of investment in energy saving.
China's huge market demand for energy-saving and emission-reduction, has caused great concern in
large enterprises in developed countries. The major countries take energy-conserving and
environment-protective as an important content in cooperation with China. Economic and technological
cooperation among government, non-governmental organizations, business and civil society contacts
actively"[6]
Low-carbon economy needs a lot of new products and service, producers of these products and services
will form a low-carbon industry, for example, the production of solar cells. Sichuan become the largest
polysilicon production base, merely solar cells can do a thousand billion industry value. “September 20,
2009 morning, in Kangding, Ganzi Atlantic Silicon Co., Ltd. held a foundation laying ceremony for a
first-stage construction of a project that will produce 100 thousand tons and 10,000 tons of solar grade
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silicon metal annually. The total investment is 820 million euros and in the first-stage the project will be
put into operation in June 2011 and then it will produce 50,000 tons and 5,000 tons of industrial silicon
solar grade silicon metal annually. Then the second- stage project will be designed and constructed. In
June 2013 an auxiliary station will be finished and then the project can be put into use. Then it will be
the world's largest industrial silicon and solar grade photovoltaic materials production base. Sales
income will be 10 billion Yuan and the revenue will be more than 1 billion Yuan.” [7]These products and
investment of projects will inevitably promote local employment and increase job opportunities.
Currently China has taken the development of low carbon economy as an opportunity for economic
growth mode transformation. This year China adjusts its industrial structure, changes itself from
extensive-style growth to intensive-type growth, saves energy and reduces emission, reduces
environmental pollution and improves the quality of economic growth.
Ethnic regions in Sichuan should seize this opportunity for development. Low carbon economy
experimental areas which can cover the whole ethnic regions should be established. Now many areas are
in preparation for the establishment of low carbon economic industry. Ethnic regions in Sichuan should
seize the opportunity promptly and actively. Once become national experimental zone for a low carbon
economy, ethnic regions in Sichuan can acquire the financial and technical support from government.
Ethnic regions in Sichuan belong to regions whose carbon removal is larger than the carbon released.
China may gradually establish appropriate compensation mechanism for these regions. So a low carbon
economy is not only to promote environmental protection, deal with climate change but also to create
new business opportunities and jobs, solve the problem of employment and income, change the status of
poverty and backwardness by means of develop, use and output low-carbon technologies.
3.3 Low carbon economy can promote rapid development of industries with local advantages in
ethnic regions in Sichuan, while sustainable economic growth will be promoted in ethnic regions
The transportation, communication information, social services, education, science and technology are
all still relatively backward in ethnic regions in Sichuan. Economic development is restricted badly. In
ethnic regions there are some special advantage industries such as energy, raw materials, specialty
agricultural products, tourism, etc. But to turn the resource advantages into economic advantages calls
for funding, technology, qualified person and markets. The development of a low carbon economy in the
region will necessarily get investment, the introduction of advanced technology, talent pool from
government and other enterprises, and then the construction and development of transportation,
communications, and social service will be accelerated, in the same time educational technology will be
developed. Improvements of infrastructure, introduction of trained person and technology will form a
huge production and consumer market that will turn resource advantages into economic advantages and
stimulate economic growth. China turns its support for ethnic regions from giving the food to teaching
the method of making the food. Only changing of the economic position in ethnic regions via the
development of new industry that appropriate local resources can support can make the development
continually.
4 Conclusion
In a word, under the trend of transformation of economic growth in ethnic regions in Sichuan,
advantages in resources should be taken, the opportunity to develop low carbon economy and the
western development should be seized, national, foreign and private investment should be attracted
actively, clean renewable energy should be developed to promote social progress in ethnic regions in
Sichuan and improve the slow economic growth.
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Notes:
1) “Yearbook of Sichuan”, arranged by writer
2) Liu Hanyuan Midwest to Develop Solar Photovoltaic Power Station 2010-03-11 14:53:10 China
Economic Net
3) 2009 China Energy Development Report, No.4
4) “China Energy Report”, 2010.1.25, edition No.20
5) Wang Xiaokang ”The Thoughts About Improving China’s Low-Carbon Economy Development”,
“QiuShi” 2009.11
6) Song Yang, “Building ‘Army Groups’ to Occupy the Low-Carbon Market --exclusive interview of
Wang Xiaokang, the general manager of China Energy Conservation Investment Corporation”,
“China Economic Herald”, 2010.03.20.
7) http://www.indunet.com.cn 2009-09-24 00:00, China Industrial Network
：
：
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[3]. Tian Lixin, Etc. “Energy Economy Systems Analysis”, Social Sciences Academic Press, 2005
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