1 / 58

Asian Energy and Environmental Policy: Promoting Growth while Preserving the Environment

Asian Energy and Environmental Policy: Promoting Growth while Preserving the Environment. ZhongXiang Zhang 张中祥 Senior Fellow, Ph.D in Economics East-West Center, Honolulu, HI 96848, USA Tel: +1 808 944 7265; Fax: +1 808 944 7298 Email: ZhangZ@EastWestCenter.org.

Download Presentation

Asian Energy and Environmental Policy: Promoting Growth while Preserving the Environment

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Asian Energy and Environmental Policy:Promoting Growth while Preserving the Environment ZhongXiang Zhang 张中祥 Senior Fellow, Ph.D in Economics East-West Center, Honolulu, HI 96848, USA Tel: +1 808 944 7265; Fax: +1 808 944 7298 Email: ZhangZ@EastWestCenter.org The Inaugural International Colloquium on Sustainable Growth, Resource Productivity and Sustainable Industrial Policy Wuppertal, Germany, 17-19 September 2008

  2. Acknowledgements • Part of the ADB flagship study on “Emerging Asian Regionalism: Ten Years after the Financial Crisis” under TA-6374 (REG), Office of Regional Economic Integration, Asian Development Bank.

  3. Overview • Challenging environmental issues in Asia • Major causes of environmental degradation in Asia • Policy responses both at national and international levels • Energy and climate linkages and the role of emerging carbon finance in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions

  4. Challenging Environmental Issues • Air pollution - Levels of air pollution in Asian cities regularly exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended guidelines as well as national air quality standards. • Water pollution • Deforestation • Transboundary pollution - atmospheric brown cloud, acidification, and dust and sandstorms • Climate change • Environmental costs

  5. World Developing Asia Other Biomass & Waste Other Renewables 10% Renewables 1% 1% Hydro Biomass & Waste Coal 2% 21% 25% Nuclear Hydro 6% 2% Coal Nuclear 44% 1% Gas Gas 21% 7% Oil Oil 35% 24% Energy Mix in the World and Developing Asia by Fuel in 2004 (IEA, 2006)

  6. Trends of Major Criteria Air Pollutants 1993-2004 (CAI-Asia, 2006)

  7. Average Annual Air Quality Levels of Selected Asian Cities 2000-2004 (CAI-Asia, 2006)

  8. Estimated Deaths of Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution in 2002 (WHO, 2007)

  9. Major Causes of Environmental Degradation in Asia • Market failures • Inefficiency in production and use of energy and resources • Local governments’ inability or non-cooperation • Lack of integrated planning • Weak environmental regulatory agencies

  10. Economic Value of Energy Subsidies innon-OECD Countries in 2005 (IEA, 2006)

  11. Energy Use/GDP in the Selected Asian Countries, 1990-2004 (TOE/million 2000 US$)

  12. The Sydney APEC Leaders’ Declaration on Climate Change Energy Security and Clean Development, September 8, 2007 • Australia proposed that all 21 APEC economies, regardless of whether they are developed and developing economies, agree to reduce energy intensity by at least 25% by 2030. • But the Leaders agree to work towards achieving an APEC-wide aspirational goal in energy intensity by at least 25% by 2030, relative to 2005 levels. • Why?Since 1990, the rate of energy efficiency improvement in IEA countries has been less than 1% per year (IEA, 2007); many Asian countries consumed more energy per unit of GDP in 2004 than they did in 1990.

  13. The Rates of both Energy Efficiency Improvement and Increase in Energy Use in IEA Countries, 1973-2004(IEA, 2007)

  14. CO2Emissions/GDP in the Selected Asian Countries, 1990-2003 (tC/million 2000 US$)

  15. Maximum Fines by Category of Violators of Environmental Laws and Regulations in China

  16. Per Capita Ecological Biocapacity, Footprint and Deficits/Reserves by Region in 2003 (Hectares) + Ecological reserve; - Ecological deficit. Global Footprint Network (2007).

  17. Total Vietnam Thailand Sri Lanka Philippines Papua New Guinea Pakistan New Zealand Nepal Myanmar Mongolia Malaysia Laos Korea Republic Korea DPR Japan Indonesia India China Cambodia Bangladesh Australia -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 Per capita ecological deficits and surpluses 2003 (Global Footprint Network, 2007)

  18. Policy Responses at National Levels • Coordination between the central and local governments • Economic policies, e.g., market-based environmental instruments and industrial policies • Tougher emissions standards for mobile and stationary sources and fuel quality • Policies to promote energy efficiency and the use of clean energy and biofuels • The integration of environmental policies with economic and sectoral policies • Engagement of the private sector to promote its improved corporate environmental performance

  19. Objective and Subjective Factors for the Lack of Local Officials Cooperation on the Environment in China [1] • 主观上讲, 不合理的对官员的约束激励机制导致片面追求更高的GDP Currently distorted incentive system that tempts officials to disregard environmental costs of growth. Under the current evaluation criterion for officials in China, typically, local officials have been promoted based on how fast they expand their local economies.

  20. Objective and Subjective Factors for the Lack of Local Officials Cooperation on the Environment in China [2] • 客观上讲, 现有机制造成中央和地方利益难以协调 Since the tax-sharing system was adopted in China in 1994, taxes are grouped into taxes collected by the central government, taxes collected by local governments, and taxes shared between the central and local governments. All those taxes that have steady sources and broad bases and are easily collected, such as consumption tax, tariffs, vehicle purchase tax, are assigned to the central government. VAT and income tax are split between the central and local governments, with 75% of VAT and 60% of income tax going to the central government. Revenue share by the central government: 22.0% in 1993; 55.7% in 1994; 52.8% in 2006 Expenditure share by the central government: 28.3% in 1993; 30.3% in 1994; 24.7% in 2006 Local governments have little choice to focus on local development and GDP. That will in turn enable them to enlarge their tax revenue by collecting urban maintenance and development tax, contract tax, arable land occupation tax, urban land use tax, etc to pay their expenditure for culture and education, supporting agricultural production, social security subsidiary, etc . • Differentiated Tariffs:Many local governments failed to implement the differentiated tariffs that charge more for companies classified as “eliminated types” or “restrained types” in these industries, with 14 of them even continuing to offer preferential power tariffs for such industries, because all the revenue collected from these additional charges go to the central government.

  21. Shares of the Central and Local Governments in the Government Revenue and Expenditure in China (NBS, 2007)

  22. Economic Policies [1] • Having right economic policies is crucial because they send clear signals to both producers and consumers of energy. Given the widespread use of fossil fuel subsidies in developing Asian region, removing these subsidies is essential to provide incentives for efficient fuel use and adoption of clean technologies that reduce emissions at sources. • However, removing such subsidies is but a first step in getting energy prices right. Further steps include incorporating the costs of resources themselves to reflect their scarcity and internalizing the costs of externalities. • Market-based environmental instruments, e.g., pollution charges, green taxes, tradeable permits, penalties for the infringement of environmental regulations • Economic instruments such as pollution charges don’t work to their full potential, because the charges and fines are set too low as have been the case in many developing countries. Many polluting companies see their compliance costs higher than the fines, and accordingly choose to pay the fines rather than to reduce their pollution.

  23. Levels of Charges for Atmospheric Pollutants in China Local governments are allowed to raise pollution charges above the national levels. Jiangshu Province, raised charges for SO2 emissions from current level of 0.6 to 1.2 from July 1, 2007 onwards, three years ahead of the national schedule. This charge is still less than half of the real abatement cost, which is reported to be 3 Yuan per kilo of pollution equivalent for abating SO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants.

  24. Economic Policies [2] • Industrial policies to promote industrial upgrading and energy conservation • Levy export taxes and cut imports tariffs on energy and resource intensive products from November 2006. • Eliminate or cut export tax rebates for 2831 exported items (37% of all traded products), including 553 “highly energy-consuming, highly polluting and resource intensive products” from 1 July 2007. • Suspend the rights of those enterprises that don’t meet their environmental obligations to engage foreign trade in the period of more than one year and less than three years from October 2007 (In Shenzhen, about 89% of SO2 emissions are released in the process of export manufacturing).

  25. Percentage of Air Pollutants Tied to Export Manufacturing in China’s Pearl River Delta (Streets et al., 2006)

  26. Tougher Emissions Standards [1] • Setting and enforcing emissions standards for mobile and stationary sources and fuel quality are essential to control emissions and improve air quality, and at the same time provide an impetus for improvements in technology. • Beginning July 1, 2007, China started implementing State Phase III (similar to Euro III) vehicle emission standards, with State Phase IV (similar to Euro IV) vehicle emission standards scheduled to be introduced on July 1, 2010. • Pollution from State Phase III and Phase IV standards: 30% and 60% lower than that from State Phase II standards • India and most ASEAN countries are at about the same levels as China, but their time schedules to implement these regulations somewhat lag behind China.

  27. Vehicle Emission Standards and the Time to Enter into Force in China, ASEAN and European Union (Zhang, 2007)

  28. Tougher Emissions Standards [2] • The problem with the new standards is that they are applicable only for new vehicles and do not apply to vehicles already on the roads. • India: the benefits can be increased further if all vehicles meet the new standards. • China: cut consumption tax bill by 30% for those manufacturers whose products have met State Phases II, III and IV emission standards ahead of the national schedules. Annual Health Costs with Pre Euro and Euro Vehicle Emission Standards in Delhi (in Crores at 2000-01 Prices) Source: Auto Fuel Committee of India (2002)

  29. Tougher Emissions Standards [3] • Many cities in Asian countries have shifted vehicle fleets to cleaner fuels to significantly reduce pollution from vehicles. • CNG and LPG vehicles account for a large portion of urban buses and taxis in China. By the end of 2006, in Guangzhou, LPG buses and taxis account for 80% and 100% of their corresponding total numbers. Prior to the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing plans that 90% of public transport will use CNG as a fuel. • Delhi boasts of the world’s largest fleet of over 15,000 CNG buses.

  30. Tougher Emissions Standards [4] • Growing interest in biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, as alternative fuels for transport. China and India are the world’s third and fourth largest producers of ethanol, but their production were fairly stable over the past three years and are far behind the two dominant producers - Brazil and the US. • Ethanol production is currently about 3% of China’s transport fuel use. This share of ethanol is the highest among the 21APEC economies. China plans to increase its ethanol production to 5% of the country’s transport fuel use by 2010 and further to 10 millions a year by 2020. • Other biofuels goals set in developing Asian countries include the Philippines’ proposed 25% E10 blending fuel by 2010 and Thailand’s 3% biodiesel target.

  31. Annual Ethanol Production by Country (MG) (Renewable Fuels Association, 2007)

  32. Transport Fuel Use and Ethanol Production in APEC in 2004 (Kilo toe) (Renewable Fuels Association, 2007; Bloyd, 2007)

  33. Tougher Emissions Standards [5] • Growing Asian cities are implementing demand-side traffic management measures to reduce congestion and urban air pollution. • Prioritizing public transport and promoting efficient public transport systems, such as dedicated-lane bus rapid transit (BRT) systems. • BTR systems in operations in Asian cities, e.g., Bangkok, Beijing, Hangzhou (China), Jakarta and Taipei. • Other Asian cities have begun very seriously to examine the potential of BRT systems in improving public transportation and urban air quality.

  34. Specific policies and programs for energy efficiency & conservation [1] • China: requiring that energy use per unit of GDP is cut by 20% between 2006-2010. • Top 1000 Enterprises Energy Conservation Action Program: covers 1008 enterprises in nine key energy-supply and consuming industrial subsectors. Each of them on the list consumed at least 0.18 million tons of coal equivalent in 2004, and all together consumed 33% of the national total and 47% of industrial energy consumption in 2004. The program aims to save 100 million tce cumulatively during the period 2006-10. With the energy saving of 20 million tce in 2006 (NDRC & NBS, 2007), the program was on track to meet its 2010 target.

  35. Specific policies and programs for energy efficiency & conservation [2] • China: The transportation sector • Vehicle excise taxes based on the vehicle engine size: • Increase from 1 April 2006 from the range of 3-8% to 3-20%, with the tax on engines of 4 liters or large more than doubling from 8% to 20%. • from 1 September 2008: the rates have been broadened to 1-40%, with the tax on engines of 4 liters or large doubling from 20% to 40%. Cars with engines of 3.0 to 4.0 liters are now taxed at 25%, up 10% • Seen as a way to cut car imports without offending the WTO. • China has set even more stringent fuel economy standards for its rapidly growing passenger vehicle fleet than those in Australia, Canada, California and the United States.

  36. Comparison of Fuel Economy Standards (An and Sauer,2004)

  37. Specific policies and programs for energy efficiency & conservation [3] • In the buildings sector, China has taken the three steps to improve energy efficiency: • A 30% cut in energy use for heating relative to typical Chinese residential buildings designed in 1980-1981 • New buildings have to be 50% more efficient by 2010 • Energy-saving goal to 65% for new buildings by 2020 • Japan: improved its overall energy efficiency by 37% between 1973-2003, and sets the goal of further improving its energy efficiency by at least 30% by 2030, relative to its 2003 level. • Top Runner Program - identifies the most energy efficient residential/office appliances and light-duty vehicles in each category and requires future models to meet a level of energy consumption close to the current (or expected future) best.

  38. Residential Buildings by Energy Efficient Standards in Beijing and Tianjin, China (BMCDR, 2006; Zheng and You, 2007)

  39. Increase investment in energy conservation and improving energy efficiency in China • Shifting control over resources and decision making to local governments and enterprises as the result of the economic reforms in China over the past three decades has led to insufficient investment in energy saving, with its share in the total investment in the energy industry in China declining from about 13.4% in 1983 to the level of about 3% in 2005. • The central government embarked in 2007 Yuan 23.5 billion (about US$ 3.2 billion, or 4.9% of the total investment in the energy sector in 2005) specifically for energy saving: • I repeatedly called for payment of transfer: the central government decided in November 2007 to transfer Yuan 2 billion to local governments to encourage to eliminate outdated production capacities • Yuan 9 billion to support the Ten Key Energy-saving Programs, 13 times that of the funding support in 2006 (Yuan 0.68 billion)

  40. From a long term perspective, widespread use of clean energy is a real solution • The share of renewable energies (including traditional biomass) in total primary energy supply in developing Asian countries in 2004 was much high (24%), compared with the OECD (6%) and the world average (14%), but its share of hydropower and modern renewable energies (namely, solar, wind, geothermal, wave and tidal energy) in total renewables is very low in developing Asian countries (9.4% in 2004), in comparison with the OECD (43.8%). • Increasing this share not only enhances energy security, but also is environmentally friendly and conducive to good health. • Developing Asian countries, such as China, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Pakistan, and Thailand are among the countries with national targets.

  41. Developing Asian countries: Share of renewable energies in total primary energy supply was much high, but its share of hydropower & modern energy in total renewables is very low Share of Hydropower and Modern Renewables in Total Renewables in 2004 (%) Share of Renewables in Total Primary Energy Supply in 2004 (%) (IEA, 2006)

  42. China’s Ambitious Renewable Energy Goals • China: 8% in 2006, 10% by 2010 and 16% by 2020 of primary energy, with 300 GW for hydro, 30 GW for wind power, 30 GW for biopower and 1.8 GW for solar PV, 300 million m2, and 10 millions of ethanol and 2 millions of biodiesel produced by 2020 • Put China’s renewable energy goals into perspective • European Union: Current 6.5%, 12% of primary energy by 2010 and 20% by 2020 • At first glance, EU has an even more ambitious RE goal than China does. But because energy demand in China grows at least three times faster than EU does, doubling RE in China’s total energy mix by 2020 requires that RE in China grows at a rate of four times that the rate of the EU. • Not only setting the ambitious goals, more importantly China is taking dramatic efforts to meet the goals. Take wind power as an example. • Installed wind power capacity: In 1986, the first wind farm in Shandong Province, China, was connected with the electric grid; 1.26 GW in 2005; 2.60 GW in 2006 (the year China’s Renewable Law entered into force; and new installations this year alone more than the combined total over the past 20 years); 6.05 GW in 2007 (a 156% increase, and already exceeded China’s goal of 5 GW in 2010); 10 GW projected for 2008.

  43. Policies to promote renewable energies • Need to abolish subsidies for fossil fuels and to internalize external costs to level the playing field. • This is a helpful step in increasing the cost competitiveness of renewables, but not enough. Governments still need to provide additional support policies to promote widespread use of renewable energies. • At least 47 economies including 14 developing countries have some types of renewable energy promotion policies, including public RD&D programs, feed-in tariffs, renewable energy mandates, tax credits for investment/production, preferential loans, accelerated depreciation rates, technology-forcing regulations, reduction on import duty and export facilitation, consumer purchasing incentives and government green purchasing preferences, green certificate trading, and competitive bidding. • But, the specific form and level of this support will clearly differ in design from technology to technology and from country to country, depending on the overall policy framework in place and the maturity and cost of each technology in each country.

  44. Cumulative Number of Countries/States/Provinces Enacting Feed-in Tariffs (REN21, 2007)

  45. Integration of Environmental Policies with Economic and Sectoral Policies • Countries are confronted with many other pressing concerns such as providing water and sanitation services to the urban poor, improving public transportation and other basic infrastructures, and reducing poverty as well as improving the environment. • In this context, in order to address environmental issues effectively and achieve the maximal gains, environmental policies need to be integrated with economic policies, investment policies, energy policies, transportation policies, land-use policies, and other urban development policies. This will help countries view environmental policies as not just for tackling potential environmental threats per se, but as an integrated framework to tackle these aforementioned concerns, as well as a means of improving energy efficiency, reducing congestions, saving money, and setting pro-active policies to ensure sustainable development. • Even better to integrate environmental issues with economic and sectoral policies at the planning stage, rather than at the implementation stage. Strategic environmental assessment is a useful tool to bridge the policy divide that separates those government institutions responsible for economic planning and line industries from those in charge for environmental protection at the planning stage of any development activity.

  46. Engagement of the Private Sector [1] • Ecolabelling, e.g., China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and Thailand • Green government procurement: 8 to 25% of GDP in OECD • Corporate ratings and disclosure programs Indonesia: Launched in June 1995 Program for Pollution Control, Evaluation and Rating - PROPER Modelled on Indonesia’s PROPER program with slight modifications, the Philippines introduced the EcoWatch program in 1997, and China introduced the Green Watch program in 1999. Investors in capital markets react to the disclosure of environmental performance related to the companies they invest. Companies appearing in Korea’s Monthly Violations Report suffered a reduction in market value of their publicly traded equities, with the average reduction in market value estimated to be 9.7% (Dasgupta et al., 2004; Hong, 2005). Moreover, the larger or wider the coverage of the events by newspapers, the larger the reduction in market value, reaching 38% for those events covered by 5 or more newspapers.

  47. Engagement of the Private Sector [2] • Drawing support of financial institutions In August 2007, China’s SEPA clearly stipulated that highly polluting enterprises are subject to its auditing of their environmental records in case these enterprises want to list shares in the Chinese stock markets or get re-financed. China Securities Regulation Commission will incorporate information on their auditing into its decision on whether or not to allow these enterprises to be listed or get refinanced.

  48. Responses both at Regional and International Levels [1] • To address environmental pollution of cross-border or global nature, it is much more effective for the neighboring countries concerned or all the countries to act collectively than just acting on its own. • Asian Brown Cloud has been initiated with support from the UNEP. • ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution took effect in November 2003 and aimed to prevent and monitor transboundary haze pollution as a result of land and/or forest fires and to control sources of fires. The ASEAN also adopted the Framework for Environmentally Sustainable Cities.

More Related