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China's Future of Renewable Energy
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China's Future of Renewable Energy

  • Writer: Sophia Yang
    Sophia Yang
  • Sep 24, 2024
  • 6 min read

Updated: Apr 10

The use of fossil fuels echoes a tale of air pollution and the reliability of finite resources that will one day deprive the Earth of snowy winter days.




In the last two decades, China has become the biggest consumer of fossil fuels worldwide, consuming “the equivalent of almost 3.3 billion metric tons of oil last year [2019].” (O’Meara). As fossil fuels emit hazardous greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide (CO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), China’s continued production of these emissions has caused their air pollution to become “a visible problem, which large cities such as Beijing often swathed in a thick smog.” (O’Meara). Air pollution results in major health problems such as respiratory infections and cardiovascular diseases. With the demand for energy gradually increasing, researchers have begun to question the safety and efficiency of continued fossil fuel use for quick energy. Quite a few researchers have expressed that renewables are unreliable sources of energy to satisfy energy demands long-term, but substituting fossil fuels with renewable resources in China can significantly improve air quality in China. Thus, using alternative energy rather than fossil fuels to supply most of the energy is a worthwhile solution to greenhouse gas emissions in the nation with the largest energy consumption.


 Fossil fuels themselves are not considerably dangerous when excluding the work environment for manufacturers, but the harm they cause comes in the form of ‘toxic’ emissions. When fossil fuels are burned, they release hazardous gasses, as Nate Seltenrich describes in “Clearing the Air: Gas Stove Emissions and Direct Health Effects,” in which he names numerous harmful gasses that fossil fuels emit, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and even formaldehyde (CH2O), which is a known “respiratory irritant and known human carcinogen [cancer-causing substance]” (Seltenrich 4). Unbeknownst to many, these hazardous emissions can even be found in a number of homes globally through gas stoves. The gasses that are produced by fossil fuels are widely known as ‘greenhouse gasses’ because they contribute to the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect explains how gas emissions act in the atmosphere in a very similar manner to how gasses act in a greenhouse full of plants that produce CO2: they rise to the roof of the greenhouse and trap heat. The greenhouse effect is essentially how greenhouse gasses produced by fossil fuels contribute to global warming and air pollution. 


To understand the direct correlation between fossil fuels and air quality, researchers looked at data from the COVID-19 pandemic, when Chinese usage of fossil fuels had significantly decreased due to isolation. According to HT Digital Streams and “Changes in Air Quality During the Period of COVID-19 in China” by Xin Xu, Shupei Huang, Feng An, and Ze Wang, the authors researched data from the first few months after the initial COVID-19 outbreak in China, where both articles contained collected information that found “that COVID-19 may have shaved off more than 100 tonnes of CO2 in early February 2020.” (HT Digital Streams 1) and “NO2, CO2, and PM2.5 emissions declined for the first 1-3 months.” (Xu, Huang, An, Wang, 1). These observations reflect how the usage of fossil fuels directly impacts air pollution in China as Chinese citizens had stricter policies regarding isolation to prevent the spread of COVID-19, leading to lower rates.  When the policies gradually became more lenient, there was a large increase in harmful emissions yet again. Currently, China is looking for alternative sources of energy that will meet the high energy demands of the country while improving the air quality; this is where renewable resources come in. 


Renewable resources are the biggest alternatives to fossil fuels regarding fulfilling energy demand in China, reducing hazardous emissions, thus reducing air pollution. Renewables are sources of energy that have continuous supply in the forms of solar power, wind power, hydropower, and nuclear power. All these forms of renewable resources are described as zero-carbon options in “Alternative and Renewable Energy” by Gale because, when they are combusted for energy gain, they emit no carbon. Along with not producing carbon, renewable resources do not produce the other hazardous gasses produced by fossil fuels. Due to renewables not producing harmful emissions, they have become key to improving air pollution in China, as China’s main source of energy comes from fossil fuels that “can emit a surprising amount of pollutants…including nitrogen dioxide, carbon dioxide, particulate matter, formaldehyde, benzene, and methane.” (BridgeTower… 1), which is noted in “Climate Change is bad for our health.” by BridgeTower Media Holding Company. 


Renewables are resources that are naturally supplied over time; for example, wind power requires enough wind to spin turbines in order to produce an efficient amount of energy. This is beneficial because it means renewables will never become scarce, unlike fossil fuels, but this also comes at a cost. It takes more time to produce renewable energy than the energy fossil fuels produce, which is why fossil fuels are so readily available. When renewable energy is produced, large quantities of it are wasted because there is a lack of the technology that is needed to store and transfer this energy to large cities. This is the case for China, as most of the renewable energy produced was in the smaller populated provinces of Xinjiang and Gansu, so it had to be transported to more populated areas in eastern China, like the cities Shanghai and Beijing. Unfortunately, according to a report made in 2017 that was featured in “China’s Plan to Cut Coal and Boost Green Growth” by Sarah O’Meara, almost “30% of the renewable power produced in the sunny, windy provinces…in northwest China was never used…,” (O’Meara, 2). Author Sarah O’Meara explains that companies such as Rongke Power have the solution to renewable energy wastage through large energy-storage facilities that use batteries in China to store more electricity produced by renewable resources for large cities to use. Due to these solutions that involve the production of batteries that require advanced technology, the Chinese government has begun to fund numerous research facilities that are further developing this technology, which strengthens China’s ability to utilize renewable energy. Along with having solutions regarding energy waste, renewable resources are continuously being supplied, therefore, nations do not have to worry about over-consumption of non-renewable energy. All this information further demonstrates that despite what few researchers and possible politicians think about renewable energy for long-term use, renewable resources are considerably reliable and provide the benefits of supplying energy while improving air quality. 


Although renewable energy has a reputation as unreliable, replacing fossil fuels with renewable resources would greatly benefit China’s air quality by reducing the amount of air pollution. The harmful emissions fossil fuels emit are actually greenhouse gasses that lead to air pollution in countries such as China that heavily rely on fossil fuels. Renewable resources are significantly less harmful than fossil fuels as they produce practically no carbon emissions, which reduces pollution and improves human health, making them an ideal alternative source of energy. Policies that replace fossil fuels have already been set into place in China, and plans for future policies are estimated to provide a promising future for China’s quality of air in the next decade. It is so important that everyone, not just citizens of China, understand the impact reliance on fossil fuels has on the environment because fossil fuels contribute to global warming, which is a significant current issue that needs to be addressed to improve the state of the world and save future generations from hazardous emissions. This issue is significantly more prominent in China, as China is the leading global consumer of fossil fuels, so pollution has become a critical issue in the country. In order to save the quality of life in China, fossil fuels must be substituted. 



 

Written by Alizeya Diaz


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