China’s green opportunity - McKinsey Quarterly - Economic Studies - Productivity & Performance

China’s green opportunity - McKinsey Quarterly - Economic Studies - Productivity & Performance: "China’s green opportunity
China can and must achieve sustainable growth. Although the country has already charted an ambitious course to improve its energy efficiency and environment, a McKinsey study finds opportunities to do even more.

MAY 2009 • Martin Joerss, Jonathan R. Woetzel, and Haimeng Zhang

Source: Climate Change Special Initiative
Energy, Resources, Materials, Environment article, china green
In This Article

* Sidebar: Green mind-set
* Exhibit 1: By 2030, China could abate its carbon emissions beyond the level envisioned in the current policy scenario.
* Exhibit 2: Nuclear power, as well as hydro power and other renewable energy sources, could collectively replace coal as China’s primary sources of power.
* Exhibit 3: Just a five-year delay in implementing abatement technologies could reduce the potential by more than one-third.


China’s rapid development over the past three decades has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and catapulted the country into the ranks of the world’s largest economies. Over the next several decades, as China’s economy continues to grow and the pace of urbanization accelerates, the country must not only ensure that it has sufficient and secure energy resources but also mitigate the impact such growth will have on the environment.

China must address these issues without compromising its growth or the living standards of its people. But the population’s huge size and the scale of the economy have created a uniquely challenging problem. To deal with it, China’s policy makers have developed an extensive body of regulations and policies to raise the energy efficiency of many sectors and thereby reduce growth’s environmental consequences, including carbon emissions.

To help policy makers and business leaders identify and prioritize additional opportunities to raise energy efficiency in China and make its growth more sustainable, we undertook a study of technologies, measuring their impact on greenhouse gas emissions. We looked only at approaches that are technically feasible and likely to be commercially available no later than 2030."