China Pledges to Double Reliance on Renewable Energy By 2020

China, the world's second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, announced plans yesterday to more than double its reliance on renewable energy by 2020, which could make it a leading player in the wind, solar and hydropower industries.

But environmentalists said that Beijing's new target was still not ambitious enough to offset the climatic damage caused by its spectacular economic growth, which will continue to be predominantly fuelled by coal.

At the opening of a conference in Beijing, the host government said it would aim to provide 15% of its energy needs from non-fossil fuels within 15 years - up from 7% today, and 50% more than its previously stated goal of reaching 10% by 2020. "Strengthening the development and use of renewable energies is a must for us to address the increasingly serious energy and environmental issues," the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, said in a statement read to the conference by a deputy.

After two decades of focusing almost exclusively on economic growth at all cost, the Chinese government has recently started to talk more about sustainable development. Earlier this year the National People's Congress enacted the country's first renewable energy law, which will promote the use of alternatives to coal and oil. The authorities are also experimenting with the adoption of a "Green GDP", which would factor in environmental costs when calculating economic growth figures.

Beijing has reasons to look for new sources of power. Supplies from conventional sources have failed to keep up with the demands of China's fast-expanding manufacturing sector, leading to frequent blackouts in many cities. Coal provides more than 70% of the country's energy needs, but the cost of even this cheapest of fuels is rising. The political impact is being felt in public anger at the thousands of miners who are killed every year, the financial cost is creeping up, and the environmental and health impact is evident in the smoggy grey skies that choke almost every major city and cause an estimated 400,000 premature deaths a year. "The environmental situation is very grim and emissions of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide and other greenhouse gases are very great," said Zhou Dabing, president and chief executive of state-owned China Guodian, one of the leading utilities.

Oil is also becoming harder to come by. Self-sufficient 15 years ago, China is now a major importer of crude, which has pushed global prices up to record highs and led to friction with the US and Japan over scarce resources. Yesterday the International Energy Agency warned that the growing appetite of China - added to the huge demand in the US and Europe - had created an unsustainable trend. Energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions will soar by more than 50% by 2030 if consumers keep burning oil unchecked, the agency warned.

Beijing's new target for renewable energy was welcomed as a step in the right direction but one that did not go far enough. Environmentalists concerned about the impact of dams, which are ruining some of the world's most beautiful rivers, will be alarmed that hydropower is considered the main alternative to coal and oil. The country aims to produce 20 gigawatts of electricity from wind power by 2020. But a report commissioned by Greenpeace estimated that China could generate twice that amount with 20,000 turbines, which would make it a world leader.