British, Chinese to target carbon emissions

The Carbon Trust, which the British government founded in 2001 as a charity to help government and businesses implement energy saving measures, set up a representative office in China in 2009, the first international market it ventured into.

Joint efforts

An offshore wind partnership signed between China and the United Kingdom.

"As a government-supported organisation with the goal to reduce carbon emissions, we’ve successfully completed many projects in the UK, and then we looked at how can we share these internationally in order to accelerate sustainable development," says Van der Ven.

"We looked at China, which is the world’s largest emitter of carbon emissions, so we decided to set up in China and share some of the UK’s experience with China," he says.

Through several years of work in China, The Carbon Trust has established partnerships with many local governments and industry groups, supporting and advising them to implement carbon reduction schemes.

One example is a product carbon footprint-labelling scheme, which The Carbon Trust has helped the China Manufacturers’ Association in Hong Kong set up. Started in 2013, the scheme may be implemented later this year.

Meanwhile, it is also advising the China Quality and Certification Centre in Guangzhou to establish a similar product-footprint labelling scheme for companies in Guangzhou, which started in March and which is intended to be completed next year.

The scheme will help companies label the carbon footprint of their products, so that in the long term, consumers could take into account the environmental impact of a product as a part of their purchasing decision, alongside other factors like cost and quality.

But before enough companies sign up to make the comparison possible, those that take the initiative to label their products’ carbon footprint will be recognised by consumers as having a socially responsible attitude. "It will have marketing and image benefits for the companies," says Van der Ven.

The Carbon Trust’s input in setting up these plans focuses on helping partner organisations create rules for the schemes, he says. It is also able to integrate the plans with a similar labelling scheme in the UK.

This would make comparison possible, although it would be subject to agreements between different local and national authorities.

The Carbon Trust is also working with the Hunan Low Carbon Centre to identify technology from British companies that would help industrial companies in Hunan province reduce emissions.

The two organisations will identify potential emission reduction solutions for Hunan companies by March 2016, and then look at the possibility of introducing companies with expertise to those who need it.

Meanwhile, the UK organisation is also working with China’s Energy Research Institute to identify market-orientated energy efficiency mechanisms for key energy intensive enterprises. The Carbon Trust has already shared some of its recommendations with ERI, based on its experiences in the UK market.

Van der Ven says often these policies require the government to introduce market incentives, otherwise, it would be difficult for private sector to take the initiate.

Producing results

Since starting to operate in China, The Carbon Trust has participated in some initiatives that have already produced results. A survey conducted in China in 2012 showed young consumers are global leaders in calling for carbon reductions, and consumer demand is a key driver for business directions.

In the survey, 83 per cent of Chinese respondents said they would be more loyal to a brand if they could see it was reducing its carbon emissions, compared with 77 per cent in Brazil, 76 per cent in South Africa, 73 per cent in South Korea, 57 per cent in the United States and 55 per cent in Britain. About 500 people aged 18-25 were interviewed in each country. Most respondents from China were from urban areas, given their better Internet access.

Sixty per cent of Chinese respondents said they would stop buying a product if its manufacturer refused to commit to measuring and reducing its carbon footprint, followed by 57 per cent in Brazil, 53 per cent in South Korea, 51 per cent in South Africa, 36 per cent in Britain and 35 per cent in the US.

Eighty-four per cent of Chinese respondents also said they want to see companies’ carbon impact quantified by an independent organisation, followed by 77 per cent in South Africa, 73 per cent in Brazil, 69 per cent in South Korea, 56 per cent in Britain and 55 percent in the US.

Another example of The Carbon Trust’s previous efforts in China is a research project into China’s offshore wind industry, which generated recommendations on how China can further grow this sector.

The research was completed in 2013 with recommendations, which The Carbon Trust presented to its Chinese partners, and Van der Ven says he hopes some of these policy recommendations will be adopted by China in its 13th 5-Year Plan when it is launched in 2016.

Funded by the UK Foreign Office, the project was carried out partly because The Carbon Trust has demonstrated great expertise in offshore wind energy by contributing to the work of the Offshore Wind Accelerator, a joint industry research project started in 2008 that aims to help Britain’s offshore wind industry cut costs by at least 10 percent by 2015.

In Britain, the Offshore Wind Accelerator enabled nine international offshore wind developers to fund research work, reducing the risks of commercialised innovative technologies and enabling sharing. It was two-thirds funded by industry and one third funded by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.

The Carbon Trust’s research in China was done with the participation of over 20 Chinese companies and has drawn up some recommendations for China to consider.

They include the development of an effective, publicly funded research and demonstration program to commercialise new cost-reducing innovations, and development of an offshore wind capital grants scheme to improve the government’s awareness of the commercial realities of developing offshore wind plants in Chinese waters, with R&D and technology testing.

In addition, China could set up an effective continuous price support mechanism to balance developer incentives with government costs to ensure value for money for electricity consumers and taxpayers. It could also develop an effective zoning policy to accelerate planning by relaxing constraints in development zones.

Many barriers face the Chinese offshore wind industry, including uncertainty over an effective and efficient long-term pricing policy that is needed by project developers while ensuring consumers are protected from high costs. Other challenges include autho-rities that are slow in giving consent and the lack of a focused innovation program to reduce costs of the deployment process, research discovered.

Van der Ven says that over the long term, the key to reducing carbon emissions in China will be a fundamental shift from fossil fuel as a major part of energy consumption towards renewable sources.

"The big emitters in China are heavy industries, like steel, cement, and chemical industries, and their reliance is on coal, so to change the energy supply fundamentally will allow China to reduce carbon emissions," Van der Ven says. In addition, addressing high emissions from buildings by introducing green building technology will also greatly aid China, and Van der Ven says his team is now exploring Britain’s expertise to see if it can help.