Reading the tea leaves of China’s economic and energy policy rhetoric is never easy, but early November has seen an unusually high degree of apparent internal contradiction. On 7th and 8th November, the UN held a high level meeting in Beijing on technology development and technology transfer … Continue Reading ››
China’s oil demand: where is it heading in October 2008?
The regular reader of this column may be surprised to see me using almost the same heading as I used five months ago. Why am I using it? Because once again the world is looking to China to gain some insight into the direction of oil demand and oil prices. In that column I … Continue Reading ››
China arrives in Iraq: what does it mean for China?
In late August 2008, Iraq’s oil minister announced that China’s major oil company, CNPC, had signed a contract with the government to develop the Ahdab field, resurrecting an arrangement reached in 1997. The Ahdab field lies 160 km south-east of Baghdad and was discovered in 1979 by … Continue Reading ››
China’s energy sector: domestic challenges and external implications
Talk to the Scottish Parliament Cross Party Group on China, 10th September 2008
Modelling Long-Term Scenarios for Low-Carbon Societies : Book Review
With the ever-increasing impacts of climate change it is now clear that global society will have to restructure its energy systems in order to decrease carbon emissions. The scenarios under which this transition to Low Carbon Societies (LCS) could occur would have complex economic, technological, behavioural and … Continue Reading ›› China’s energy efficiency drive: is it sustainable?
I write this column on the day of the Opening Ceremony of the 2008 Olympics. I am sitting in a fifty year old apartment block. The temperature inside is not far below the 32 degrees Celsius outside. Despite the heat, I, for one, am adhering to the … Continue Reading ››
China’s recent energy price rises: why now and what next?
You should always expect the unexpected in China. The opaque system of government allows major decisions to be sprung on its own population and on the rest of the world with little or no notice. Whilst this mode of operation may indeed constrain speculative behaviour … Continue Reading ››
“Energy security as part of the European Security Strategy”, EU Institute for Security Studies meeting on ‘A Common Approach to the Neighbourhood’
27th June 2008, Warsaw.
China’s coal supply: the Achilles Heel of the nation’s energy sector?
Electrical power shortages loom again, and 2008 was meant to be the first year for a while in which China was to have enough power generation capacity to satisfy demand. But the problem is not a shortage of power generation capacity, rather a shortage of … Continue Reading ››
“China’s domestic energy challenges, and its policy responses”, Scottish Centre for Chinese Social Science conference
Glasgow, 6th June 2008