5月7日美国《纽约时报》视点栏目发表文章《红色中国，绿色中国 》：

 

随着海湾灾难性的石油泄漏，人们的话题再次转向清洁能源。从太阳能板到节能灯泡，所有方面都对这一技术提出需求。仅在2009年，全世界花在新的清洁技术方面的投资就达1620亿美元。

美国的技术、资本和创业精神使其很容易成为21世纪主宰这一技术的最大市场，但由于最近的参议院能源法案的延误，使美国在形成一个有效的清洁技术政策方面正在失去一个关键因素：即鼓励创新、生产和必需的投资以将这些新技术推向市场的政治意愿。美国在这方面拖延的时间越长，它越会把这一潜力巨大的国家财富的来源让给唯一能把握它的国家——中国。

的确，中国要在清洁技术的全球市场中居于领导地位，还有很长的路要走。然而，与美国不同，中国在过去的几年，一直在构建自己以实现这一目标的工业政策。

中国决心成为清洁技术的全球领导者，与对环境的关注没有多大关系，一切都与就业相关。在可预见的将来，中国政府最大的挑战是要确保充分就业和提高收入水平。迅速发展的清洁技术行业是为数不多的可以提供足够数量的新就业机会的行业之一。

……

中国正忙于将全球气候变化的挑战转变成国家（发展的）机会，但它需要另一个10年来提升其技术以降低生产成本，才能确保其在清洁技术领域的主导地位。美国忽视了自己在清洁技术方面的发展，而给予中国更多的时间来发展其能力，这不仅会使它输掉这场比赛，而且会最终丧失它。

潘发勤 摘译自

 Red China，Green China  The New York Times 2010-5-7

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/opinion/07Usher.html

 

与此同时，在同期《纽约时报》经济栏目的报道：

 

      中国不断飙升的能源需求威胁排放目标

报道称，中国为自己制定了在清洁能源生产和降低全球温室气体排放的宏伟目标，但由于中国对石油和煤炭电力的需求激增，创有史以来单个国家在人类产生温室气体排放量方面的6个月增长最大纪录。

中国领导人是如此关心不断增长的能源使用和下降的能源效率，以致国务院本周举行特别会议。燃煤电力和石油销售第一季度攀升24%，紧跟去年第四季度的类似的增长率。国务院总理温家宝承诺执行强硬政策以节约能源，包括政府将禁止给未能消除低效产能的公司审批任何新项目。温家宝还表示，中国必须找到一种方式，以实现能源效率提高20%的五年计划的目标。

 

       能源需求的增加受到钢铁等重工业的刺激

  

In China, Soaring Energy Appetite Threatens Emissions Goals

China’s leaders are so concerned about rising energy use and declining energy efficiency that the cabinet held a special meeting this week to discuss the problem, according to a statement Thursday from the ministry of industry and information technology. Full Article at The New York Times

 

 

 

Op-Ed Contributor

Red China, Green China

By BRUCE USHER

Published: May 6, 2010

WITH the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf, talk has once again turned to clean energy. What few people appreciate is that the demand for everything from solar panels to energy-efficient light bulbs is already booming. Worldwide, $162 billion was spent in new clean-tech investments in 2009 alone.

 

The United States, with its expertise, capital and entrepreneurial spirit, is well positioned to dominate what could easily be the biggest market of the 21st century. But as the most recent delay over the Senate energy bill shows, the country is missing a key ingredient in shaping an effective clean-tech policy: the political will to encourage the innovation, manufacturing and investment necessary to bring these new technologies to market. And the longer America drags its feet, the more it cedes this enormous potential source of national wealth to the only other country able to capture it — China.

 

True, China has a long way to go before it can claim the mantle of global market leadership in clean technology. Unlike the United States, however, it has spent the last few years shaping its industrial policy to achieve precisely that goal.

 

China’s determination to become the global leader in clean tech has little to do with concerns for the environment and everything to do with jobs. For the foreseeable future, the greatest challenge for Beijing is to ensure full employment and rising income levels. The rapidly growing clean-technology sector is one of the few that can provide a sufficient number of new jobs. (Disclosure: I invest in clean energy in America and abroad.)

 

This wouldn’t be the first time China has taken economic advantage of opportunities resulting from climate change. The Kyoto Protocol, which caps greenhouse-gas emissions in Europe and Japan up to 2012, includes market-based mechanisms to promote the reduction of emissions at the lowest cost. The largest of these is the Clean Development Mechanism, which allows developing countries like China to generate credits from cuts in their greenhouse-gas emissions that are then sold to developed countries.

 

Beijing was initially slow to establish the domestic regulatory structures and develop the expertise needed to compete in this new market. In a 2004 analysis, the World Bank determined that China accounted for a mere 5 percent of clean-development projects globally. But by 2008, the most recent year for which annual data is available, the bank reported that China’s market share had climbed to an astounding 84 percent.

 

Beijing is about to do the same with clean technology. In 2009, its investment in clean energy reached nearly $35 billion, almost double America’s $19 billion, primarily due to domestic policies that promote the use of renewable energy. And the strategy is working. In 1999 China made 1 percent of the world’s solar panels; by 2008 it was the world’s leading producer, with a 32 percent market share, and its solar-panel exports were valued at $15 billion. To put that in perspective, in 2009 America’s No. 1 export product by far was civilian aircraft, with exports of $35 billion.

 

Without fast action to greatly expand our clean-tech industry, the United States will be left behind. As such, the Senate energy bill, at a minimum, needs to take aggressive action on the three following points:

 

First, institute national feed-in tariffs or a renewable portfolio standard — two ways to require that utilities buy clean energy in a minimum amount or at a certain price. Such standards have been effectively put into practice in several states, most notably in Texas with wind power, but only a federal program will provide the scale necessary to compete with China, which has a national feed-in tariff program of its own.

 

Second, establish a price on carbon via either a tax or a cap-and-trade program to encourage low-carbon technologies. The Clean Development Mechanism placed a price on carbon in developing countries, initiating thousands of emissions-reduction projects in China. Putting a price on carbon in the United States would provide an incentive for domestic developers to build similar projects here.

 

Finally, get serious about supporting the research and development of carbon capture and storage, and maintain America’s lead in a field that offers enormous opportunity but is too large for any one company to finance. Coal is the No. 1 source of greenhouse gas emissions, and the first country to develop economically viable capture-and-storage technology will dictate the terms for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired utilities globally.

 

China is busy turning the global challenge of climate change into a national opportunity, but it needs another decade to advance its technology to the point where superior manufacturing and lower costs will secure its dominance of the clean-tech sector. By giving China more time to develop its capacity while neglecting our own, America is not just losing the clean-tech race, it’s forfeiting it.

 

Bruce Usher, an executive in residence at Columbia Business School, is the former chief executive of a company that operates emission reduction projects.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/opinion/07Usher.html