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November 02, 2009

Tower of Power

In China, one doesn't have to look far to see the country's commitment to renewable energy. In cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, rooftops are now covered with solar water heaters. On the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, towering white wind turbines are popping up where only cattle, sheep and herders on horseback once roamed. Read more

Although the occasional onlooker does not instinctively think of China as a green player, the first China Greentech Report recently launched by the China Greentech Initiative states that China could be a $500 billion to $1 trillion a year market for environmentally sustainable green technologies. The Initiative is an open source commercial collaboration of over 80 of the world’s leading green technology companies, entrepreneurs, investors, NGOs and policy advisors, of the likes of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, Philips, Clean Air Task Force, KPCB China, General Electric, IBM, BP, etc. The Report itself examines 125 greentech solutions, both existing and emerging, across seven sectors to provide a view of each solution's potential environmental impact as well as commercialization opportunities in China. Considering that massive private sector investment will be required to hold climate to a 2 degrees Celsius increase or for supplying clean freshwater to scores of households for instance, China’s policy environment holds key to unlocking the world’s green market potential. The China Greentech Report 2009 provides the first broad in-depth analysis of this new frontier.
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-Ellen G. Carberry is managing director of the China Greentech Initiative.

Speaking on a visit to Beijing, Dr Neil Bentley, director of the CBI’s Business Environment, said that UK government assistance offered to smaller British businesses hoping to break into the Chinese market was woolly and ineffective.

“In China you have got big companies like Shell and BP setting themselves up very well and really understanding the local economic conditions,” he said in an interview with The Daily Telegraph. “But many small companies sitting in the UK are really struggling to understand how to get their first foothold in China.” Read more