Carnegie's William Chandler argues that reforming China’s financial sector can curb China’s greenhouse gas emissions even as work continues on an international treaty. China’s impressive national policies to promote clean and renewable energy have been undermined by unnecessary financial hurdles and bureaucratic struggles that increase financial risks and costs for potential investors.
Source: Carnegie Endowment
In Financing Energy Efficiency in China, leading climate expert and Carnegie Senior Associate William Chandler argues that restrictions on debt financing and foreign equity investment, unfavorable tax policies, and even the United Nations’ emissions trading system all discourage foreign investment in clean energy in China.
Chandler concludes that to encourage investment in clean energy, China should:
“Removing barriers to clean energy investment in China is an essential step toward climate protection. The incentives and rules of a global climate treaty will be blunted and frustrated by distortions of the world’s largest potential clean energy marketplace unless policy makers recognize and deal with the realities of that market,” argues Chandler.
Click on the links above for the full text of this Carnegie report.
About the Authors
William Chandler is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment and director of Energy and Climate Program. Chandler has spent over 35 years working in energy and environmental policy and was a lead author for the Nobel Prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He is president of Transition Energy, co-founder of DEED China, and founder and former director of Advanced International Studies at the Joint Global Change Research Institute. Chandler received the 1992 Champion of Energy-Efficiency Award from the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy for his work. In 1999, he received the first Global Climate Leadership Award from the International Energy Agency. He has authored or co-authored ten books which have been favorably reviewed by scholarly and popular critics and translated into several foreign languages.
Holly Gwin is general counsel and co-founder of Transition Energy. Gwin served six years in the Clinton administration as general counsel and staff director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where she reported directly to the President’s science advisor. She also worked as staff director of the President’s Commission on Gulf War Veteran’s Illnesses, and previously served as General Counsel of the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment. Gwin has published widely in science policy. She holds a law degree from the University of Tennessee and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.
Former Adjunct Senior Associate, Energy and Climate Program
Chandler is a leading expert on energy and climate. As an adjunct senior associate in the Energy and Climate Program he supports Carnegie’s work in these fields, collaborating closely on projects with Carnegie’s offices in Moscow, Beijing, Brussels, and Beirut.
Holly Gwin
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
The future of American economic power will be determined by the interplay between Trump’s ambitions and the global backlash against them, as well as economic developments outside the direct control of the government, such as advances in AI.
Peter Harrell
Batteries are essential technologies for twenty-first-century growth, security, and energy—and they cut to the core of geopolitical ambitions for high-tech strategic autonomy.
Milo McBride
The groundbreaking legislation faces an uphill battle, but it creates a framework for others to follow—especially as the effects of climate change intensify.
Liliana Gamboa, Kayly Ober
The world’s climate adaptation funds must adapt to address the ways that climate change is deepening state fragility.
Ray Salvatore Jennings, Paul Andrew Mayewski
Europe’s industrial supply chains leave it vulnerable to global shocks. The EU needs a pragmatic green industrial strategy that balances durable partnerships and bolsters homegrown clean tech without sacrificing low-carbon ambition.
Milo McBride, Pauline Gerard
