Conflicting signs for a green China

A positive sign from a report recently released by the Climate Group:

Investment in renewable energy in China – almost USD $12 billion in 2007 – is almost level with world leader Germany as a percentage of GDP. Stronger policies from the Chinese government are creating increased demand for low carbon investment and China will require a further USD $398 billion (USD $33billion per year) to meet its 2020 renewable energy goals.

See the full press release at ENN or the full report over at the Climate Group.

A negative sign from Jiang Gaoming, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Botany:

“The Chinese government’s recently disclosed 4-trillion-yuan (US$585 billion) economic stimulus package has revived interest in hydropower projects in the country’s southwest. Yunnan province and Sichuan province have accelerated work on projects that were already planned or under construction. On a recent reporting trip to Yunnan, I saw that in some cases this has meant building work starting before any kind of environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been conducted.”

See the full account over at China Dialogue.

So what’s the overall picture? I’d say they’re not as inept as the Western media stereotype, but that there is still a long way to go. (This, of course, also applies to the US.)