A survey of China's low-carbon application practice-Opportunity goes with challenge

The steady and maintainable energy supply for human development provides the strong motivation, which is necessary to every country in the whole world. The high strength carbon emissions has brought great harm to the earth since industrialization before hundreds of years, and the global warming and extreme weather cause humans to develop low-carbon economy. Low-carbon economy has become a consensus of the entire human race no matter developed countries or developing countries, which is the combination of the lifestyle changing and production structure basic changing and technical innovation. It is well known that China is the largest developing country in the world. With the rapid industrialization of country, energy demand of Chinese society is increasing in an incredible speed, China has become the second largest energy consumer and the first carbon emissions country at present. Furthermore, Chinese energy structure and production methods are very inappropriate, which cannot guarantee the sustainable development of China in future, and therefore actively developing low-carbon economy is the only road to realize China's economic development mode change and sustainable development, which is supported by central government and local governments. Low carbon economy for China is not only an opportunity but also a great challenge. Firstly, this paper discusses the current situation of energy supply and energy structure in China. Secondly, current situation of units' energy consumption in China is discussed. Thirdly, some application practices of low carbon are described, such as low carbon traffic, low carbon city, and low carbon village. Then, the policies and law of China central government and local governments are described in the following paragraphs. At the end, the developmental prospect of low carbon economy in future China and the development barriers and recommendations are introduced, respectively. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.