Courses
GEOG4016 Energy Development in China (3 units)
- Prerequisite:
- GEOG3007 Energy Problems and the Environment or consent of the instructor
- Medium of Instruction:
- English
Energy used to be a serious bottleneck in the economic development of China in the 1980s when the country first opened up to the outside world. In the past three decades, momentous changes occurred in the Chinese energy sector, including changes in the institutional framework—moving from state allocation to the market economy—and with respect to individual energy industries. By the mid-1990s, the problem of energy shortage had largely been resolved (which re-appeared in another form lately), yet the country has become a net oil importer, and is projected to import an increasingly larger amount in the future, with serious implications for the security of energy supply and future oil import outlay. The course takes a comprehensive survey of the Chinese energy sector, including the resource endowment, energy policy since the 1980s, the major energy industries like oil, coal, natural gas, electricity—HEP and nuclear included—and the international energy trade of China. Current issues such as the West–East Pipeline and looming energy security issues are also dealt with.