(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-24 15:58

Energy security in rural areas is a big problem that will have a negative impact on the country's sustainable development and its goal of realizing a comfortable life for all its residents unless it is properly addressed in the years to come.

The convening of an international conference on China's rural energy development yesterday in Beijing is a sign that the Chinese government realizes how important this issue is.

With rural villagers making up 56 percent, or 737 million, of the country's 1.3 billion people, efforts to improve their livelihood means dealing with the increasing demand for energy and challenges to cope with the side effects resulting from increased energy consumption.

The most immediate impact will be much greater pressure on the already tight supply of all sorts of energy such as oil, electricity and coal. The increased consumption of energy will undoubtedly increase greenhouse gas emissions, which we must control in order to contain global warming.

The Chinese government has already done a great deal helping rural villagers find renewable energy resources such as marsh gas, electricity generated from crop straw, small hydro plants, wind turbines and solar panels.

The fact that the electricity grid has been extended to remote rural areas to light up dark villages for more than 30 million rural villagers in the past decades speaks volumes for the central government's efforts to guarantee energy security in rural areas. More than 8 million marsh gas ponds have been built for villagers since 2003, and the total number has increased to 22.6 million by the end of 2006.

But these efforts are far from enough to meet increasing energy demands, the increase of which will undoubtedly be higher than in urban areas for some time.

The country must be well prepared to meet the demand. The new rural energy strategy that is being drafted by the State Council Energy Leading Group with the support of United Nations Development Program will hopefully establish a vision for the sustainable energy development in rural areas.

The implementation of this strategy is of vital importance to improving the living standards of villagers. To further improve and renovate technologies for various renewable and clean energy resources is the key to this strategy's success.