Introduction to this website

This website is a project of Focus on the Global South. It gathers together a wide range of English language texts relating to energy development in China. The site contains information and analysis about coal, oil, hydro-power, nuclear, renewable energy (especially wind and solar energy), and energy intensive industries and energy efficiency, as well as about the power sector more generally. In addition to giving an overall understanding of the different branches of the Chinese energy sector, the selection of texts also seeks to explore some of the linkages between energy, work, land and the environment, as well as structures of ownership, control and decision-making. This is based on an understanding that energy is a key means of production and subsistence. The materials seek to portray both the positive and negative effects that energy development has on people’s lives, and also conflicts of interests that in some cases are resulting from this development. In addition to written materials directly relating to energy, there are also materials on related areas, such as climate change. It also contains a brief general introduction to questions of work, land, civil society and geopolitical concerns in China, in order to understand the social, political, economic and environmental context, in which China’s energy development is occurring, and its role in the word political and economic system.

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