A Post From One of Our Really Smart Friends in the UK: Gary Tulie, Writing on China's Investment in Upgrading Their Grid

Gary sent me this, and I thought I’d publish it for him, as I’ve always been so impressed with his insights:

Just today, I was reading that China is half way through a program to install ultra high voltage grid upgrades to a value of $100 billion – the primary purpose of which is to connect the huge renewable energy resources of its western provinces with the load centres of the east.

By any standards, this is a huge infrastructure investment, implying an intent to support possibly hundreds of gigawatts of wind and solar power – so clearly they get the concept of strategic investment for future energy security. 

China is a command economy, and in many ways has a government less accountable to its people than those in the democratic nations, however countering that is the fact that as of 2011, 8 out of 9 of the most powerful positions in China’s government were held by scientists or engineers – who have the right kind of education to understand the technical issues involved, and are keen to do achieve effective technical solutions to China’s problems – This is in marked contrast many governments in the West which are top heavy with people from law firms, banks, and big business backgrounds, with hardly a scientist or engineer in sight.

Also driving the technical aspects of the change to a more sustainable way of life is the acute awareness of the Chinese people of the harm being done to so many of them by pollution, and the risk posed by climate change. The Chinese government is very aware that with its huge population of increasingly educated and assertive people, doing nothing about pollution is simply not an option. The Chinese people are more than ready to take steps to improve their environment, and are more likely to challenge their government on pollution than on almost any other issue. Change is essential to the long term political and social stability of China, a fact well understood by the Chinese government. The Chinese people are unlikely to long accept the legitimacy of a government that does not work towards a cleaner Chinese economy, and Chinese history is full of the evidence of what happens when this volatile nation loses its stability.

If we want to compete into the future and avert avoidable climate change disaster, then it is time we begin to re-balance our governments to include a good proportion of people with a scientific or engineering education and background. That way, we might begin to get the kind of evidence (scientific rather than entirely legal or financial) based governance which we desperately need.