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Jousting with James Hansen: China building a renewables powerhouse

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Hao Tan  and
John A. Mathews
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Abstract

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We have the dubious distinction of being misrepresented by Dr James Hansen, surely the most famous climate scientist in the world. It's not often that two social scientists find themselves dealt with in this way by such a deservedly respected public figure. Not to respond would be to declare defeat or even to agree with Dr Hansen's assertions, and we are inclined to do neither.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 54 , December 2012 , e170
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

Footnotes

Between 2012 and 2014 we posted a number of articles on contemporary affairs without giving them volume and issue numbers or dates. Often the date can be determined from internal evidence in the article, but sometimes not. We have decided retrospectively to list all of them as Volume 10, Issue 54 with a date of 2012 with the understanding that all were published between 2012 and 2014.' As footnote

References

We say “probably” because there is still a degree of uncertainty over the 2013 generation estimates – but our characterization of 40% renewables generation in 2013 is no doubt close to the mark. We discuss this issue in our companion article in APJ:JF.Google Scholar
See ‘California's plan to replace San Onofre nuclear: green success or natural gas giveaway?’, by John, Jeff St., March 14, 2014, GreenTechMedia, at:Google Scholar
See Mathews, John, ‘Locked into an either/or mindset”, Letters, Financial Times, Oct 29 2011, at:Google Scholar
See Hansen, James, Testimony to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 13 March 2014, at:Google Scholar
The Salkhit wind farm was supported financially by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. See news report at:Google Scholar
Our calculation proceeds as follows. 1 TW of CSP generating at capacity factor of 50% would generate 4,400 TWh in a year; 300 GW of wind power would generate 1,000 TWh in a year (at the capacity factor demonstrated in Mongolia); and 100 GW of nuclear (100 AP-1000 reactors) would generate 880 TWh. That is 6,380 TWh in a year – more than China is producing/consuming currently. And it excludes rooftop solar PV and other applications of solar PV; geothermal; wave power and bioenergy, so it is a highly conservative estimate. It demonstrates that fossil-fuelled thermal power would not be needed at all by the year 2020 – without making any assumptions as growth in coal seam gas or tar sands.Google Scholar