Climate protection and China’s energy security: Win–win or tradeoff

Since 1996 China became a net importer of crude oil, energy security has faced lots of supply risks and the issues of security on energy using have become more and more acute. The Chinese government has taken a series of policies and measures and enacted relevant laws to guarantee energy security and mitigate global climate change. What changes has energy security in China experienced in these years? What impacts has the implementation of energy security and climate protection policies brought to China’s energy security? This paper has established the evaluation indicators and model of the energy security index. The model evaluation results show that: (1) in 1996–2009, the index of China’s energy supply security presented an uptrend and then downtrend. For example, it presented a rapid uptrend in 1996–2001, a quick downtrend in 2002–2005, and a slow downtrend in 2006–2009. The energy supply security index in 2009 was kept basically the same as that in 1996. (2) In 1996–2009, the index of China’s energy using security presented a fluctuated uptrend. For example, it presented a fluctuating uptrend in 1996–2002, and dropped to a relative low level in 2003–2005, and then quickly rose in 2006–2009. (3) The policy of “China’s energy-saving and emission reduction” has slowed down the decreasing speed of the index of energy supply security and also conspicuously improved the index of energy using security, so that the composite index of China’s energy security presented an uptrend, then downtrend and finally uptrend. The policy of “China’s energy-saving and emission reduction” has been successfully conducted, proving that a win–win result can be achieved between climate change protection and China’s energy security.

► We established an evaluation indicators and model of the energy security index. ► We analyzed the changes of China’s energy supply security index and use security index. ► We discussed the relationship between climate change and China’s energy security.