Sufficiency in China’s Energy Provision: A Service Understanding of Sustainable Consumption and Production

Abstract

China’s power sector has contributed to more than 45 per cent of China’s total historical carbon emissions. The economic turnaround experienced in China since 1978 has increased incomes and the national gross domestic product, in part through actively embracing consumerism. Environmental exploitation and widespread pollution of air, soil and water have accompanied the development process. This chapter qualitatively explores China’s current development path by presenting a social science analysis of electricity consumption and energy services. The analysis will not encompass the whole energy sector but looks mainly at the services that electricity provides domestically in an urban Chinese context. Seeing needs and demand as socially constructed and developed over time through a variety of influences, the chapter analyses and assesses the services provided by electricity. The working hypothesis of this chapter is that we need to change from efficiency thinking to sufficiency thinking, i.e., the possibility of having enough of something for a particular purpose, and the onus should still be on the affluent population of the world. Nevertheless, China organises its economy according to market-based and government-guided principles and acts as a growth engine for global capitalist endeavours. To make headway, the chapter discusses two points: First, is energy growth in China mainly about developing basic services and infrastructures? Second, is it ethical or practical to argue for restrictions on energy growth in China?