09.02.10 15:50 Age: 14 yrs
New Amendments made to China's Renewable Energy Law
BEIJING, China, February 09, 2010 - China amendments to the Renewable Energy Law of the People's Republic of China comes into effect on April 01, 2010.
The Decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on Amending the 'Renewable Energy Law of the People's Republic of China' ("the 2009 Act") was passed on December 26, 2009 at the twelfth session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress. The Act, which comes into effect on April 01, 2010 and builds upon the original 2005 Renewable Energy Law ("the 2005 Act"), highlights China's continual pursuance in striving to become a green country.
Article 1 of the 2009 Act outlines the aim of the legislation is "intended to advance the development and use of renewable energy, increase the supply of energy, improve the energy structure, maintain the energy security, protect the environment and realize the economic and social sustainable development."
During the four years period between the 2005 Act coming into effect, and the 2009 Act being promulgated, China has transformed itself into one of the world's leaders in green energy. China's commitment to the green cause was recently highlighted in their proposals in accordance with the Copenhagen Accords. China outlined that they would (i) lower carbon dioxide emissions by 40%-45% by 2020, from 2005 levels; (ii) increase share of non-fossil fuel to around 15% by 2020; and (iii) increase forest coverage by 40 million hectares, and forest stock volumes by 1.3 million cubic meters by 2020, from 2005 levels.
One area where amendments have been to the 2005 Act, relates to the requirement for grid companies to connect renewable energy to the grid. Article 14 of the 2005 Act stated "Grid enterprises shall enter into grid connection agreement with renewable power generation enterprises… and buy the grid-connected power produced with renewable energy… and provide grid-connection service for the generation of power with renewable energy." Infrastructure difficulties meant that in practice this was not fully operational. The 2009 Act addresses this issue by replacing the Article 14 proviso with targets, based on ratio calculations to be determined by the Department of Energy, the National Electricity Regulatory Bodies, and the Department of Finance. Further details regarding this new proviso are likely to be released after the 2009 Act comes into effect on April 01, 2010.
Managing Director of Lehman, Lee & Xu, Mr. Edward Lehman stated that "It is pleasing to note, that whilst growing as a international economic force, China is not forgetting, ignoring, or avoiding global energy concerns. Amending and updating energy legislation and committing itself on an international level to the Copenhagen Accords highlight China's faithfulness to this issue."
Lehman, Lee & Xu is one of the first five private law firms established in the People's Republic of China. After nearly twenty years of practice and development, Lehman, Lee & Xu now has more than two hundred patent, trademark and PRC-licensed attorneys working in numerous branch offices located in the most-developed cities in China. As one of the leading IP firms in China, Lehman, Lee & Xu provides high quality legal service to its clients and has been consistently rated among the top five IP law firms in China. Lehman, Lee & Xu is also a top-three commercial law firm, and has provided a variety of commercial legal services to hundreds of clients, many of them multinational corporations (MNCs) and Fortune 100 companies. The firm's diverse catalog of commercial services covers foreign direct investment (FDI), merger and acquisition (M&A), tax, employment and many other areas.
For more information about Lehman, Lee & Xu, please visit the firm's website at www.lehmanlaw.com
