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Review on Chinese wind power projects unfair: official

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-10 10:42

The recent review by the Executive Board (EB) of the UN Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) on wind power CDM projects hosted by China is unfair, said a Chinese official at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen on Wednesday.

"The Chinese Delegation noticed with serious concerns that during the past year, the development of CDM projects in specific areas was confronted by unprecedented difficulties and barriers, part of which are caused by the irrational, non-transparent and unfair decisions of the EB which is expected to be fair and impartial," said Li Gao, an official of the Chinese delegation.

Recently, a systematic review has been conducted by the EB on wind power CDM projects hosted by China, and the reason given publicly is that there was the suspicion that the Chinese government has systematically reduced the feed-in tariff for wind power projects with the aim of promoting CDM project development. And with this reason, many wind power projects have been rejected by the EB.

The Chinese delegation is of the view that the practice of the EB in this regard has caused at least three very serious questions, Li stated during an official session of the conference.

Firstly, it shall be the host countries that decide the policies of renewable energy based on its own situation. It is irresponsible for the EB to make wild guesses about the policies and even make corresponding decisions, which is far beyond the EB's mandate of "supervising the CDM."

If such a logic of the EB continues, all the energy projects from all developing countries could and will be questioned with the same excuse.

Secondly, relevant organizations have submitted to the EB abundant evidence, which justified sufficiently that the feed-in tariff for wind power projects in China has been steady or even increased. However, the EB turned a blind eye to this and made decisions in a non-transparent manner.

Thirdly, though the questions raised by the EB is a common one that can be asked to renewable energy projects from all the countries, it is confusing that review has been conducted only on China's CDM projects. Such practice is unfair and people have every reason to question the real motivations behind it.

Li stressed that wind power is considered universally as highly consistent with the purpose of the CDM and should be promoted through various means. Therefore, the decisions aiming solely at projects from a certain country are "obvious discrimination."