China Congress Pushes Gas, Renewable Energy Plans: Chart of Day

China, the world’s biggest polluter, said it would accelerate its use of renewable energy and cleaner-burning fuels including natural gas over the next five years to cut pollution and reduce reliance on coal, which generates about 80 percent of the nation’s electricity.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows China aims to double gas’s share of energy consumption to 8 percent by 2015 while boosting the combined proportion of wind, solar, hydro and nuclear to 11 percent from 8 percent, according to National Energy Administration data. China plans to start building 40 gigawatts of atomic reactors by 2015, more than three times of last year’s capacity, documents released at the National People’s Congress this week show. The country will also begin construction of 120 gigawatts of hydropower by then.