Summary

Hubei ranked 14th among the 15 Chinese provinces surveyed by Climatescope 2014, with a score of 1.00. It performed best on Greenhouse Gas Management Parameter IV, reflecting corporate awareness of emission reduction policies, energy efficiency initiatives and clean energy capacity building, as well as its CDM projects.

Located in central China, Hubei is highly-industrialized with a GDP of $407bn in 2013. The province relies predominantly on large hydropower and coal for power generation, about half of which is distributed to the power-hungry south and east of China.

Hubei generated a total of 122.5TWh in 2013, of which 67% was sourced from coal and 8.5% from renewables. While most of this (73.5%) was small hydropower, wind capacity is on the increase, growing by more than 200% between 2010 and 2013.

The province is targeting 2GW of wind capacity by 2015, as per its provincial 12th five-year energy development plan. In all, it has 3.9GW of renewable energy capacity, representing 6.7% of total installed capacity.

In 2013, Hubei received $690.6m in clean energy investment, and a cumulative $3.6bn since 2006. The wind sector received the largest amount during this period.

As one of seven provinces chosen to pilot an emissions trading program in 2013, Hubei launched what is now China’s secondbiggest carbon market in early April 2014. The program aims to decrease carbon intensity, and prepare for the launch of a national trading system as early as 2016.