The climate and economic benefits of developing renewable energy in China

Abstract Renewable energy (RE) development could have a positive effect on CO2 emission and towards productive energy utilization and the establishment of a high capacity power generation from wind and solar photovoltaic power. In this regard, this study presents a dynamic computable general equilibrium model for analysing the climate and economic benefits in developing RE in China. The analytical result shows that the maximum shares of RE and nonfossil energy in power generation could increase from 74% to 78% in 2050, respectively. Eventually nonfossil power sectors would turn into backbone industries that account for 3.4% of the gross domestic product, which can be equal to other industries such as iron and steel, construction and agriculture with 3.3%, 2.1% and 2.5%, respectively. Furthermore, the substantial scale RE development will invigorate the output value of about $1.18 trillion that is related to the upstream supply chain and create 4.12 million employment in 2050.