Green Revenues for Green Energy: Environmental fiscal reform for renewable energy technology deployment in China

China's economy continues to grow rapidly with corresponding increases in both energy consumption and environmental pollution.

Renewable energy is a key part of China's response to this challenge. The current costs of measures to facilitate the large-scale deployment of renewable energy are primarily met through an electricity surcharge—effectively a tax on electricity consumption. However, concerns have been raised that continuing to rely on the surcharge alone places a disproportionate burden on electricity consumers. In response, the need for further debate on how best to fund renewable energy and reduce environmental pollution was identified by the IISD and the CNREC, leading to the establishment of a research project to examine the international experience of similar schemes and their relevance to China. This report presents a summary for policy-makers of the findings of that research.