Edinburgh Napier University

  China’s energy consumption has more than doubled in less than 10 years and China is now the world’s greatest consumer of energy. China produced 1/5 of the world’s total electricity by 2010, and 60% of energy is generated by coal. Therefore, China alone is a very important actor in climate change mitigation. This paper focuses on the Chinese consumer willingness to choose and pay for environmentally friendly, i.e. green energy, in residential sector in China. To analyse the residents willingness to use green energy, this article presents detailed data of consumer attitudes towards green heating and electricity in China, including 1) background information (e.g. gender, age, occupation, income) 2) consumer knowledge (e.g. generated electricity method, renewable sources) 3) attitudes (e.g. global warming) 4) technology (e.g. solar, wind, CHP), and 5) barriers (e.g. price, knowledge), gathered by questionnaire survey and interview. The study elicits informative data by interviewing in two provinces (Zhejiang and Jiangsu) in China to clarify different points of views for various aspects of green energy, where ‘‘green energy’’ is a generic product or focuses on the environmental attributes associated with green energy. Finally, the data is analysed to assess the customer’s willingness to pay for making sustainable environment and the main barriers to this.