While the Chinese government has announced that the upcoming 2022 Olympics will be totally powered by wind and solar energy, it has emerged that it is building renewable energy capacity that is resulting in a violation of human rights.
The Chinese government hopes to cover all the energy needs of the 2022 Olympics using exclusively renewable energy. Aside from this, the authorities believe that thanks to renewables they will be able to eliminate air pollution at least during the Games. It is also racing to base 25% of its total energy mix on renewables by 2030. Whilst this solution is beneficial for the climate, activists warn that many Chinese people are experiencing illegal land seizures by local authorities seeking space to build solar or wind farms.
Illegal land grabbing
Some Chinese farmers have reported that the authorities have deprived them of their farmland for green energy investments whereas previously they had been promised financial compensation.
“We were promised about 1,000 yuan per mu of land each year (a mu is equal to about 667 square meters) when the power company leased the land for 25 years,” farmer Long from Huangjiao village told France24.
However, his family has never received any money and are now being forced to burn corn husks and plastic bags to heat their house in the winter as they have been left with very little income.
“We can make more than double the amount by growing corn in the same area. Now without land, I eke out a living as a day labourer,” added the farmer.
Another farmer named Pi admitted that villagers living nearby had been forced to sign contracts leasing their land to a solar park constructed by the State Power Investment Group which is one of the five biggest utility companies in China. Those farmers who did not agree to this were beaten or even detained by the police. Pi himself was jailed for 40 days for “an illegal gathering and disturbing the peace.”
Xu Wan, a farmer from Zhangjiakou, was forced to give his land to a company constructing a solar installation to support power capacity for the Olympics.
“The company told us this was non-usable land, but actually it’s all very good agricultural land used by us farmers. They said they would give us 3,000 yuan per mu of land. But in the end, we got nothing,” he told the news website.
Chinese policy over land seizure
In September 2021, the Chinese government passed strict rules regarding compensation for land taken over for ecological projects including renewable energy. According to these regulations, when farmland is seized to construct green energy projects, the landowners should receive benefits such as the energy coming from that project or money. The problem is that companies very often argue that the land they want to occupy is unusable even when it is farmland, thus avoiding any financial responsibility.
While China is the largest global greenhouse gas emitter, it is also the country that has the largest renewable energy capacity and it is on course to maintain this leading position. The country is home to the largest solar farms and has 130 gigawatts of solar energy installed, more than any other country which could in fact meet the UK’s energy needs several times over. China is also the biggest producer of solar panels with 60% of those used globally being manufactured there.
