In remarks published last week, Vice Premier Li Keqiang stressed how critical energy concerns are to China's economic and foreign policy goals and suggested that China must develop a "polluters pay" system of tax reform. Li spoke to a group of scientists and government officials in December, but the state media did not publish his remarks until last Friday.

China's new five-year plan for 2011-2015 will include key measures to reverse damage caused by 30 years of environmental degradation, including putting carbon emission reduction at the top of its agenda. "The depletion, deterioration and exhaustion of resources and the deterioration of the environment have become serious bottlenecks constraining economic and social development," wrote environment minister Zhou Shengxian in an essay last week.

On the heels of a government decision to slash its rare earth materials export quota by 35 percent in 2011, Chinese Minister of Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi announced that the nation would tighten controls on rare earth mining, limiting its exports to conserve resources and protect the environment. The new rules, which are expected to be issued as early as February, will limit pollutants allowed in waste water and emissions of radioactive elements and phosphorus.

China is going to leave the rest of the world "in the dust" in terms of the development of a green economy, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Christina Figueres said at a panel discussion in Switzerland last week. Last year the country boosted low carbon energy spending by 30 percent to reach over $50 billion, the largest figure of any country, and the development is set to continue. According to Bloomberg, China WindPower Group is slated to borrow as much as $240 million from the Asian Development Bank to develop more wind farms.