Since 1980, China s economy quintupled. This
growth brought about considerable welfare
gains for the population. However, this also
lead to challenges for China s energy
security (e.g. increasing oil-imports)
and severe regional environmental problems (e.g. SO2-
emissions and acid rain). Thus, the environment is
gaining an increasing role on the political agenda
and environmental considerations are likely to play
a much more important role in China s future energy
security policy. Until 2020, GDP and energy
consumption will further increase. Taking this into
account, future Chinese energy security strategy
constitutes an inter-temporal welfare optimisation
problem under domestic resources availability and
environmental constraints. In this study, a dynamic
inter-temporal optimisation model of energy
resources consumption and SO2-emissions is build up
and taken as a yardstick for the efficiency of
differentenergy security policy measures. As a
result, optimal control theory gives a normative
answer to the question how the utilisation of the
fossil resources and the environment has to be
chosen to maximise inter-temporal welfare in China.
growth brought about considerable welfare
gains for the population. However, this also
lead to challenges for China s energy
security (e.g. increasing oil-imports)
and severe regional environmental problems (e.g. SO2-
emissions and acid rain). Thus, the environment is
gaining an increasing role on the political agenda
and environmental considerations are likely to play
a much more important role in China s future energy
security policy. Until 2020, GDP and energy
consumption will further increase. Taking this into
account, future Chinese energy security strategy
constitutes an inter-temporal welfare optimisation
problem under domestic resources availability and
environmental constraints. In this study, a dynamic
inter-temporal optimisation model of energy
resources consumption and SO2-emissions is build up
and taken as a yardstick for the efficiency of
differentenergy security policy measures. As a
result, optimal control theory gives a normative
answer to the question how the utilisation of the
fossil resources and the environment has to be
chosen to maximise inter-temporal welfare in China.