Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – China’s smog-prone northern province of Hebei met its air quality targets by a big margin over the winter after concerted efforts to tackle emissions, a local official said on Sunday, without mentioning coronavirus-related factory shutdowns.
Average PM2.5 concentrations over the October-March period dropped 15% from a year earlier to 61 micrograms per cubic metre, while sulphur dioxide also fell by a third, said He Litao, vice-head of the provincial environmental bureau.
Most experts have attributed the significant decline in air pollution throughout China in the first quarter to the coronavirus outbreak and tough containment measures, which saw cities and entire provinces locked down and sharply reduced traffic and industrial activity throughout the country.
With millions staying at home, concentrations of lung-damaging PM2.5 particles fell by nearly 15% in more than 300 Chinese cities in the first three months of 2020.
Shanghai saw emissions fall by nearly 20% in the first quarter, while in Wuhan, where the pandemic originated, monthly averages dropped more than a third compared to last year.
However, He of the Hebei environmental bureau attributed the local decline in pollution to the “conscientious implementation” of government decisions even in the face of unfavourable weather conditions.
According to a winter action plan published last year, 10 cities in Hebei were expected to cut lung-damaging small particles known as PM2.5 by 1%-6% compared to the previous year.
Despite the decline, average PM2.5 was still much higher than China’s official standard of 35 micrograms, and the recommended World Health Organization level of 10 micrograms.
Between January 20 and April 4, PM2.5 levels across the country fell by more than 18 per cent, according to the environment ministry
But observers say that as soon as the nation’s factories and roads get back to normal, so too will the air pollution levels
Blue skies were an unexpected upside of locking down cities and halting industrial production across China. Photo: AFP
China’s air quality has improved dramatically in recent weeks as a result of the widespread city lockdowns and strict travel restrictions introduced to contain the
. But experts say the blue skies could rapidly disappear as factories and roads reopen under a government stimulus plan to breathe new life into a stalled economy.
According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, between January 20 and April 4 the average concentration of PM2.5 – the tiny particles that pose the biggest risk to health – fell by 18.4 per cent from the same period of last year.
Meanwhile, the average number of days with good air quality – determined as when the air pollution index falls below 100 – rose by 7.5 per cent, it said.
Satellite images released by Nasa and the European Space Agency showed a dramatic drop in nitrogen dioxide emissions in major Chinese cities in the first two months of 2020, compared with a year earlier.
According to Nasa, the changes in Wuhan – the central China city at the epicentre of the initial coronavirus outbreak – were particularly striking, while nitrogen dioxide levels across the whole of eastern and central China were 10 to 30 per cent lower than normal.
The region is home to hundreds of factories, supplying everything from steel and car parts to microchips. Wuhan, which has a population of 11 million, was placed under lockdown on January 23, but those restrictions were lifted on Wednesday
.
Air pollution is likely to return to China’s cities once the lockdowns are lifted. Photo: Reuters
Nitrogen dioxide is produced by cars, power plants and other industrial facilities and is thought to exacerbate respiratory illnesses such as asthma.
The space agency said the decline in air pollution levels coincided with the restrictions imposed on transport and business activities.
That was consistent with official data from China’s National Development and Reform Commission, which recorded a 25 per cent fall in road freight volume and a 14 per cent decline in the consumption of oil products between January and February.
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Liu Qian, a senior climate campaigner for Greenpeace based in Beijing, said the restrictions on industry and travel were the primary reasons for the improvement in air quality.
According to official data, in February, the concentrations of PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide – a toxic gas that comes mostly from industrial burning of coal and other fossil fuels – all fell, by 27 per cent, 28 per cent and 23 per cent, respectively.
“The causes of air pollution are complicated, but the suspension of industrial activity and a drop in public transport use will have helped to reduce levels,” Liu said.
As the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic has shifted to the United States and
, human and industrial activity in China is gradually picking back up, and so is air pollution.
Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air in Helsinki, said that levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution, measured both by Nasa satellites and official stations in China, started inching back up in the middle of March and had returned to normal levels by the end of the month.
That coincided with the centre’s findings – published on Carbon Brief, a British website on climate change – that coal consumption at power plants and oil refineries across China returned to their normal levels in the fourth week of March.
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Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based charity, said a stimulus plan to kick-start the economy would have a significant impact on air pollution.
“Once industrial production is fully resumed, so are the emission levels,” he said. “Unless another outbreak happens and triggers another lockdown, which would be terrible, the improvement achieved under the pandemic is unstable and won’t last long.”
After the 2008 financial crisis, Beijing launched a 4 trillion yuan (US$567.6 billion) stimulus package that included massive infrastructure investment, but also did huge damage to the environment. In the years that followed, air pollution rose to record highs and sparked a public backlash.
Even before the Covid-19 outbreak, China’s economy was slowing – it grew by 6.1 per cent in 2019, its slowest for 29 years – and concerns are now growing that policymakers will go all out to revive it.
“Local governments have been under huge pressure since last year, and there are fears that environmental regulations will be sidelined [in the push to boost economic output],” Ma said.
But Beijing had the opportunity to get it right this time by investing more in green infrastructure projects rather than high-carbon projects, he said.
“A balance between economic development and environmental protection is key to achieving a green recovery, and that is what China needs.”
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s government has stepped up the purchase of air purifiers over the last two years, taking the number of devices in ministries to protect against deteriorating air quality to nearly 300, government data seen by Reuters showed.
Six federal ministries – including the health, foreign and home affairs – bought at least 159 air purifiers during 2018-2019 at a cost of 5 million rupees ($70,353), according to previously unpublished data obtained under a Right to Information (RTI) law.
That compares with at least 140 air purifiers bought for $55,000 during 2014-2017 for the six ministries and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, as previously reported by Reuters. The latest data on purchases for Modi’s office was not available. (reut.rs/2ppjyBj)
The purchases come as the federal and city governments faced criticism for failing to address the problem of worsening air pollution, especially in the winter, and drew criticism from one activist.
“It’s absolutely criminal to spend taxpayers’ money in buying air purifiers for government officials,” said environmentalist Vimlendu Jha, who is a member of a government panel tasked with solving Delhi’s pollution crisis.
In November, the level of pollution in the capital forced authorities to shut schools, restrict the use of cars and declare a public health emergency.
A senior official at the environment ministry, which bears the most responsibility for tackling pollution, said there was no particular drive to buy purifiers to protect civil servants.
“The government is not spending a fortune by buying air purifiers. And it’s not that officials don’t get to inhale toxic air by confining themselves to their offices,” said the ministry official.
The six ministries and Modi’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
Air purifiers can cost up to nearly $1,000 and are too expensive for most Indians.
Per capita income in New Delhi, a city of more than 20 million, is about $400 a month and thousands of homeless people endure the cold and the toxic air while sleeping on the streets.
Reuters requested for data using the RTI law from the six ministries as it had comparable numbers previously reported in 2018. These were the ministries of foreign affairs, tourism, agriculture, health, home affairs and the federal think-tank Niti Aayog.
(Graphic: Modi’s government purifer purchases 2018-2019 link: here).
Of the total of 159 devices bought by the ministries, the home affairs ministry topped the list with 103 of them in 2018 and 2019, the data showed.
“All the air purifiers have been installed in various offices/rooms of this ministry,” the ministry said in its RTI response, adding the amount spent was 3.1 million rupees ($43,619).
In October and November, when New Delhi saw some its worst air pollution last year, the foreign ministry bought 12 purifiers. Four of them – bought for the minister’s office – were priced at nearly $1,000 each.
The federal health ministry bought 23 air purifiers in the last two years, including 14 in 2019, its highest annual purchases since 2015, the data showed.
A child makes a snowman at the Palace Museum in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 30, 2019. Beijing saw a snowfall Friday night. (Xinhua/Meng Dingbo)
BEIJING, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) — Beijing on Saturday was covered in white after experiencing the first snow this winter, which experts said was timely after a much-delayed snowfall in last year’s droughty winter.
The snow, which began Friday evening, reached the level of a blizzard in the outlying districts of Yanqing and Changping. In the city proper, the average precipitation was 3.1 millimeters, said the Beijing Meteorological Service.
“The first snowfall in Beijing this winter was most timely. Records show since 1961, Beijing’s average first winter snowfall happened exactly on Nov. 29,” said Guo Jinlan, a chief forecaster with the service.
The city’s first snow last winter did not fall until February this year.
Experts expect the snow to reduce the risks of wildfire and clean the air in Beijing, whose air pollution usually deteriorates in the winter season.
The city has issued an alert for icy roads and advised citizens to beware of health problems during the low temperature and windy weather after the snow.
US billionaire says it will take time to solve problems like air pollution but China is taking action
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg says it will take time for China to resolve problems like air pollution. Photo: AFP
US billionaire Michael Bloomberg has spoken out in support of Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying Xi is “not a dictator” and the Communist Party “listens to the public” on issues like air pollution.
Bloomberg made the comments in an interview on the weekend with Margaret Hoover, host of PBS’ Firing Line public affairs show, ahead of November’s Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Beijing, an event designed to rival the World Economic Forum in Davos.
When asked whether China could be a good partner in the fight against climate change, Bloomberg said “China is doing a lot”.
“Yes, they are still building a bunch of coal-fired power plants. Yes, they are [burning coal]. But they are now moving plants away from the cities. The Communist Party wants to stay in power in China and they listen to the public,” he said.
“When the public says ‘I can’t breathe the air’, Xi Jinping is not a dictator. He has to satisfy his constituents, or he’s not going to survive … The trouble is you can’t overnight move cement plants and power plants just outside the city that are polluting the air and you have to have their product. So some of it takes time.”
China prepares for next round of nationwide inspections in ‘war on pollution’
Hoover countered, saying China was not a democracy and Xi was not answerable to voters.
“He doesn’t have a vote, he doesn’t have a democracy. He [isn’t held] accountable by voters. Is the check on him just a revolution?” she said.
“You’re not going to have a revolution. No government survives without the will of the majority of its people,” Bloomberg said. “He has to deliver services.”
Hoover then said: “I’m looking at people in Hong Kong who are protesting and wondering whether the Chinese government cares what they have to say.”
Bloomberg said that in government – “even governments that aren’t what we could call a democracy” – there were many stakeholders with vested interests and “they have an impact”.
Smog in northern China rises in first four months of 2019 as anti-pollution drive loses ‘momentum’
Bloomberg’s comments come seven years after his news service published an investigative story about the finances of the extended family of Xi, then vice-president.
The story was published at a sensitive time, with China holding a once-a-decade leadership transition that saw Xi become president.
China banned the use of Bloomberg financial data tracking terminals but the company’s relations warmed gradually after three years.
In August 2015, Bloomberg was given a high-profile reception by then vice-premier Zhang Gaoli. He also published an opinion piece in party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
Joyce Msuya of the UN Environment Programme is full of praise for Beijing’s success in tackling air pollution but says there is work still to be done
Commitment to environmental protection seen at home must be extended to infrastructure projects developed overseas, she says
Joyce Msuya, acting head of the UN Environment Programme, says bad infrastructure can have a negative environmental impact. Photo: Simon Song
The United Nations’ environment chief has appealed to China to apply the same environmental standards to infrastructure projects it develops overseas under its Belt and Road Initiative as it does to those built on its own soil.
“We know from history, bad infrastructure can lead to negative environmental impact,” said Joyce Msuya, acting executive director of the UN Environment Programme. “Given China’s record on and interest in environmental protection, we hope and expect they will apply the same spirit as they invest in developing countries.”
While acknowledging the value of infrastructure building in developing nations, Msuya said it was equally important to consider the environmental implications of
“We are interested in working with member countries that have been beneficiaries [of Chinese investment] to see what concerns, if any, what risks, if any, they see,” she said in an interview on the sidelines of an event in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang province, to mark World Environment Day, which fell on Wednesday.
Scores of countries are involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar belt and road plan in one way or another, but as it has expanded so too have the concerns over its environmental impact.
In late 2017, the WWF issued a report claiming that the development of two motorway projects in Myanmar would have a negative environmental impact on about half of its population.
China ‘facing uphill struggle’ in fight against pollution
On China’s efforts to tackle pollution at home, Msuya said that although the move towards a greener economy might require communities to make sacrifices in the short term, these would be outweighed by the long-term benefits.
China has been fighting a “war on pollution” since 2013 but as
have grown so too have concerns that industry unfriendly environmental efforts might be relegated to the back burner. The nation’s gross domestic product grew by just 6.6 per cent in 2018, its slowest rate since 1990, and for the past year it has been embroiled in a stinging trade war with the United States.
China has been fighting a “war on pollution” since 2013. Photo: Simon Song
Msuya said that while Beijing had done a good job in improving air quality, it still had some way to go on issues like water, soil and noise pollution.
“China is quite diverse, with many provinces … so the scale of the challenge of dealing with pollution is more complex,” she said. “[But] by building on its experience of cleaning the air, I have full confidence in the Chinese government.”
Pollution in northern China up 16 per cent in January as industrial activity spikes
According to a report issued by Beijing on Wednesday, average levels of PM2.5 – the tiny airborne particles that are particularly harmful to health – in more than 70 cities across
China fell by an average of 42 per cent in the five years through 2018.
Smog levels in the Chinese capital fell 43 per cent in the period, but the average reading in the city last year was still more than five times the World Health Organisation’s recommended safe level.
Air quality was the main theme of the Hangzhou event.
Msuya has first-hand experience of Beijing’s air quality having worked in the city as the World Bank Group’s regional coordinator for East Asia and the Pacific between 2011 and 2014.
“When I moved to Beijing in 2011, I honestly didn’t know how bad the air pollution was.
My son was six at the time and I always made sure he wore a mask when he went out to play,” she said.
“Fast forward to now, and China has shown us that the problem of air pollution can be tackled if everyone participates.”
Foreign lifestyle experiences are becoming more popular as citizens seek to escape pollution, food and medicine safety worries and authoritarian government controls
Citizens encountering more barriers to their dreams of travelling abroad, with severe limits on moving money overseas and restrictions on visiting foreign countries
Thailand, including the likes of Chiang Mai, the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand are popular destinations for Chinese families. Photo: Shutteratock
Xu Zhangle and her husband and their two children are a typical middle-class couple from Shenzhen, and along with 60 other Chinese families, they are going on an extended holiday to Thailand in July, where they hope to enjoy an immigrant-like life experience.
The family have paid a travel agent around 50,000 yuan (US$7,473) for the stay in Chiang Mai in the mountainous north of the country, including transport, a three-week summer camp for their daughters at a local international school, rent for a serviced apartment and daily expenses.
Zhangle loves Chiang Mai’s relaxed lifestyle and easy atmosphere and wants to live as a local for a month or even longer, instead of having to rush through a short-term holiday.
“It would not be just [tourist] travelling but rather a life away from the mainland.” she said.
Recently, upper middle-class citizens have increased their efforts to safeguard their wealth and achieve more freedom by spending more time abroad.
They have invested considerable amounts of money in overseas properties and applied for long-stay visas, although many of their attempts have ended in failure.
Chinese citizens are encountering more barriers to their dreams of travelling abroad, with severe limits on moving money overseas and restrictions on visiting foreign countries.
Still, growing anxieties about air pollution, food and medicine safety and an increasingly authoritarian political climate are pushing middle class families to look for new ways to circumvent the obstacles so they can live outside China.
Among the options, there is growing demand for sojourns abroad of a month or more, to enjoy a foreign lifestyle for a brief period to make up for the fact that their emigration dreams may have stalled.
“I think this is becoming a trend. Chinese middle-class families are facing increasing difficulties to emigrate and own homes overseas. On the other hand, they still yearn for more freedom, for a better quality of life than what is found in first-tier cities in China.
They are eager to seek alternatives to give themselves and their children a global lifestyle,” said Cai Mingdong, founder of Zhejiang Newway, an online tour and education operator in Ningbo, south of Shanghai.
“First, the availability of multiple-entry tourist visas and the sharp drop in air ticket prices have made it convenient and practical to stay abroad for from a few weeks to up to three months each year.”
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Now, many well-to-do Chinese middle class families can get a tourist visa for five or even 10 years that allows them to stay in a number of countries — including the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other Asian countries — for up to six months at a time.
“In 2011, a round-trip air ticket from Shanghai to New Zealand cost 14,000 yuan (US$2,000), but now is about 4,000 (US$598),” added Cai.
This opens up the possibility for many middle-class families who are not eligible to emigrate, to live abroad for short periods of time.
Many wealthy Chinese middle class families can get a tourist visa for five or even 10 years that allows them to stay in several countries including the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and other Asian countries, for up to six months at a time. Photo: AP
Chinese tourists made more than 140 million trips outside the country in 2018, a 13.5 per cent increase from the previous year, spending an estimated US$120 billion, according to the China Tourism Academy, an official research institute under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
“In [the Thai cities of] Bangkok and Chiang Mai, there are more and more Chinese who stay there to experience the local lifestyle, which is different from theirs in China. The life there is very different from that in China,” said Owen Zhu, who now lives in the Bangkok condo he bought last year.
“The freedom, culture and community are diversified. The quality of air, food and services are much higher than in first-tier cities in China, but the prices are more affordable.
“In Bangkok, in many international apartment complexes where foreigners live, the monthly rent for a one-bedroom [apartment] is about 2,000 (US$298) to 3,000 yuan.”
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A one-bedroom apartment in Shenzhen in southern China is twice as expensive, with rents continuing to rise rapidly.
There are global goods, and it is easy to socialise with different people from around the world,” Zhu added
“Many Chinese people around me, really, come to Thailand to live for a while and go back to China, but then come back again after a few months.”
Both Cai and Zhu said they discovered the new phenomenon among China’s middle class and decided it was a business opportunity.
Growing anxieties about air pollution, food and medicine safety and an increasingly authoritarian political climate are pushing middle class families to look for new ways to circumvent the obstacles so they can live outside China. Photo: AP
Zhu is in the process of registering a company in Bangkok and plans to build an online platform to service the needs of Chinese citizens living abroad who do not own property or have immigration status, especially members of the LGBT community.
Cai said dozens of Chinese families in the Yangtze River Delta had paid him to send their children to schools in New Zealand or Europe for around three or four weeks in the middle of the school year, while the parents rent villas in the area, with New Zealand and Toronto in Canada among the most popular destinations.
Last year, Zheng Feng, a single mother and freelance writer from Beijing, rented a small villa in Australia for a month for them, a friend and their children to escape Beijing’s pollution and experience life overseas.
“To be honest, I don’t have enough money to invest in a property or a green card in Australia. But it’s very affordable for me and my son to pay about 30,000 yuan (US$4,484) to live abroad for one or two months.” Zheng said.
China says 2018 growth was worth more than Australia’s whole GDP
Zheng will join the Xu family in Chiang Mai later this year and she is also planning a similar trip to England next year.
Zheng’s friend, Alice Yu, invested in an American EB-5 investor visa a few years ago, and plans to make one or two month-long trips abroad each year until her family is finally able to move to the United States.
Demand for the EB-5 investor visa in China seems to be waning given heightened uncertainty about the future of the programme and US immigration law in general under US President Donald Trump.
Approval for the visa can now take up to 10 years, resulting in a huge backlog that has further dampened interest and led to a significant dip in investment inflows into the US from foreign individuals.
A one-bedroom apartment in Bangkok can cost around bout 2,000 (US$298) to 3,000 yuan a month. Photo: AFP
“Maybe it will soon become standard for a real Chinese middle-class family to have the time and money to enjoy a long stay at a countryside villa overseas,” said Yu.
“Regardless of whether we can get a long-term visa for the United States, I want my children grow up in a global lifestyle and with more freedom than just growing up on the mainland. So do all wealthy and middle class Chinese families, I think.”
Karen Gao’s son started studying at an international school in Chiang Mai in June, at the cost of about 70,000 yuan (US$10,462) a year, after she quit her job as a public relations manager in Shenzhen and moved to Thailand on a tourist visa.
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“A few months each year for good air, good food and no censorship and internet control, but cheaper living costs compared to Beijing, it sounds like a really good deal to go,” said Gao, who has now been offered a guardian visa to accompany her son, who has already been given a student visa.
“In Shenzhen, I wasn’t able to get him into school because I had no [local] residence permit.
“It would be the best choice for us because we feel so uncertain and worried about investing and living in the mainland.”
Last year, Gao, like thousands of other private investors mostly middle class people living in first-tier cities, suffered significant losses when their investments in hotels and inns in Dali, Yunnan province, were demolished amid the local government’s campaign to curb pollution and improve the environment around Lake Erhai.
“We were robbed by the officials without proper compensation,” Gao said.
Air pollution levels in the Indian capital have been rising alarmingly in recent years. Today, in some parts of the city, breathing in the open air equals smoking 20 cigarettes a day.
The green panel said that even after more than four-and-a-half years, the complaint of the aggrieved parties is that the pollution caused by the unregulated handling of plastic continues to remain unabated.
X
It had asked the chief secretary to hold a joint meeting with the persons considered responsible for compliance. (File photo: PTI)
The National Green Tribunal Monday asked the Delhi government to deposit Rs 25 crore with the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for their failure to curb the problem of pollution in the city.
A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel also asked the AAP government to furnish a performance guarantee of Rs 25 crore with the apex pollution monitoring body to ensure that there is no further lapse in this regard.
It said despite its clear directions, there is hardly any action for compliance of orders of the tribunal and pollution continues unabated in blatant violation of law and under the nose of the authorities “who have hardly done anything concrete except furnishing excuses and helplessness”.
The green panel said that even after more than four-and-a-half years, the complaint of the aggrieved parties is that the pollution caused by the unregulated handling of plastic continues to remain unabated.
The tribunal was hearing pleas filed by Mundka village resident Satish Kumar and Tikri-Kalan native Mahavir Singh alleging pollution caused by burning of plastic, leather, rubber, motor engine oil and other waste materials and continuous operation of illegal industrial units dealing with such articles on agricultural lands in Mundka and Neelwal villages.
The tribunal had earlier directed the Delhi chief secretary to co-ordinate with the concerned municipal authorities, police authorities and other officers responsible for compliance of orders of this tribunal already passed referred to ensure compliance at the ground-level forthwith.
It had asked the chief secretary to hold a joint meeting with the persons considered responsible for compliance and till the orders remain un-complied, continue to hold such meetings at least once a month.
“It will be open to the chief secretary to seek feedback from concerned inhabitants about the ground situation,” the NGT had said.
Two world-leading clean energy projects have opened in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
A £3m industrial plant is capturing the CO2 emissions from a coal boiler and using the CO2 to make valuable chemicals. It is a world first.
And just 100km away is the world’s biggest solar farm, making power for 150,000 homes on a 10 sq km site.
The industrial plant appears especially significant as it offers a breakthrough by capturing CO2 without subsidy.
Built at a chemical plant in the port city of Tuticorin, it is projected to save 60,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year by incorporating them into the recipes for baking soda and other chemicals.
Here’s how it works:
The plant operates a coal-fired boiler to make steam for its chemical operations.CO2 emissions from the boiler’s chimney are stripped out by a fine mist of a new patented chemical.
A stream of CO2 is fed into the chemicals plant as an ingredient for baking soda and other compounds with many uses, including the manufacturing of glass, detergents and sweeteners.
Zero emissions
The owner of the chemicals plant, Ramachadran Gopalan, told a BBC Radio 4 documentary: “I am a businessman. I never thought about saving the planet. I needed a reliable stream of CO2, and this was the best way of getting it.”
He says his operation has now almost zero emissions. He hopes soon to install a second coal boiler to make more CO2 to synthesise fertiliser.
The chemical used in stripping the CO2 from the flue gas was invented by two young Indian chemists. They failed to raise Indian finance to develop it, but their firm, Carbonclean Solutions, working with the Institute of Chemical Technology at Mumbai and Imperial College in London, got backing from the UK’s entrepreneur support scheme.
Their technique uses a form of salt to bond with CO2 molecules in the boiler chimney. The firm says it is more efficient than typical amine compounds used for the purpose.
The plant is projected to save 60,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year
They say it also needs less energy, produces less alkaline waste and allows the use of a cheaper form of steel – all radically reducing the cost of the whole operation.
The firm admits its technology of Carbon Capture and Utilisation won’t cure climate change, but says it may provide a useful contribution by gobbling up perhaps 5-10% of the world’s emissions from coal.
Lord Oxburgh, former chairman of Shell, and now director and head of the UK government’s carbon capture advisory group, told the BBC: “We have to do everything we can to reduce the harmful effects of burning fossil fuels and it is great news that more ways are being found of turning at least some of the CO2 into useful products.”
Solar farm
Meanwhile, the nearby giant Kamuthi solar plant offers a marker for India’s ambition for a rapid expansion in renewables.
The world’s largest solar farm at Kamuthi in southern IndiaIt is truly enormous; from the tall observation tower, the ranks of black panels stretch almost to the horizon.Prime Minister Modi is offering subsidies for a plan to power 60 million homes with solar by 2022 and aims for 40% of its energy from renewables by 2030.
For large-scale projects, the cost of new solar power in India is now cheaper than coal. But solar doesn’t generate 24/7 on an industrial scale, so India has adopted a “more of everything” approach to energy.
The firm behind the solar plant, Adani, is also looking to create Australia’s biggest coal mine, which it says will provide power for up to 100 million people in India. Renewables, it says, can’t answer India’s vast appetite for power to lift people out of poverty.
Will India stick to its renewables promises with Donald Trump as US president?And questions have been raised recently as to whether India will stick to its renewables promises now President-elect Donald Trump may be about to scrap climate targets for the US.
At the recent Marrakech climate conference, China, the EU and many developing countries pledged to forge ahead with emissions-cutting plans regardless of US involvement. But India offered no such guarantee.
Some environmentalists are not too worried: they think economics may drive India’s clean energy revolution.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 