Pollution | CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

31/07/2013

China to invest $375 billion on energy conservation, pollution: paper

Reuters: “China plans to invest 2.3 trillion yuan ($375 billion) in energy saving and emission-reduction projects in the five years through 2015 to clean up its environment, the China Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing a senior government official.

The plan, which has been approved by the State Council, is on top of a 1.85 trillion yuan investment in the renewable energy sector, underscoring the government’s concerns about addressing a key source of social discontent.

China has set a target of reducing its carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45 percent by 2020 from the 2005 level, and raising non-fossil energy consumption to 15 percent of its energy mix, Xie Zhenhua, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), was quoted as saying.

As part of broader plans to curb pollution, the government will also roll out tiered power pricing for eight energy intensive industries, while sectors that struggle with overcapacity will face higher power tariffs, Xie said.

The government will also gradually expand a carbon trading pilot program to more cities starting from 2015, with the aim of creating a national market, he said.

Seven cities and provinces, including Shanghai, were ordered by the NDRC in late 2011 to set up regional carbon trading markets.”

via China to invest $375 billion on energy conservation, pollution: paper | Reuters.

Rich Chinese Provinces ‘Outsource’ Pollution to Poor Ones (chindia-alert.org)
Explainer: China carbon trading schemes kick off (reneweconomy.com.au)

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Ecology, Economics, Environment, Green, greenhouse gas, Pollution | 2 Comments »

Tags: Carbon Trading, China, climate, environment, fossil energy consumption, Gross domestic product, National Development and Reform Commission, renewable energy sector, Shanghai, social discontent, State Council of the People's Republic of China

28/07/2013

U.S. – China Five Initiative Plan Will Foster Future Climate Actions

Climate Law Blog: “The United States and China agreed upon a multi-faceted climate plan to curb GHG emission at the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED) on July 10, 2013. The plan was designed by the U.S.-China Working Group on Climate Change, which was established pursuant to a Joint Statement from both governments in April 2013. It is led by the U.S. Special Envoy for Climate Change, Todd Stern, and the Vice Chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, Xie Zhenhua.

The first Strategic and Economic Dialogue was held in Washington, DC on July 27th and 28th. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The U.S. and China together account for around 45% of the world’s annual GHG emissions; the two countries thus bear much of the global responsibility for the changing climate. The Working Group’s Report first took stock of existing cooperative efforts between the two countries and found a breadth of joint programs and projects. Recognizing the enormous potential to deepen those collaborative actions, the Working Group recommended five key initiatives, which will be implemented to facilitate large-scale cooperative efforts and domestic actions beginning in October 2013. These new initiatives include:

* Reducing emissions from heavy-duty and other vehicles

* Increasing carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS)

* Increasing energy efficiency in buildings, industry, and transport

* Improving greenhouse gas data collection and management

* Promoting smart grids

Both sides will gain sustainable economic growth from these low carbon developments on the basis of existing domestic policy and bilateral collaboration. Moreover, China will particularly benefit from reducing its air pollution and thereby improving public health through reducing emissions from heavy-duty and other vehicles.

The five-initiative plan directly followed a recent bilateral meeting in June 2013 in which presidents Obama and Xi agreed that the two countries will work together to phase down the production and consumption of HFC on both sides of the Pacific.

Though the agreement is non-binding, collaboration in climate strategy between U.S. and China is likely to spur a global response to come up with new efforts to combat climate change through enhancing domestic actions. Through October 2013, specific implementation plans regarding each of the five initiatives will be worked out. The Working Group will ensure that these are implemented with the involvement of large companies and non-governmental organizations.

Domestically, both countries have adopted laws or regulations addressing climate change. President Obama’s new climate policy announced in late June signaled the Administration’s commitment to regulating power plants, further promoting renewable energy, and increasing energy efficiency. China has enacted a renewable energy act and an energy conservation law which provide mid-to-long-term targets for shifting to clean energy and sustainable development. The five-initiative plan is another important step in furthering these domestic agendas, and, hopefully, greater world action.

via Climate Law Blog » Blog Archive » U.S. – China Five Initiative Plan Will Foster Future Climate Actions.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Climate change, Ecology, Economics, Environment, GeoPolitics, Green, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Barack Obama, China, climate, economic dialogue, environment, Greenhouse gas, greenhouse gas data, Sino-American relations, U.S.–China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, United States

25/07/2013

China to invest $277 billion to curb air pollution: state media

Reuters: “China plans to invest 1.7 trillion yuan ($277 billion) to combat air pollution over the next five years, state media said on Thursday, underscoring the new government’s concerns about addressing a key source of social discontent.

The money is to be spent primarily in regions that have heavy air pollution and high levels of PM 2.5, the state-run China Daily newspaper quoted Wang Jinnan, vice-president of the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning as saying. Wang helped draft the plan.

Tiny floating particles, measuring 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, are especially hazardous because they can settle in the lungs and cause respiratory problems and other illnesses.

The new plan specifically targets northern China, particularly Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province, where air pollution is especially serious, the newspaper said.

The government plans to reduce air emissions by 25 percent by 2017 compared with 2012 levels in those areas, according to the report.

“The thick smog and haze that covered large areas of the country in January has focused public attention on this issue,” Zhao Hualin, a senior official at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, told the newspaper.

China’s State Council, its cabinet, approved the plan in June, Zhao said.”

via China to invest $277 billion to curb air pollution: state media | Reuters.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Climate change, Environment, Green, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: air emissions, air pollution, Beijing, China, climate, environment, Particulates, social discontent, State Council of the People's Republic of China, thick smog

19/07/2013

China Seeks Australias Help Building Emissions Trading Scheme

Sydney Morning Herald: “Australia has been drafted in to help design an emissions trading scheme for China, the world’s biggest polluter.

A deal announced in Canberra on Thursday will see the Australian National University take leadership of a program that will analyse pollution data provided by China and allow Chinese university researchers to examine Australia’s experience of the carbon tax and transition to an emissions trading scheme.

China pollution China is aiming for a full national emissions trading scheme by 2015.

The program, known as the “Australia-China research program on market mechanisms for climate change policy”, will team Australian researchers with those from three provincial universities in China and the Beijing Institute of Technology. The University of New South Wales and Melbourne University will also take part.

The deal comes less than a month after China launched the first of seven pilot emissions trading schemes.

The first, in the manufacturing city of Shenzhen, will cover 635 companies, responsible for 38 per cent of the city’s total emissions. Chinese authorities are under pressure to do something about the chronic air pollution affecting public health in Shenzen and across China.

China emits one-quarter of the worlds greenhouse gases – nearly 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than the US and India combined.

The $305,000 program, announced by Trade Minister Richard Marles, will be run by the ANU Crawford School of Public Policy, and led by Associate Professor Frank Jotzo of the Schools Centre for Climate Economics and Policy. He said projects would include modelling the effects of emissions pricing on electricity sector investments in China; research on how energy markets can be reformed to make carbon pricing more effective and the design of China’s pilot emissions trading schemes.

Professor Jotzo said: In the future, China is expected to rely less on command-and-control economic management and more on market-based systems to help protect the environment and modernise its energy system.

The research under this program will help inform Chinese policymaker’s about innovative approaches and international experiences, he said.

Climate expert and economist Ross Garnaut, a professor at ANU, said the most recent climate science showed a two degree warming of the planet was now a minimum and Chinese leaders understand there is a huge potential impact from climate for that nation.

via China Seeks Australias Help Building Emissions Trading Scheme.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Climate change, Economics, Green, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Australia, Australian National University, Beijing Institute of Technology, China, climate, Emissions trading, emissions trading scheme, environment, Shenzhen, University of New South Wales

12/07/2013

How Shale Gas Can Save China From Itself

BusinessWeek: “For years the Chinese have been told that the blinding, sooty haze choking Beijing and other cities is the price of progress. Yet China’s appetite for energy is literally killing its people. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, based on data compiled between 1980 and 2000, estimated that pollution caused by burning coal stripped five years from the life expectancy of Chinese in the northern half of the country—a collective loss of 2.5 billion years. A separate study published in December in the Lancet attributed about a million deaths a year in China to air pollution.

Cars in Beijing travel on the road in heavy smog on March 7

Although other factors have contributed to the blackening of China’s skies—including millions of cars and motorbikes clogging roads—coal remains the deadliest. In the past decade, China’s coal consumption has more than doubled. It now burns almost as much coal as the rest of the world combined. In the first three months of the year, levels of PM-10 (particulates with a diameter of 10 micrometers or less) in Beijing were almost 30 percent greater than during the same period a year earlier.

By contrast, in the U.S. CO2 emissions hit an 18-year low in 2012. The reason? An explosion in shale gas production raised the share of electricity produced by natural gas from 20 percent to 30 percent, while bringing down the proportion produced by coal from 50 percent to 37 percent.

China’s recoverable shale gas reserves are estimated to be 25 trillion cubic meters, 50 percent larger than those of the U.S. The government has already announced subsidies to local shale gas producers; it should also help finance new pipelines and gas-fired power plants. Officials must lower barriers to entry and increase incentives to encourage the most innovative drilling companies—the majority of which are American—to work in China.

Shale is no silver bullet. In the near term, China will have to keep building coal-fired plants to meet its voracious energy demand. Yet failure to address coal pollution will condemn millions more Chinese to premature deaths. It’s hardly a choice.”

via Bloomberg View: How Shale Gas Can Save China From Itself – Businessweek.

China to reconsider shale target? (upi.com)
How shale gas can slow global climate change (csmonitor.com)
Australia has huge deposits of shale gas – but it won’t come cheap (guardian.co.uk)
Britain sees gold in shale gas and oil belts (triblive.com)
Not Just Cleaner: Fracking A Good Energy Return On Investment Also (americandailystandard.com)

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Climate change, Economics, Environment, greenhouse gas, oil & gas, Pollution | 1 Comment »

Tags: Beijing, China, climate, co2 emissions, Coal, coal consumption, environment, gas producers, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Shale gas

10/07/2013

China’s reliance on coal reduces life expectancy by 5.5 years, says study

The Guardian: “Air pollution causes people in northern China to live an average of 5.5 years shorter than their southern counterparts, according to a study released on Monday which claims to show in unprecedented detail the link between air pollution and life expectancy.

Air Pollution Attacks Beijing Again : A tourist looks at the Forbidden City as PM25 covers

High levels of air pollution in northern China – much of it caused by an over-reliance on burning coal for heat – will cause 500 million people to lose an aggregate 2.5 billion years from their lives, the authors predict in the study, published in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The geographic disparity can be traced back to China’s Huai River policy which, since it was implemented between 1950 and 1980, has granted free wintertime heating to people living north of the Huai river, a widely-acknowledged dividing line between northern and southern China. Much of that heating comes from the combustion of coal, significantly impacting the region’s air quality.

“Using data covering an unusually long timespan – from 1981 through 2000 – the researchers found that air pollution … was about 55% higher north of the river than south of it,” the MIT Energy Initiative said in a statement.

“Linking the Chinese pollution data to mortality statistics from 1991 to 2000, the researchers found a sharp difference in mortality rates on either side of the border formed by the Huai River. They also found the variation to be attributable to cardiorespiratory illness, and not to other causes of death.”

The researchers, based in Israel, Beijing, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gauged the region’s air quality according to the established metric of “total suspended particulates (TSP),” representing the concentration of certain airborne particles per cubic meter of air.

The study concluded that long-term exposure to air containing 100 micrograms of TSP per cubic meter “is associated with a reduction in life expectancy at birth of about 3.0 years.””

via China’s reliance on coal reduces life expectancy by 5.5 years, says study | Environment | The Guardian.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: air pollution, airborne particles, Beijing, China, climate, environment, Huai River, Life expectancy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, mortality statistics, pollution data, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

06/06/2013

Beijing bike-sharing program needs more riders

Beijing copies London’s Boris Johnson but with less success.

China Daily: “There are 14,000 bicycles for rent in the city, and they’ve been used 700,000 times. More than 20 million people live in Beijing. Public rental bikes have been sitting idle as not enough riders use the service, some using the rental areas to park their own bicycles or electric vehicles. Also, the bicycle lanes are often used by cars, making cycling a dangerous option.

Beijing bike-sharing program needs more riders

Public bike rental service, aimed at providing an alternative, low-carbon transport service to residents, was first tried in Beijing’s Dongcheng and Chaoyang districts, which have high traffic flow, and the service was extended to Daxing and Yizhuang districts by the end of 2012

via Beijing bike-sharing program needs more riders[1]|chinadaily.com.cn.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Economics, greenhouse gas, Pollution, Transport | Leave a Comment »

Tags: Beijing, Bicycle, bicycle lanes, Bicycle sharing system, Cycling, environment, rental bikes, transportation

29/05/2013

China to issue new plan for air pollution control

China Daily: “China to issue new plan for air pollution control

A national plan for air pollution control could be outlined as early as this week, said 21cbh.com, a professional financial news website Tuesday.

The outline will target the reduction of air pollution on a national scale by establishing clear standards of air quality in different regions.

Coal plants, motor vehicles and dust that produce fine particulate matter will be the focus of strict control in the outline initiated by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, according to multiple sources who told the news website.

The overall plan has undergone multiple revisions and will be submitted to the State Council, China’s cabinet, for review by the end of this month, the Shanghai Securities News quoted Yang Tiesheng, deputy director of the energy saving department under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as saying on May 22.

The specific measures put forward by the plan include stipulating the declining rates of atmospheric pollutants such as PM2.5 (particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter), sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide in cities, the reduction of coal consumption throughout the country, as well as the promotion of using clean energy such as natural gas, while banning coal-fired power plants in cities and minimizing heavy-polluting vehicles.

The Yangtze River Delta region and the Pearl River Delta region will be the key areas of the new air pollution prevention campaign.

Roughly one million heavy-polluting vehicles, popularly known as “yellow label cars”, will be prohibited from driving on roads in Beijing, Tianjin municipality and Hebei province, which would reduce half of the PM2.5 by vehicle emissions alone, said one environmental expert as quoted by the news website.

The outline stipulates that air quality must “make substantial progress” in the upcoming five years rather than the next 20 years, a standard previously adhered to by big cities such as Beijing, according to a source from the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s economic planning body.

Grade II air quality stipulates the average concentration of PM2.5 over a 21 hour period should be between 35 to 75 milligrams per cubic meters, according to the latest standard made by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2012.”

via China to issue new plan for air pollution control |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Economics, Environment, Green, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: air pollution prevention, Beijing, China, climate, environment, Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China, National Development and Reform Commission, Particulates, Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta

27/05/2013

* Beijing to shut coal-fired boilers to clean up air

China Daily Mail: “Beijing has vowed to eliminate most coal-fired boilers in the city center by the end of 2015 to reduce pollution from fine particulate matter, especially during the heating season.

Beijing to shut coal-fired boilers to clean up air

After reducing coal use by 700,000 metric tons last year, the capital plans to cut another 1.4 million tons this year and use no more than 21.5 million tons, according to the 2013 coal consumption reduction plan released by the city’s Environmental Protection Bureau and Commission of Development and Reform.

Workers with the Beijing District Heating Group destroy two coal delivery channels with cranes on April 25, marking the beginning of the transformation of energy from coal to gas in the last coal-burning power plant in Beijing. CHENG NING / FOR CHINA DAILY

The capital used 26.35 million tons of coal in 2010, the environmental bureau said.

Beijing still has a large number of coal-fired central heating boilers that give off large amounts of coal dust, and noise during the heating season.

Richard Saint Cyr, a family medicine doctor at United Family Health in Beijing, said he has noticed an uptick in discussions about the worsening air quality with many patients since winter.

He said that air pollution in the past winter was unusually serious and he had never witnessed such collective anxiety in Beijing.

Fine particulate matter poses a serious threat to people’s hearts and lungs, he said.”

via Beijing to shut coal-fired boilers to clean up air |Society |chinadaily.com.cn.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Economics, Environment, greenhouse gas, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: air pollution, Beijing, central heating boilers, China, Coal, coal consumption, coal fired boilers, environmental protection bureau, Fossil-fuel power station, National Development and Reform Commission

25/05/2013

* Xi pledges to safeguard the environment

China Daily: “China will never pursue temporary economic growth at the expense of environmental degradation, President Xi Jinping vowed on Friday.

Xi Jinping 习近平 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Those who made rash decisions regardless of the ecological environment, resulting in serious consequences, must be brought to account, and should be held accountable for a lifetime,” he said.

“Only by implementing the strictest system and the most stringent rule of law can we provide reliable protection for ecological civilization.”

Xi was speaking during a group study session attended by members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and environmental scholars.

Meng Wei, head of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences and an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, was one of the two key lecturers at the session.

He told China Daily that by using the words “held accountable for a lifetime”, Xi is referring to both requirements and inspirations.

“Officials are responsible for benefiting the people within their regions, not only in terms of gross domestic product, but also with green hills and clean water,” Meng said. “Maintaining a good ecological environment should also be taken into account as part of officials’ political achievements.”

Xi reaffirmed the importance of balancing economic development and environmental protection, calling for an overall plan for land development, and for a scientific distribution of production, living and ecological space, leaving more room for nature to repair itself.

He emphasized the urgency of implementing major ecological restoration projects, and of enhancing ecological production capacity.

He said the idea of guarding the bottom line of national ecological safety should be firmly established.”

via Xi pledges to safeguard the environment |Politics |chinadaily.com.cn.

Posted in China alert, Economics, Environment, Pollution | Leave a Comment »

Tags: China, Chinese Academy of Engineering, communist party of china, ecological restoration projects, ecological space, environment, Xi JinPing

CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon

Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon

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