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

09/01/2014

* China sets targets for curbing air pollution | Reuters

China has set new targets for its provinces to reduce air pollution by 5 to 25 percent, state media said late on Tuesday, underscoring the government\’s concern about a source of public anger.

English: Air pollution (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

China regularly issues directives to try to tackle air pollution in major cities, but these have had limited effect.

Former health minister Chen Zhu said air pollution in the country causes premature deaths of 350,000 to 500,000 people yearly, state media reported on Tuesday. Chen wrote the article in a December issue of the Lancet medical journal.

Air quality in large parts of northern and southern China reached unhealthy levels on Tuesday.

Under the new regulations, Beijing, its neighboring city of Tianjin and northern Hebei province will have to cut the amount of PM 2.5 particles, which are especially bad for health, by 25 percent annually, state news agency Xinhua said, citing the ministry of environmental protection.

China\’s commercial capital, Shanghai, the eastern provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and northern Shanxi will have to impose cuts of 20 percent. Reductions of 15 percent were set for Guangdong and Chongqing and 10 percent for the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinhua said.

The State Council, or cabinet, is mulling a system to evaluate each local government\’s progress and those who fail to reach goals will be \”named and shamed\”, said the China Daily newspaper.

Air quality in cities is of increasing concern to China\’s stability-obsessed leaders, anxious to douse potential unrest as a more affluent urban population turns against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has poisoned much of the country\’s air, water and soil.

Authorities have invested in various projects to fight pollution and empowered courts to mete out the death penalty in serious cases.

via China sets targets for curbing air pollution | Reuters.

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

Tags: air pollution, Chen Zhu, China, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Particulates, pollution, State Council of the People's Republic of China, Tianjin

13/12/2013

Beijing to buy new buses to clear city smog: media | Reuters

China\’s capital Beijing, regularly shrouded in hazardous air pollution, plans to replace its oil-burning buses with greener models by 2017 to help clear the smog, state news agency Xinhua said.

Residents wearing masks ride their electric bicycles on a street amid heavy haze in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province December 5, 2013. REUTERS/China Daily

Nearly 14,000 new buses powered by electricity or natural gas will be bought to replace two-thirds of Beijing\’s bus fleet and halve carbon emissions, Xinhua said on Thursday, citing the city\’s environment and transportation authorities.

Air pollution in Beijing hit unprecedented levels in January when an index measuring particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) shot up to a staggering 755 – 38 times the level recommended by the World Health Organisation.

China\’s worsening air quality is a result of it chasing economic growth at all cost in the past 30 years, a pursuit that turned it into the world\’s second-biggest economy, but which also poisoned much of its air, water and soil.

Rising public concern over the health dangers of China\’s air pollution has worried its stability-obsessed leaders, who fear the issue may become a rallying point for wider dissatisfaction.

China has adopted an emergency response program to try to reduce the pollution, including alternating days for cars with odd and even license plates to be on the road and closing schools when the smog is particularly heavy.

via Beijing to buy new buses to clear city smog: media | Reuters.

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

Tags: air pollution, Beijing, China, Particulates, pollution, World Health Organization

10/12/2013

China state media under fire for arguing benefits of smog | Reuters

Commentaries by two of China\’s most influential news outlets suggesting that the country\’s air pollution crisis was not without a silver lining drew a withering reaction on Tuesday from internet users and other media.

A man wears a mask while walking on a bridge during a hazy day in Shanghai's financial district of Pudong December 5, 2013. REUTERS/Aly Song

In online commentaries on Monday, state broadcaster CCTV and the widely read tabloid the Global Times, published by the Communist Party\’s official People\’s Daily, both tried to put a positive spin on China\’s smog problem.

The Global Times said smog could be useful in military situations, as it could hinder the use of guided missiles, while CCTV listed five \”unforeseen rewards\” for smog, including helping Chinese people\’s sense of humor.

via China state media under fire for arguing benefits of smog | Reuters.

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

Tags: air pollution, Beijing, China, China state media, Chinese people, commentaries, Global Times, pollution crisis, silver lining, Smog, smog problem

17/09/2013

China to cut coal use, shut polluters, in bid to clear the air

China‘s fight against pollution continues unabated. Hope it is enough to save China (and the world).

Reuters: “China unveiled comprehensive new measures to tackle air pollution on Thursday, with plans to slash coal consumption and close polluting mills, factories and smelters, but experts said implementing the bold targets would be a major challenge. Vehicles past apartment blocks during rush hour in Beijing July 11, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee

China has been under heavy pressure to address the causes of air pollution after thick, hazardous smog engulfed much of the industrial north, including the capital, Beijing, in January.

It has also been anxious to head off potential sources of unrest as an increasingly affluent urban population turns against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has spoiled much of China’s air, water and soil.

China published the plan on its official website (www.gov.cn), also promising to boost nuclear power and natural gas use. Environmentalists welcomed the plan but were skeptical about its effective implementation.

“The coal consumption reduction targets for key industrial areas are a good sign they are taking air pollution and public health more seriously, but to make those targets happen, the action plan is a bit disappointing and there are loopholes,” said Huang Wei, a campaigner with Greenpeace in Beijing.

Beijing has struggled to get wayward provinces and industries to adhere to its anti-pollution measures and there were few concrete measures in the new plan to help strengthen its ability to monitor and punish those who violate the rules.

“We don’t see any fundamental structural changes, and this could be a potential risk in China’s efforts to meet targets to reduce PM 2.5,” said Huang, referring to China’s plan to cut a key indicator of air pollution by 25 percent in Beijing and surrounding provinces by 2017.

Coal, which supplies more than three-quarters of China’s total electricity needs, has been identified as one of the main areas it needs to tackle. China would cut total consumption of the fossil fuel to below 65 percent of primary energy use by 2017 under the new plan, down from 66.8 percent last year.

Green groups were expecting the action plan to include detailed regional coal consumption cuts, but those cuts appear to have been left to the provinces to settle themselves.

Northern Hebei province, China‘s biggest steel-producing region, has announced it would slash coal use by 40 million metric tons over the 2012-2015 period.

Other targets in the plan were also generally in line with a previous plans. It said it would aim to raise the share of non-fossil fuel energy to 13 percent by 2017, up from 11.4 percent in 2012. Its previous target stood at 15 percent by 2020.

To help meet that target, it would raise installed nuclear capacity to 50 gigawatts (GW) by 2017, up from 12.5 GW now and slightly accelerating a previous 2020 target of 58 GW.

It would add 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas trunk pipeline transmission capacity by the end of 2015 to cover industrial areas like the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas in the east and southeast.”

via China to cut coal use, shut polluters, in bid to clear the air | Reuters.

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

Tags: air pollution, Beijing, causes of air pollution, China, climate, Coal, coal consumption, environment, Particulates, pollution, Yangtze River

13/09/2013

China gets tough on air pollution

China Daily: “Updated action plan drawn up in response to severe smog at start of the year, Wu Wencong reports

China gets tough on air pollution

The toughest-ever measures to tackle China’s worsening air pollution have been announced by the government.

The Airborne Pollution Prevention and Control Action Plan (2013-17) unveiled on Thursday sets out goals for the nation’s 338 cities.

A couple in Beijing’s Jingshan Park take photos against the background of a smog-shrouded Forbidden City as bad air pollution hit the capital on June 30. ZHUO ENSEN / FOR CHINA DAILY

The plan aims for a marked improvement in air quality over the next five years, said Wang Jian, deputy head of the Pollution Prevention and Control Department at the Environmental Protection Ministry.

The concentration levels of breathable suspended particles with a diameter of 10 microns — known as PM10 — or less, must fall by at least 10 percent by 2017 from the levels in 2012.

Tougher objectives have been set for some key areas.

For the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regional cluster, concentration levels of PM2.5 particles — those smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter, which can penetrate deep into the lungs — must be cut by 25 percent by 2017 from the 2012 level, under the plan.

The target for the Yangtze River Delta region is a reduction of 20 percent and for the Pearl River Delta region it is a cut of about 15 percent.

The plan takes into account pollution and economic development in different areas, with the aim of reducing PM2.5 levels in the three key regions and PM10 levels in the other cities, Wang said.

“But this does not mean that controlling PM2.5 is not important in the other regions, as PM2.5 particles account for 50 to 60 percent of PM10 particles,” he added.

The plan is an updated version of one released late last year that was designed to tackle air pollution in 13 key areas.

via China gets tough on air pollution[1]|chinadaily.com.cn.

Tags: air pollution, airborne pollution, Beijing, China, climate, environment, Jingshan Park, Particulates, Pearl River Delta, pm10 particles, river delta region, science, Yangtze River Delta

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

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

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

22/12/2012

* PM2.5 air pollutants causing more deaths than estimated, study says

Once again China is showing that it is not complacent about the nature of its environment. And often after such a study, money will be made available to rectify the situation.

SCMP: “The health risks of microscopic air pollutants have been grossly underestimated on the mainland, with nearly 8,600 premature deaths expected this year in four major cities, a study has revealed.

And premature deaths are “just a tiny fraction” of the adverse health impacts of tiny airborne particles, less than 2.5 microns in diameter, known as fine particle matter 2.5 (PM2.5).

The startling findings were included in a report by Greenpeace East Asia and Peking University’s school of public health which, for the first time, focused on PM2.5 health hazards in urban areas.

Environmentalists have hailed the study, released yesterday, as ground-breaking, with data linking poor air quality to deadly diseases.

Noting that the World Bank once put the number of premature deaths on the mainland as a result of air pollution at more than 200,000, Professor Pan Xiaochuan, of Peking University, said the study focused on a single pollutant and had not taken into account the long-term health impact of PM2.5, which could be far more dangerous.

The study’s estimation of combined economic losses caused by premature deaths, put at 6.8 billion yuan (HK$8.34 billion), was also likely to be far lower than the real figure owing to limited access to official statistics, he added.

Fine particles have long been known to pose greater health risks than more than a dozen other air pollutants. They damage lung tissue and the cardiovascular system, cause lung cancer and other deadly diseases, and lead to a higher mortality rate.

Based on official mortality figures in 2010 and limited PM2.5 monitoring data in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian, mostly from environment-related research institutes, the study showed a more than 10 per cent rise in premature deaths caused by PM2.5 pollution in the four cities over the past two years.

More than two-thirds of the 8,572 premature deaths this year caused by the microscopic pollutant occurred in Beijing and Shanghai. Although Beijing’s air pollution problem was worse, Shanghai saw the most deaths linked to PM2.5 – 3,317.”

via PM2.5 air pollutants causing more deaths than estimated, study says | South China Morning Post.

* China pledges $56 billion to cut air pollution (chindia-alert.org)
Life expectancy rises as fine particle air pollution drops (latimes.com)
The real driver behind China’s push to curb coal consumption (greenpeace.org)
https://chindia-alert.org/economic-factors/greening-of-china/

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

Tags: air pollution, Beijing, cause lung cancer, climate, environment, Greenpeace East Asia, Guangzhou, particle matter, Particulates, Public health, Shanghai, tiny airborne particles, World Bank

06/12/2012

* China pledges $56 billion to cut air pollution

Reuters: “China will spend 350 billion yuan ($56 billion) by 2015 to curb air pollution in major cities, the environmental watchdog said on Wednesday.

Visitors to Tiananmen Square shield themselves from the sun with umbrellas on a hot and hazy day in Beijing July 28, 2010. REUTERS/David Gray

Local governments will fund most of the programs aimed at cutting the level of harmful particles in the air in 117 cities by at least 5 percent between 2011 and 2015, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a statement on its website.

Doctors warn that the tiny floating PM 2.5 particles, named for their less than 2.5 micrometer diameter, can settle in the lungs and cause respiratory problems and other illnesses.

China began publishing data on the amount of such pollution earlier this year in an effort to address concerns from residents that pollution readings were grossly understated.

Chinese officials have acknowledged that the thick cocktail of smokestack emissions, vehicle exhaust, dust and aerosols that often fills the air in many cities is a growing concern to increasingly prosperous urban residents.

Many Chinese in Beijing refer to an air pollution index published by the U.S. embassy, a move that has drawn the ire of Chinese officials who have called it unscientific.

Those measurements, based on U.S. standards, appear much grimmer than those of the city government’s and often list pollution levels as hazardous at prolonged exposure.

China has cited its ongoing reliance on heavy industry as the reason it failed to meet some of its 2011 air and water pollution reduction targets.”

via China pledges $56 billion to cut air pollution | Reuters.

Posted in carbon emission, China alert, Economics, Environment, greenhouse gas, Pollution | 3 Comments »

Tags: air pollution, air pollution index, Beijing, China, climate, environment, Exhaust gas, Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China, Particulates, pollution, smokestack emissions

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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* China sets targets for curbing air pollution | Reuters

Beijing to buy new buses to clear city smog: media | Reuters

China state media under fire for arguing benefits of smog | Reuters

China to cut coal use, shut polluters, in bid to clear the air

China gets tough on air pollution

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

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

* PM2.5 air pollutants causing more deaths than estimated, study says

* China pledges $56 billion to cut air pollution

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

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