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U.S. says China must "pay" to cut greenhouse gases
U.S. says China must pay to cut greenhouse gases | Green Business | Reuters
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China and other developing nations must help "pay" for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said on Monday, backing off a recent statement that put a greater burden on the United States.
As the United States and other developed countries make costly commitments to address climate change, "developing countries like China must do the same," Locke told members of the Manufacturing Council, a private sector advisory group.
"They've got to step up. They've got to pay for the cost of complying with global climate change. They've got to invest in energy efficiency and conservation, but also very definitive steps in reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Locke said.
The comment followed Locke's statement last week in China that U.S. consumers should pay for the carbon content of goods they consume from countries around the world.
"It's important that those who consume the products being made all around the world to the benefit of America -- and it's our own consumption activity that's causing the emission of greenhouse gases, then quite frankly Americans need to pay for that," Locke told the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai after meetings with Chinese officials in Beijing.
A Commerce Department spokesman said Locke was not endorsing a tax on imports or any other particular policy option to reduce the carbon content of imported goods.
Instead, Locke was trying to say U.S. companies must not be put at a trade disadvantage as the United States moves to pass legislation to rein in greenhouse gas emissions that come primarily from burning fossil fuels, the spokesman said.
"There's an obvious concern that U.S. companies compete on a level playing field. As the voice in the cabinet for American business, that's the concern the secretary was trying to convey," the spokesman said.
China recently passed the United States as the largest overall greenhouse gas emitter, though U.S. per capita emissions still far exceed China's.
Locke and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu were in China last week to discuss how the two countries could work together on clean energy technologies to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.
At a closing press conference in Beijing, the two cabinet secretaries praised China for the steps it was already taking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and said it was a model for other developing countries to follow.
The Commerce spokesman said Locke had in fact stressed to Chinese leaders throughout his visit that they needed to take further steps to reduce the country's "carbon footprint."
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; editing by Anthony Boadle)
How is the status of sewage, waste water and industrial effluent treatment in PRC?
cheers
This is a long article by a Xinhua writer (not Xinhui) on what China is doing. I'm just excerpting the first parts.
Outpacing its green due, China pursues leadership in new energy solutions
21 July BEIJING, July 21 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese President Hu Jintao and Chinese diplomats sat in a spacious hall in Beijing over the weekend to discuss diplomatic projects, they sacrificed the formality of suits and ties in favor of white dress shirts to better weather the warm temperatures inside the building -- a measure taken to help conserve energy.
The temperature in the room is set automatically to 26 degrees Celsius, or Fahrenheit 79, so the usual attire would make for a sweaty mission. ...
LEADERSHIP IN NEW ENERGY DEVELOPMENT
Cooperating with the world to address global climate change, China looks toward renewable energy sources and stringent emission rules.
In building up hydro, nuclear, solar and wind power capacities, China aims at increasing renewable energy consumption to 10 percent by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020, with an emphasis on supplying advanced energy technologies to rural China for accommodating 750 million villagers in a more environment-friendly fashion.
By 2008, according to the Global Wind Energy Council, China had the largest wind turbines fleet in Asia, with a total power-generating capacity of 12.21 million kilowatts, which ranked the fourth in the world.
The government's incentives policies brought about more than 600 solar cell companies, mostly privately-owned, which manufacture 44 percent of the world's total cells for solar power devices.
More than 90 percent of the solar cells manufactured in China were exported to other countries to advance their green efforts. However, the production of these cells causes heavy pollution, leading to a greater emission debt in China's industrial areas.
Beijing, which has 3.7 million registered motor vehicles, is adopting harsher regulations on vehicle exhaust emissions than the U.S. federal standards.
Beijing has adopted Europe's standard for vehicular emissions. The European IV requires gas-fueled motor vehicles to emit less than 1.0 gram of carbon monoxide and 0.08 gram of nitrogen oxide per kilometer. The U.S.'s Tier 2 standard requires vehicles to emit less than 2.125 grams of carbon monoxide and 0.25 gram per kilometer.
At the cost of lowering its economic growth pace, China sets the target of cutting energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 percent and cutting emissions of major pollutants, such as carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, by 10 percent between 2006 and 2010, a state guideline said. ....
bad, very bad. off my head, I think only half of the waste water is treated.Originally Posted by kuku
I hope China and India give the greenies the finger on the non-existent "global warming" issue. Deal with real environmental problems first like dumping chemicals into rivers and sewage treatment.
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
Well there is a common understanding, the common goal is to ensure that the developing world doesnot get a rough deal by emission regulations (its better if keeps on getting the money to cut down). The major argument/dissagreement in some forums is the per head emissions of a nation.
cheers
India did
India’s Lesson on Climate-Change - WSJ.com
Excerpt:
The WSJ paper version actualy has a nice pic of Ramesh with Hillary.“There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions,” Jairam Ramesh (India environment minister and a stand up guy, IMO) told Mrs. Clinton in a closed-door meeting, according to a copy of his remarks distributed after the session. “And as if this pressure was not enough, we also face the threat of carbon tariffs on our exports to countries such as yours.”
In return Hill (the one who tolerates Bill) got a key defense fact through. This would allow US companies to bid for Indian defense deals.
Here is a more detailed article on her India visit
Hillary Clinton's India Trip: Talk but Not Much Action - TIME
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" ~ Epicurus
china is trying to improve its overall enviornment,but with the wild growth of its economy,that would be a very tough job.China to be world’s top manufacturer of green energy technology
China, the world’s biggest greenhouse- gas emitter, is poised to lead world production of solar cells, wind power turbines and low-carbon energy technology.
China is already the world's largest renewable-energy producer as measured by installed generating capacity, according to a report today from the Climate Group, a coalition of companies and governments that support solutions to global warming. The country is also the world’s top manufacturer of solar cells and will be the leading exporter of wind turbines by 2009.
I don't disagree it's a tough job but it is black and white. Either you have clean water or you don't. There is no in between. That is for China to decide. Either the Chinese people drink clean water or dirty water ... there is no in between on this.
Chimo
all those write up, not sure it is more about the economy or about actually about the environment.
Smoke-Choked China’s $585 Billion Stimulus Lifts ABB, Siemens
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By Antonio Ligi
July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Three years after passing the U.S. to become the world’s biggest air polluter, China is attracting green energy technology, driving profit at Western power-grid builders as their home markets slump.
Backed by a 4 trillion-yuan ($585 billion) economic stimulus package, the most populous country on Earth is targeting a 21 percent increase in spending on power- transmission networks this year. That helps boost order books at ABB Ltd., Siemens AG, Alstom SA and General Electric Co.
“The Chinese always want to buy the best technology,” ABB Chief Executive Officer Joe Hogan said in an interview. “They force us to push the envelope on the technology.”
Clean sources of energy will be used to generate about 35 percent of China’s electricity by 2020, according to Liu Zhenya, the head of State Grid Corp. of China, the nation’s biggest electricity provider. Currently the country’s 1.3 billion people get about 80 percent of their power from coal-fired plants.
“China’s enormous demand for energy continues to drive their desire to install state-of-the-art energy equipment that is cleaner and more efficient,” Jack Wen, CEO of GE Energy China, said in an e-mail.
The shopping spree includes some of the most advanced transmission technology being built. Siemens, Europe’s largest engineer, is currently delivering the world’s first 800-kilovolt transformers for extra-high-voltage transmission systems in an order valued at more than 300 million euros ($426 million).
Bigger than a two-story family house, they help limit energy loss as Chinese utilities move power from inland hydropower plants to coastal cities. Standard networks operate at 500 kilovolts.
Rapid Follow-Through
China’s technology drive contrasts with slumping domestic demand for the power-grid builders. At Munich-based Siemens, new orders in China increased 43 percent in the quarter through March while they fell 14 percent in Germany. ABB sales fell 2 percent in local currencies in Europe in the first quarter while rising 6 percent in Asia. It doesn’t report on China separately.
The country became Zurich-based ABB’s biggest market in 2007 and revenue there increased 21 percent to $4.1 billion last year. Siemens’s revenue in China rose 19 percent in the year through September. Alstom is targeting annual power orders in China of 1 billion euros.
“In China, there’s a rapid follow-through from planning to construction whereas in Western markets -- the U.S. -- more time has to elapse as governments contend with local planning and possible opposition from citizen organizations,” Alessandro Migliorini, an analyst at Helvea SA in Geneva, said in an interview.
‘Conservative’ West
Meanwhile, the U.S. and Europe “have become a little conservative about deploying some of the new technologies in electrical engineering for a while, like increasing voltages,” Peter Terwiesch, ABB’s chief technology officer, said in an interview. By contrast, the Chinese have “actually had to evolve their grid very significantly and in many areas defined levels of requirements we haven’t seen anywhere else.”
China remains a long way from being a clean-energy champion. The country became the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide gas in 2006, according to U.S. Energy Department data. Chinese coal consumption to power plants and electric grids rose 7.1 percent in 2008, adding 366 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, calculations based on data published by BP Plc show.
Change is coming. More-efficient power networks and wind parks are helping fight air pollution. A compact ABB substation, distribution transformers and ring main unit enable the country’s biggest wind farm, Jiangsu Rudong on the Yellow Sea coast, to feed about 230,000 megawatt-hours of electricity each year into the transmission network. That avoids 200,000 tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Wind Power
GE, whose energy unit has been in China for more than a century, is getting in on the act through wind power and more efficient transmission. The American company is the second- biggest producer of wind turbines after Vestas Wind Systems A/S of Randers, Denmark. Siemens also makes wind turbines, while ABB is involved in the Huitengshile wind park in Inner Mongolia.
“They’re accelerating green-emerging investing, like the smart grid” -- a system using digital technology to manage the flow of electricity, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt said on a conference call in April.
GE, based in Fairfield, Connecticut, doesn’t break out country-by-country sales for its units. As a whole, the company had $4.7 billion in revenue from China in 2008, almost 15 percent more than a year earlier.
Vestas said in June that it plans to boost the number of employees in China to 3,000 by year-end from about 2,000 last year, helped by rising demand, as the country’s wind-power capacity increases.
Air Pollution Battle
Siemens is aiming for 10 percent annual increases in sales of products that save energy and cut pollution from China and elsewhere. The company targets 25 billion euros in revenue from energy-efficient motors and lighting as well as wind turbines and high-voltage transmission systems in 2011.
“Where is Siemens selling its most advanced equipment? The most advanced equipment is sold in China,” Siemens CEO Peter Loescher said in a June speech in Washington.
To contact the reporter on this story: Antonio Ligi in Zurich at aligi@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: July 22, 2009 19:01 EDT
Smoke-Choked China?s $585 Billion Stimulus Lifts ABB, Siemens - Bloomberg.com
State sponsored Communism at work -- They are taking the concept “pro business” to a new level. Don’t expect a tax payer revolt there.
China Sets Wind Power Prices to Spur Renewable Energy (Update2)
China Sets Wind Power Prices to Spur Renewable Energy (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
By Bloomberg News
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- China’s government today set benchmark prices for wind power, abandoning a public bidding system, to help boost profitability at wind farms as the world’s biggest polluter seeks to boost the use of renewable energy.
The government has set on-grid tariffs at between 0.51 yuan ($0.075) and 0.61 yuan per kilowatt-hour in four regions, the National Development and Reform Commission said today. The prices are about 20 percent higher than rates determined under the previous system introduced in 2006, said Shi Pengfei, the vice president of China Wind Energy Association.
Wind farm operators have struggled to earn a profit under the public bidding system, State Electricity Regulatory Commission said on July 21. The Chinese government is stepping up efforts to boost the use of renewable energy as it prepares for emissions talks in Copenhagen in December.
“It’s good news for future developers,” Shi said. The rates are higher than prices set under the public bidding system, which ranged between 0.382 yuan and slightly more than 0.5 yuan a kilowatt-hour, and compare with tariffs of power generated by coal-fired plants of less than 0.4 yuan per kilowatt-hour, he said.
Chinese wind farm operators include Hong Kong-listed Datang International Power Generation Co. and China WindPower Group Ltd. Suppliers of equipment to the industry include China Wind Systems Inc., China High Transmission Equipment Group Co. and Goldwind Science & Technology Co.
Wind Resources
Today’s prices are set according to the different levels of wind resources in the regions, the national and development commission said in the statement, without giving details.
“The old mechanism failed to meet the actual management requirements because of the rapid development of China’s wind power industry,” according to today’s statement. The new system will be able to encourage investors to develop projects in areas with “good resources,” avoid low-quality plants and provide incentives for them to cut costs, it added.
China, which is building wind turbines, solar plants and hydro-electric dams, plans to reduce major pollutants by 10 percent in the five years through 2010.
The government will invest more than 100 billion yuan to more than double its wind-power capacity by 2010 from last year, Shi Lishan, deputy of renewable energy at the development and reform commission, said June 2.
The prices for offshore wind-power projects will be set “separately,” the commission said in the statement, without giving details.
To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at ywang30@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: July 24, 2009 05:15 EDT
China promises solar power subsidies in effort to develop clean energy industry
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (CP) – 3 days ago
BEIJING — China's government says it will pay up to 70 per cent of the price of new solar power systems in an effort to speed development of clean energy industries.
The Finance Ministry's announcement Tuesday comes as Beijing tries to reduce China's surging demand for imported oil and gas and create companies that cash in on growing global demand for clean energy technology.
The subsidies are meant to develop the solar industry as a new source of Chinese economic growth, the ministry said.
The Finance Ministry said that over the next two to three years it will pay up to 50 per cent of the price of solar power systems of more than 500 megawatts - comparable to a coal-fired power plant. It said the government will pay up to 70 per cent of the cost in remote areas.
China has several large producers of solar systems based on photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity. But the technology's cost means most of their production is sold abroad.
The government has set a target of generating at least 15 per cent of China's power from solar, wind and other renewable sources by 2020. Officials have said such industries are growing so fast that target might be raised.
The Finance Ministry gave no indication whether the subsidies would be limited to Chinese companies or to equipment made in China. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China complained in May that European producers of wind turbines were shut out of a planned $5 billion Chinese wind energy project.
China is, along with the United States, one of the world's leading producers of greenhouse gases that scientists say trap the sun's heat and are changing the climate. Beijing is trying to improve its energy efficiency but has rejected binding limits for reducing emissions.
Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
The Canadian Press: China promises solar power subsidies in effort to develop clean energy industry
China Seeks Clean Energy Balance
China Seeks Clean Energy Balance - WSJ.com
By SHAI OSTER
BEIJING -- China's government said it shut down many of its smaller and dirtier power plants nearly two years ahead of schedule, as the world's biggest consumer of coal took advantage of the weak global economy to boost efficiency and cut pollution in its vast network of generators.
But China's overall power-generating capacity surged by about one-fifth over the same period, underscoring the challenges China faces as it tries to balance its energy needs with its growing desire to fight pollution.
The National Energy Administration said Thursday since 2007 it had closed down 54 gigawatts worth of coal- and oil-fired power plants as part of the cleanup plan. That would amount to about 7% of China's electricity-generating capacity.
Officials said they would redouble efforts to shut down dirty and inefficient plants to boost overall performance and reduce consumption of coal, a major source of greenhouse gases.
Still, China continues to add to new coal-fired power plants to meet its energy needs. China's economy has grown so fast that it has added on average an additional 70 gigawatts -- roughly equal to the power-generating capacity of France -- each year for the past few years.
The sudden weakness of China's export sector this year has had a drastic impact on electricity demand as thousands of factories slowed down or closed. The China Electricity Council estimated this year power demand will grow only 3%, lower than the trade group's earlier 5% forecast.
Speaking at a press conference, Sun Qin, vice head of the National Energy Administration, said that China will strive to reduce its reliance on coal for power from the current 70% to 60% and replace it with wind, solar and hydropower. But reaching that figure will be harder because closures will mean layoffs and company restructuring.
China is coming under increasing pressure for its reliance on coal. China has recently surpassed the U.S. as the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluter, and the power sector is a big reason for that. According to a study by environmental group Greenpeace, China's three biggest power producers emitted more greenhouse gases than the entire United Kingdom in 2008.
China has been promoting the use of cleaner coal technology, such as costly power plants that burn at a much higher temperature and have lower emissions, and it is looking into even more expensive, cutting edge technology that could strip out carbon gas from power plants and store the greenhouse gas underground. Chinese officials have so far said this carbon capture technology is too immature to be widely used.
But China has so far pushed back on any absolute limits on its emissions, a roadblock for coming up with a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in negotiations this December.
Write to Shai Oster at shai.oster@wsj.com
China accepts 1st environment lawsuit against govt
The Associated Press: China accepts 1st environment lawsuit against govt
(AP) – 14 hours ago
BEIJING — A court in southwest China has accepted the country's first lawsuit filed by an environmental group against a local government, a member of the group said Friday.
The All-China Environmental Federation, a group backed by the government, filed the suit on behalf of residents against the local land resources bureau in Qingzhen city in Guizhou province, which sold land to a drink and ice cream processing plant they allege is a threat to a scenic lake area.
The land resources bureau sold 8,600 square feet (800 square meters) of land to the owner of the plant in 1994, but construction was never finished. The group wants the government to take the land back and remove the construction materials.
The acceptance of the suit is a sign of greater public involvement and use of laws to hold the government accountable for environmental problems, experts said.
"If this leads to more NGOs (non-governmental organizations) bringing public interest litigation I think this is a very important breakthrough. It means China is going to open the door to more public involvement in environmental enforcement," said Alex Wang, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S. environmental group.
Ma Yong, director of the legal service center at the federation, said the group received an acceptance note from the court on Tuesday. The case will open in early September.
Although the project had not been finished, Ma said it had to be stopped because its waste water would be a threat to the environment.
"The case will serve as a warning for government departments and companies that damage the environment, as we're stepping up efforts to play a supervisory role," he said.
Ma said he hopes the case will pave the way for more organizations to file public-interest lawsuits.
The group also filed a public lawsuit earlier this month against a company that operates a container port in eastern Jiangsu province's Wuxi city for failing to control pollution. That case was accepted but has yet to go to trial.
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Hundreds sickened by China chemical plant: state media
AFP
Hundreds sickened by China chemical plant: state media AFP/File – People cover their mouths as they wait to cross the street at a busy intersection in Hong Kong in July …
14 mins ago
BEIJING (AFP) – More than 500 people have been sickened by pollution from a chemical plant in central China that has also been blamed for two deaths, state media reported Monday.
Health checks on nearly 3,000 people living near the plant in Liuyang county, Hunan province, revealed 509 had excessive levels of cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, Xinhua news agency said, quoting Zhou Mengde, a local official investigating the incident.
"Among the sickened, 33 need to be hospitalised. The government will cover the medical cost of their treatment," he said.
The authorities have suspended two local environmental officials and detained the head of the plant following a protest last week by 1,000 residents, state media reported at the weekend.
Residents said they had petitioned since 2007 for an investigation of the plant but the local authorities had failed to take action, Xinhua reported.
The protestors demanded free health check-ups, free medical treatment and compensation for ruined crops and land.
The plant, which was plagued by environmental problems, was ordered to stop production in April. Protests erupted after the deaths of two people in May and June were found to have been caused by cadmium, Xinhua said.
Zhou said the government would buy the affected crops and livestock, with specific compensation measures to come later.
Rapid economic growth in recent decades and routine flouting of rules have taken their toll on China's environment, activists say.
Construction started Saturday on China's first 10 million-kw wind power station in the far northwestern city of Jiuquan in Gansu Province.
China's wind power industry was entering a new stage, said Zhang Guobao, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission and head of the National Energy Administration, at the groundbreaking ceremony.
After years of growth, China's wind power installation ranked fourth in the world and subsidiary equipment manufacturing had turned into a booming industry, Zhang said.
But China's wind power sector was dampened by distribution imbalances between resources and markets, difficulties in connecting wind power to power grids and construction policies that produced stations of only small generation capacity, he said.
To solve the problems, the government decided to build the 10 million-kw-level wind power station, a "Three Gorges in the Air", to maximize wind power efficiency through large-scale construction and transmission, Zhang said.
With a 120 billion yuan (17.57 billion U.S. dollars) investment, the station was designed to have an installed capacity of 5.16 million kw by the end of 2010 and 12.71 million kw by the end of 2015. It will be China's largest wind power facility upon completion.
China's installed wind power capacity topped 12.17 million kw at the end of last year, fourth in the world behind the United States, Germany and Spain.
Source: Xinhua
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