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Shenzhen sewage outlets pollute sea

Apr 13th, 2012
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http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2012-03/30/content_25024342.htm

All nine sewage outlets of the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen discharged excessive amounts of pollutants last year, deteriorating the quality of seawater around the bustling city that borders Hong Kong to the south, a government report said Thursday.

The amount of chemicals like ammonia and phosphate were found to have exceeded discharge limits at all of Shenzhen’s sewage outlets, said the report conducted by the city’s maritime bureau.

Water samples collected by the bureau also failed in the chemical oxygen demand test, usually taken to measure the amount of organic compounds in water, the report said.

The report did not provide causes for the sewage pollution.

It said red tides occurred four times last year in the sea around Shenzhen, spreading over an area of 57 square kilometers.

The seawater off Shenzhen’s west coast was “seriously polluted,” the report said, rating it on the bottom of the four-level national sea water quality index, which means the water is not fit for swimming, water sports, aquatic farming or industrial uses that come in close contact with human consumption.

Over the past three decades, Shenzhen, which currently has a population of 10 million, has developed from a fishing village to one of China’s most economically vibrant cities. The city’s growth was bolstered by government’s special pro-development policies for it and its geographic proximity to Hong Kong and export-oriented industries clustered in the Pearl River Delta region.

More Chinese cities release air pollution data

Apr 11th, 2012
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http://asiancorrespondent.com/80239/more-chinese-cities-release-air-pollution-data/

11 April 2012

Six Chinese cities launched new air pollution monitoring systems in the past two weeks, as one of the country’s leading physicians warned that dirty skies could become China’s most serious health threat.

China pollution

Pollution in China Pic: AP

The northeastern coastal city of Dalian began releasing new air pollution readings on March 30. Citizens were invited to watch as environmental protection workers inaugurated the city’s new PM 2.5 monitor, which measures airborne particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter.

A local government news website reported that the first reading was 12 micrograms per cubic meter, far lower than the maximum limit of 75 micrograms mandated by new regulations.

A plan issued on February 29 by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection calls for cities across the country to meet the new, tougher air quality standards by January 2016.

In Jiangsu province, a PM 2.5 monitoring system was launched in five cities on March 30, with 17 air quality measurement devices collecting data.

Air pollution readings from the 17 stations will be available 24 hours every day on the website of the province’s environmental protection department.

The Jiangnan Evening News reported that on the first day measurements were released, the lowest pollution levels were in Wuxi, a small tourist city on the outskirts of Shanghai.

The highest reading was 141 micrograms, taken in the provincial capital Nanjing.

Nanjing’s PM 2.5 measurement system had earlier attracted criticism for choosing measurement locations in areas with lower levels of air pollution. Netizens accused local officials of trying to obtain more favorable air quality readings by placing monitoring devices in sparsely-populated green areas.

The city’s Environmental Monitoring Center replied that they were acting according to national regulations, and had chosen a diverse array of measurement sites.

Dalian and Jiangsu are only the most recent cities and provinces to launch new air pollution monitoring systems in recent weeks.

On March 24, Zhejiang province inaugurated 16 measurement sites in five cities. The provincial government says it plans to install a total of 153 sites over the next three years.

The southern province of Guangdong began releasing PM 2.5 data collected in the heavily-populated Pearl River Delta on March 8. Data for other areas in the province will be made public starting in June.

PM 2.5 monitoring has become a major issue in China over the past months, with experts and ordinary citizens calling for more accurate and widespread air pollution measurements in cities across the country.

On March 16, one of China’s leading health authorities called for greater public awareness and government attention to the problem of air pollution.

In an interview with The Guardian, Zhong Nanshan, president of the China Medical Association, warned that “if the government neglects this matter, it will be the biggest health problem facing China.”

Zhong, who rose to prominence in 2002 by breaking official silence to reveal the full extent of the SARS epidemic, said that “the situation now is better” and expressed confidence that authorities were becoming more transparent in dealing with the problem of air pollution.

“At the very beginning of that [SARS] epidemic, it was really terrible,” he said. “We have learned a lesson.”

Shenzhen plans world’s largest incinerator

Apr 6th, 2012
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Choi Chi-yuk and Cheung Chi-fai
Sep 15, 2011

Shenzhen plans to build the “world’s largest” rubbish incinerator, capable of processing 5,000 tonnes a day, in an effort to cope with the almost five million tonnes of domestic waste produced by the city each year.

Lu Ruifeng, the city’s executive vice-mayor, told a group of Guangdong provincial People’s Congress delegates on Tuesday that because its landfills could no longer cope with the growing trash pile produced by its 13 million residents, the city was planning to build the world’s largest incinerator, the Guangzhou-based Nanfang Daily reported yesterday.

Lu said public consultations had been held on site selection. He admitted that where to put the incinerator was one of the most challenging problems for the project.

The Nanfang Daily said Shenzhen planned to build three waste incinerators by 2015 to burn 80 per cent of the city’s rubbish. It said two of the plants would be in Laohukeng and Nanshandistrict, both in the west of the city, with the third to be built at an unspecified site in the city’s east.

A report in the Guangzhou Daily said Shenzhen had three waste incineration plants in the pipeline, capable of processing a total of 6,300 tonnes of rubbish a day.

Lu said that in order to meet environmental protection standards for the incinerator’s emissions – smell, liquid, ash residue and airborne ash particles – it would make use of mechanical grate technology to improve combustion. It would also adopt advanced management and stick to the highest global air quality standards, the Nanfang Daily reported.

It said Shenzhen was dealing with 4.8 million tonnes of trash a year.

Michelle Au Wing-tze, senior environmental affairs officer at Friends of the Earth (Hong Kong), said Shenzhen was taking a wrong path in waste management.

“Guangzhou has just started to ask people to separate and recycle waste, but Shenzhen is heading in the opposite direction,” she said.

“It is definitely not an image boost to tell others the incinerator will be the world’s largest.”

Au said that if the incinerator had any adverse environmental impacts, like dioxin pollution, it would not just hit Shenzhen and Hong Kong but could spread far beyond the region.

Last year, the daily per capita waste disposal rate in Shenzhen was 1.26kg, compared to 1.28kgin Hong Kong and 0.77kg in Guangzhou.

Hong Kong is also planning to build a large incinerator, with a capacity of 3,000 tonnes a day, on a reclaimed site at Shek Kwu Chau, south of Lantau Island. Environment officials have not ruled out the need to build an extra incinerator to cope with mounting waste.

Waste incineration projects are a sensitive issue in Guangdong, with proposals for new plants often met by fierce local demonstrations, forcing plans to be put on hold. In January, more than 1,000 residents from two districts of Guangzhou staged separate protests against incinerator projects near their neighbourhoods.

Growing environmental awareness among mainlanders as living standards have improved in recent years have fuelled more protests over environmental concerns.

Copyright (c) 2011. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Half Shenzhen’s buses to be electric or hybrid

Mar 13th, 2012
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Plan to replace more than 50pc of its combustion engine fleet would reduce dangerous air pollution
Fiona Tam 
Mar 13, 2012

In a bid to become China’s electric vehicle capital, Shenzhen has set a goal to replace more than 50 per cent of its combustion engine buses with electric or hybrid ones by 2015, a move that would reduce air pollution, especially of dangerous fine respirable particles.

Shenzhen mayor Xu Qin said during the current National People’s Congress in Beijing that within three years the city would ban from the road all vehicles that failed to meet the country’s advanced emission standards.

The “green” credentials of electric cars is controversial. Some researchers say that only when renewable sources – such as solar, wind or hydropower – are used in making the car and generating the electricity to run it will emissions truly fall to zero. Nevertheless, Xu said adopting electric would greatly reduce air pollution in Shenzhen, which ranks second to Beijing as having the most vehicles on the mainland.

“Electric cars consume electricity rather than petrol, so at least there’ll be zero emission of PM2.5 from the public transport system,” he was quoted as saying by yesterday’s Nanfang Daily. PM2.5 refers to respirable suspended particulates of 2.5 microns or less, which include cancer-causing particles.

Xu said 3,000 electric or hybrid vehicles were put into use in Shenzhen last year, and a further 2,000 were planned for this year.

Shenzhen’s transport commission said earlier that the city planned to put on the road 5,000 hybrid and 1,000 electric buses, and 3,000 electric taxis, by the end of 2015.

This could cut 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, The Economic Observer reported.

According to Shenzhen’s environmental protection bureau, the city’s roughly 2.3 million vehicles emitted nearly 50 per cent of total PM2.5 and nitrogen oxides. Official figures suggest that 23 per cent of the city’s emissions come from its 13,000 buses and 14,000 taxis.

Professor Eric Cheng, a specialist in electric vehicles at Polytechnic University, said Hong Kong, which offers fewer government subsidies to promote use of electric vehicles, was unlikely to follow Shenzhen’s example. “Everybody wants such a move,” he said. “But it’s nearly impossible for Hong Kong’s privately owned bus operators to replace half of their vehicles with electric or hybrid ones, as the cost is too high. Without abundant government subsidies, it could take a decade for Hong Kong’s bus companies to replace half of the buses with electric or hybrid ones.”

Although coal accounts for more than 80 per cent of the fuel mix in China’s power plants, Cheng said: “Filters in power plants are much more advanced than those on buses or taxis, and the percentage of electricity from coal will surely decrease if we have an eye on the future.”

In Shenzhen, every electric bus put on the road has received a one million yuan (HK$1.22 million) subsidy since 2010, half from the central government and half from Shenzhen’s. Subsidies for hybrid buses have increased from 300,000 to 600,000 yuan last year.

fiona.tam@scmp.com
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A taxi is charged in Shenzhen. The city, which ranks second to Beijing as having the most vehicles of all kinds on the mainland, is concerned about fine respirable particles.
Photo: Edward Wong

Public opinion key to clearing the air

Mar 12th, 2012
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SCMP – 12 March 2012

Mixed messages have further clouded the issue of urban air quality in China. First the State Council adopted revised pollution standards recommended by the environment ministry that include smog-related pollutants such as fine particles. Within two days a senior environmental official admitted the new standards, which still lag those in the West, posed severe challenges that could take decades to overcome amid chronic smog problems and rapid economic development. Then Premier Wen Jiabao assured the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress the government would not pursue growth at the cost of public health or the environment, and that it was capable of striking a fine balance. But for the first time since his government rolled out goals for pollution curbs and energy conservation, his annual policy speech omitted details of missed targets, prompting concerns that the truth about pollution is too bleak to be made public. The National Development and Reform Commission later confirmed that missed annual targets included both energy and carbon intensity and nitrogen oxides, which add to ground-level ozone formation and can cause lung damage.

China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has cited the priority of economic development in fending off demands from developed countries that it do more to tackle global warming. But it has become increasingly difficult for the central government to sell that argument to its own people. Mounting public concern over increasingly bad air in urban areas and misleading official pollution readings finally forced its hand on new standards for smog-related pollutants. Health studies have shown a close association between PM2.5 (respirable airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter that can penetrate the lungs) from vehicle exhausts, coal-fired power stations and factories, and premature death from heart and lung disease.

Deputy Environment Minister Wu Xiaoqing said at least two-thirds of mainland cities – including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou – failed the new standards, which were far less strict than recommended by the World Health Organisation. Nonetheless, environmentalists agreed that they were a landmark move. Any doubts that this is a pressing health issue for the mainland were erased by a recent WHO survey of air quality in 1,100 cities that showed Beijing was the 10th dirtiest capital in the world and 26th among 30 mainland cities surveyed. Wu is right to say that the challenge of improving air quality calls for years of unremitting effort from everyone. The adoption of the new standards shows that public opinion is a critical factor. In that respect, hopefully, they will result in more transparency and increasing pressure on mainland authorities to step up efforts to control pollution.

Ministry of Health to research safeguards against PM2.5

Mar 9th, 2012
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http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2012-03-09/221424089579.shtml

March 09, 2012

3月5日，参加十一届全国人民代表大会第五次会议的全国政协委员、卫生部部长陈竺在被媒体截住接受采访时向记者介绍，3年来，财政投入医改的新增经费是11000多亿元人民币，‘十二五’期间，政府对医改的投入还会有更大的增加。中新社记者 泱波 摄

While talking to reporters at the 5th session of the 11th National People’s Congress, CPPCC member and Minister of Health Chen Zhu said that over the past three years the government has allocated more than CNY 1.1 trillion [app. USD 174.3 million] for ongoing healthcare reforms, and that they will continue to increase funding throughout the 12thFive-Year Plan. Photo by Yang Bo, journalist at China News Service.

China News Service newswire; March 09, Beijing (journalists Shi Yan and Tian Jun): Chinese Minister of Health Chen Zhu on March 09 revealed that the Ministry of Health is organizing a team to research effective safeguards against PM2.5.

Chen Zhu made the above remarks while speaking with China News Service reporters during an intermission at the 5th session of the 11th National People’s Congress on March 09.

PM2.5 are also called inhalable particles. They seriously compromise air quality and visibility. Listed in the agenda presented by State Council premier Wen Jiabao on March 05 is an item for PM2.5 testing, to be conducted this year in vital areas such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang metro area, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, as well as all other municipalities subordinate to the central government and all provincial capitals. By 2015 the project will be expanded to include all cities at or above the prefecture level.

Chen Zhu said that, unlike the routine readings done by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Health will focus on the impact of PM2.5 on [public] health, and research the link between inhalable particles and respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

Chen also revealed that the Ministry of Health is mulling a partnership with other arms of the central government – namely MIIT – to introduce tobacco control regulations at the national level. China joined the FCTC in 2006. Significant progress has been in made in controlling tobacco use but the public is demanding that more be done in this area.

“We issued a ministerial directive, and despite criticism that an order from the minister was merely departmental policy and would not have the desired effect, we were still able to express where the government stood on this matter,” stressed Chen.

Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said recently that MIIT is currently drawing up a plan for FCTC implementation and will clarify the rules regarding messages on cigarette packaging alerting users to the health risks of smoking.

During an interview with reporters on March 09, Chen Zhu said they would continue to adjust the tobacco tax: “We have been doing this all along. We made an adjustment last year, but it was for luxury cigarettes only. This didn’t really help control the number of smokers. An upward adjustment on mid-range and low-priced cigarettes will definitely happen soon,” he said.

As to whether or not the public would back the measure, Chen Zhu said he was very confident they would: “I think the general public will support it because adolescents are the most sensitive to tobacco prices, and tobacco is harming adolescents more than any other group. Raise prices just a little higher, and the youth are likely to opt out …  According to our calculations, after we raise the tobacco tax there will be a more substantial drop in the number of smokers.”

As to whether or not a tax hike would be detrimental to fiscal revenues, Chen Zhu responded in the negative: “This won’t have any impact on fiscal revenues. Based on the experience of Western countries, there might even be an increase in revenues for a period of time.”

Pearl River Delta TO release PM 2.5 in March – People’s Daily Online

Mar 8th, 2012
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Clear the Air says:

We welcome the actions and decision by the Government of China in listening to the discontent of its Beijing citizens and taking appropriate and rapid action to release this data on killer PM2.5 particulates in real time.

Hong Kong has followed suit today although it has been monitoring PM2.5 data for a far longer period than the Mainland; however continued prevarication by this Administration prevented the release of such data to the Hong Kong public.

The real time release of this PM2.5 data in the PRD will provide significant data for the Government of Hong Kong to use in its PATH computer modelling program system that tracks transboundary pollution sources.

We will then be able to see just how much PM2.5 pollution emanates from the PRD  versus local sources.

Of significance is the fact that approximately 31% of airborne RSP in Hong Kong is believed to come from ocean going vessels and shipping within our waters whilst we have yet to mandate an Emissions Control Area (ECA) together with the PRD to force shipping to use low sulphur fuel instead of high sulphur bunker slops in the ECA.

We urge the Environment Minister Edward Yau to use his power under Section 7 (3) of the Air Pollution Control Ordinance to gazette the new Air Quality Standards into law without waiting till 2014.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-03/08/content_14788493.htm

HK commences PM2.5 hourly reporting

Updated: 2012-03-08 12:20

(Xinhua)

HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said on Thursday it will commenced the regular reporting in real time of fine suspended particulates (also known as PM2.5) from March 8, and the data can be accessed on the EPD website.

The data will reveal the hourly concentrations of PM2.5 as measured by the EPD’s air quality monitoring network, which comprises 11 general stations and three roadside stations.

A spokesman for the EPD said, “In anticipation of the inclusion of PM2.5 as a new criteria pollutant in the proposed new Air Quality Objectives (AQOs), we have progressively acquired new PM2. 5 monitors to extend continuous PM2.5 measurements to all air quality monitoring stations. The installation and testing of the new PM2.5 monitors has now been completed.”

According to the spokesman, to better understand the situation with regard to PM2.5 in Hong Kong, the EPD has been monitoring the pollutant since 1999 at three of its general air monitoring stations. And another general station was later added in 2005.

The monitoring results show that the level of PM2.5 in Hong Kong has reduced by 17 percent from 2005 to 2011. The spokesman said, this progress was owed to the control measures jointly implemented by the Hong Kong and Guangdong Governments in recent years.

The spokesman added that they will continue to collaborate with the Guangdong Provincial Government on emission reduction measures to further reduce the levels of particulates and other pollutants in Hong Kong.

Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-03/08/content_14783365.htm

Early start on PM2.5 monitoring

Updated: 2012-03-08 07:47

By Li Wenfang and Wang Zhenghua (China Daily)

Environmental authorities of Guangdong province plan to start releasing PM2.5 readings on Thursday, an early-bird approach to meeting the stricter national air quality requirements.

The State Council announced last week that stricter standards would be adopted in cities, including readings for ozone and concentrations of PM2.5 – particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter – which is considered more hazardous to health than larger particles.

Guangdong’s initial readings will come from 17 monitoring stations in the Pearl River Delta.

Readings at other stations in the delta would be made public by June 5, with those from all stations in the province available in 2014, said Li Qing, director of the provincial environmental protection bureau, at a work conference on Monday.

Given the marked air pollution in the delta, the number of days with air quality that meet the standards in Guangdong will fall 10 to 30 percent after the new standards are adopted, Li said.

Guangdong’s announcement came after Premier Wen Jiabao said in his work report on Monday that China will start monitoring PM2.5 in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and in other key areas, like municipalities directly under the central government, and provincial capital cities this year.

As an economic powerhouse of China, Guangdong faces an uphill task in environmental protection. With a large increase of output from coal-fired power plants last year, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide compound emissions went up, heightening the pressure to fulfill the emission reduction task in the 2011-15 period, according to the provincial environmental protection bureau.

Authorities will tighten clean air legislation this year, strengthening the treatment of emissions from automobiles and coal-fired power plants. They will also phase out obsolete capacities in industries involving furnaces, paper making, printing and dyeing, chemicals, construction materials and cement.

An investment of 100 million yuan ($15.8 million) is needed to enable all 97 national monitoring stations in Guangdong to test the air for PM2.5, in addition to staff recruitment and training.

In Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, daily air quality reports in line with the new standards, including PM2.5 readings, will be issued on the websites of the environmental authorities starting Thursday.

The new standards further emphasize public health guidelines and will serve as reference to the public in arranging their lives and outings, said Yang Liu, deputy director of the city environmental protection bureau, in a statement released Monday night.

He said city authorities will strengthen the control of automobile emissions and industrial pollutants, among other measures.

“The release should help improve air quality but the efforts should not stop here. I hope the government will increase transparency to make the data more convincing and will step up the supervision of the polluters,” said a university student in Guangzhou who identified herself only as Huang.

Following Guangdong, the financial center of Shanghai vowed to complete a monitoring network for PM 2.5 in June and focus on cutting emissions from vehicles and power plants – two major sources of the city’s pollutants.

The local environment protection department said about 25 percent of the city’s PM2.5 comes from car emissions, as a large amount of small pollutants are discharged from diesel-fueled vehicles on the road. The amount increases if the drivers of these vehicles adopt bad driving habits such as frequent sudden acceleration and braking.

Official statistics showed that Shanghai still has more than 200,000 “yellow-label cars” – heavy-polluting vehicles – discharging 20 to 30 times more pollutants than green-label cars.

Another 20 percent of PM2.5 in the city’s air comes from the chemical industrial process and industrial boilers and furnaces.

As such, the city plans to phase out 150,000 yellow-label cars by the end of 2014, and raise emission standards for newly registered cars, while providing sufficient approved-quality refined oil.

To fight pollution from thermal power plants, the city proposed cutting emissions by upgrading filtering and denitration facilities.

You may contact the writers at liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn and wangzhenghua@chinadaily.com.cn

Liang Qianyun in Guangzhou contributed to this story.

Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7751031.html

Pearl River Delta TO release PM 2.5 in March

(People’s Daily)

16:25, March 07, 2012 

Edited and translated by People’s Daily Online

Seventeen automatic air quality monitoring stations in the Pearl River Delta in southern China’s Guangdong province will begin releasing monitoring results, including PM2.5 readings, according to new national air quality standards later in March.

Other monitoring stations in the region will adopt the new standards from World Environment Day on June 5, according to information from the Guangdong Conference of Environmental Protection Bureau Chiefs, which kicked off on March 5.

China’s new air quality standards include an index for PM2.5, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. The Pearl River Delta was ordered to start monitoring PM2.5 this year. In addition to the Pearl River Delta, many cities in Guangdong is busy installing PM2.5 monitoring equipment, in hopes of implementing the new standards ahead of deadline and forming a monitoring network throughout the province.

It is estimated that the percentage of cities in Guangdong meeting the new air quality standards will drop by 10 to 30 percent. In order to improve air quality, the province will strengthen the regulation of the sales of environmental protection facilities, and improve social operations of automatic air quality monitoring at wastewater treatment plants and thermal power plants with a capacity of more than 300 megawatts.

http://english.cri.cn/6909/2012/03/07/3123s685425.htm

Beijing Joins Neighboring Regions in PM2.5 Control

2012-03-07 17:48:41 Xinhua Web Editor: sunwanming

Beijing has joined five neighboring provincial regions in an initiative to cut the city’s PM2.5 pollutants, a top environmental protection official said Wednesday.

Beijing’s high reading of PM 2.5 — fine particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in diameter — and poor air quality are correlated with air conditions in surrounding regions under the scheme, according to Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian.

This problem can hardly be solved by the Beijing municipal government alone, hence the joint action also involves neighboring regions including Hebei province and Tianjin city, Zhou said.

He said people are particularly attentive to PM2.5 figures because particles at this level are considered more hazardous to health than larger ones.

The official said China’s effort to cut PM2.5 is an indication that the country is now paying more attention to the environmental quality rather than the total pollutants discharged.
News @ AsiaOne

Beijing to switch from coal to gas to go green

More than 100 smaller cities will adopt the new air quality standards in 2013. -China Daily/ANN
Meng Jing and Zhang Yan

Thu, Mar 08, 2012
China Daily/Asia News Network

Beijing is to take action to make its coal-fired power plants and heating facilities go green amid public concern over the city’s poor air quality, said a government official.

Zhang Gong, director of Beijing municipal development and reform commission, said that an estimated 80 billion yuan (S$16.3 billion) will be invested to switch the city’s coal-fired power plants and heating facilities to natural gas.

“We want to make sure that power plants and heating facilities will be fueled by natural gas in the coming three to four years, reducing the use of coal as much as possible,” Zhang said on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress.

Zhang said the move is set to improve Beijing’s air quality and ease public concern over PM2.5, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, which can be hazardous after reaching a certain concentration.

Emissions from coal-fired power plants and heating facilities, as well as from the 5 million cars running in Beijing, are a major source of PM2.5 in the capital, according to research conducted by the municipal government.

Coal consumption in Beijing was around 26.3 million tons in 2011, with coal-fired heating and power plants accounting for 73 per cent. The remainder was for industrial use, Zhang said.

“So reducing the use of coal is our priority to cut the concentration of PM2.5 in the city,” he said, adding Beijing will use more green energy in the near future.

PM2.5 has been put higher up the government agenda amid growing concern over poor air quality in China’s big cities.

According to a statement by the State Council at the end of February, the four municipalities – Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing – and 27 provincial capitals, as well as three key regions – the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region – will monitor PM2.5 this year.

More than 100 smaller cities will adopt the new air quality standards in 2013.

The statement said the standards will be extended to all cities by 2015.

Beijing has been releasing the data on the concentration of PM2.5 to the public since January.

Replacing coal-fired plants with natural gas-fueled ones will make significant contribution toward improving air quality, said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based non-governmental organization.

“However, it may take longer than expected,” Ma said.

He said Beijing is actually a relatively small consumer of coal compared with its neighbors in Hebei province and Tianjin.

“The hard work done by Beijing alone is not going to improve the overall air quality unless the neighboring cities also make an effort,” he said.

Zhang from the reform and development commission of Beijing said that the experience of Western countries shows that improving air quality is a long and complicated battle.

“The government is no longer focusing solely on the economic growth of the city. We want to have sustainable development and create a livable city for the people,” he said, adding that is the reason that the government has set an annual target of 8 per cent GDP growth during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15) instead of the double-digit growth of previous years.

You may contact the writers at mengjing@chinadaily.com.cn and zhangyan@chinadaily.com.cn
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Putting a spin on pollution

Mar 6th, 2012
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http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=62b29478983e5310VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=China&s=News

Premier promises growth will not damage environment, but fails to report missed targets, prompting idea he wants to leave on a high note

Premier Wen Jiabao pledged yesterday that China’s pursuit of staggering economic expansion would not come at the cost of public health or the environment, in an apparent bid to placate simmering anger over widespread ecological degradation and key pollution-cut targets that were missed last year.

But his soothing words, offered at the opening of the last parliamentary gathering ahead of the leadership shake-up later this year, failed to cheer up mainland environmentalists, who pointed to a shroud of smog hovering over the capital yesterday and the bleak reality that an ecological crisis is behind the country’s economic success.

Speaking to nearly 3,000 deputies of the National People’s Congress, Wen said: “We will show the world with our actions that China will never seek economic growth at the expense of its ecological environment and public health.”

The premier, who will step down in March of next year, also vowed that Beijing was capable of striking a fine balance among economic growth, public welfare and conservation.

Although his remarks were hailed by state media as showcasing the government’s determination to curb pollution and heed public concerns, environmentalists said they also served as a grim reminder that China’s pollution woes had gone from bad to worse under his watch over the past decade.

Even Wen painted a rather gloomy picture. He admitted his government failed to meet several mandatory targets last year on emission controls and energy efficiency, which were among the commitments made by the world’s largest carbon emitter to help tackle global warming.

However, for the first time in the six years since his government rolled out a set of pollution and energy curbs, Wen did not give details about the missed targets in his annual policy address, rekindling accusations he may want to gloss over pollution problems and put a positive spin on his legacy before his retirement.

According to a report issued yesterday by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the missed annual targets included both energy intensity and carbon intensity, as well as nitrogen oxides, an air pollutant that contributes to ground-level ozone formation and can cause serious lung damage.

While energy consumption per unit of GDP, a measure of energy intensity, dropped by just 2 per cent, compared with an annual target of 3.5 per cent, details about curbing carbon intensity were omitted from the NDRC report.

Amid mounting international calls for China to make stronger efforts to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, Beijing promised last year that it would reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 17 per cent from the 2010 level by 2015.

“It is so disappointing that the government did not have the guts to confront its own failure [on the mandatory targets]. Apparently, the truth [about China’s pollution problems] is too bleak to be made public,” said Li Yan , a campaigner for Greenpeace China.

Despite the government’s repeated calls to rein in industrial polluters and to change the mainland’s economic growth model, energy-intensive and heavy-polluting industries have seen a rapid, robust expansion.

Li and other environmentalists said Wen and his government should be held responsible for this rise. Beijing last year lowered its pollution-cutting targets for the 12th five-year plan, after setbacks and strong resistance from local authorities.

In an effort to repair the damage, Wen yesterday urged a speedy compilation of plans to cap total energy consumption, which may see a ceiling on coal consumption in the next few years.

Environmentalists have said capping coal consumption would help reduce the country’s reliance on dirty coal and assist the push for a low-carbon economy.

Beijing has also made it a priority to expand clean-energy sectors, such as nuclear and hydropower facilities.

A recent environmental ministry-sanctioned study also confirmed widespread concerns that pollution had deteriorated at a faster rate than the efforts to reverse degradation.

Findings released last month showed that the estimated total cost of ecological degradation on the mainland in 2009, including the direct cost of pollution, was nearly 1.4 trillion yuan (HK$1.72 trillion), or 3.8 per cent of the mainland’s economic output. By comparison, the figure was 1.28 trillion yuan in 2008.

Jiangtao.shi@scmp.com

Capital to lead nation in trash burning

Mar 6th, 2012
by Editor.
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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-03/06/content_14762943.htm

Asia’s largest household refuse incineration plant, which is under construction in Beijing, will become operational in October and have a daily processing capacity of 3,000 tons.

The plant is expected to handle one-fourth of the city’s trash, and its annual energy output will exceed 300 million kilowatt hours.

Power and heat generated by the plant will be supplied to all four districts in western Beijing, namely Mentougou, Shijingshan, Haidian and Fengtai, Zhu Jimin, chairman of Shougang Group, one of China’s largest iron and steel companies, which invested more than 2 billion yuan ($317 million) in the project, said at a news conference on Sunday.

According to Zhu, the group is also conducting research and development on transforming food waste into organic materials and oil products, in order to prevent it from being used to produce “gutter oil” in the catering industry or causing pollution at landfill sites.

“The plant will be located in a mining area in the city’s western outskirts in Mentougou district, which is sparsely populated, to limit the impact of its emissions of ash, cinder, dioxin and volatile heavy metals such as manganese on the public,” said Mao Da, an expert in solid-waste management at Beijing Normal University.

Due to health concerns and the smell emanating from the plant, many local people have objected to having it near their homes.

Mao said that “a strict environmental evaluation audit is important for the plant, to ensure that the environment is not impaired in the future”.

“You can never underestimate the pollutants from incineration plants.”

With the growing volume of household trash in the capital, incineration is playing an increasingly important role, according to Chen Liwen, a researcher with Green Beagle, a green non-governmental organization based in Beijing.

Composting, landfill and incineration are the three major ways garbage is treated in China.

Mao said that composting is not a practical option, as this method only works effectively if the waste is biodegradable, such as food waste and garden garbage.

And, as there are few available sites for landfill, Mao said that the government is left with no other option but incineration, which requires less space, and is seemingly the best choice for urban areas, despite the waste gas and cinder it produces.

“However, there is no evidence or testimony to prove that incineration plants are free of the hazards from ash and emissions of flue gas, which contain significant amounts of particulate matter, heavy metals and dioxins,” said Mao.

Gaoantun, in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, is currently the biggest garbage incineration plant in China. It processes 1,600 tons of garbage every day and produces an annual energy output of 200 million kWh.

zhengxin@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/06/2012 page3)

Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved

China Air Quality Standards: Two-Thirds Of Cities Failing (Huffingtonpost.com)

Mar 5th, 2012
by Editor.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/02/china-air-quality-standards_n_1315874.html

March 5, 2012

BEIJING — Two-thirds of China’s cities currently fail to meet stricter air quality standards that the government wants to phase in over four years to combat notoriously smoggy skies, a senior Chinese environmental official said Friday.

The State Council, China’s Cabinet, on Wednesday issued new limits on pollutants to go into effect nationwide by 2016. It also said major cities must launch programs this year to regularly monitor additional kinds of pollutants for the first time, including fine particles associated with health problems.

Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Wu Xiaoqing said Friday that the government estimates that two-thirds of Chinese cities currently do not meet the new standards, saying efforts to improve urban air quality will be “very hard work.”

“Our task of air pollution control is huge,” Wu said.

The government revised its air quality standards in response to public pressure over pollution and the lack of thorough information about air quality in China. Demands in Beijing for greater government accountability on air quality were fueled in recent months in part by a Twitter feed set up by the U.S. Embassy giving hourly updates on air quality as measured on the facility’s roof.

Wu said the government plans to set up 1,500 new air monitoring stations around the country.

“We also want to build up public confidence in the data we provide in order to better serve the public,” Wu said.

The new Chinese standards require concentrations of fine particulate matter called PM2.5 to be kept below daily averages of 75 micrograms per cubic meter – more than twice as lenient as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standard of 35 micrograms.

Some Chinese cities generally have much higher amounts than that, and the U.S. Embassy monitoring showed a 24-hour average in the capital Friday of 188.5, a reading that it called “very unhealthy.”

PM2.5 – particles less than 2.5 micrometers in size, or about 1/30th the width of an average human hair – are believed to be a health risk because they can lodge deeply in the lungs, and have been linked to increased cardiovascular and respiratory diseases as well as lung cancer.

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