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September, 2008:

Guangdong’s Air And Water Dirtier Despite Factory Closures

Sep 4th, 2008
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He Huifeng – SCMP – Updated on Sep 04, 2008

Air and water contamination in Guangdong worsened in the first half of the year despite the closure of thousands of polluting factories – many of them Hong Kong-owned – in the Pearl River Delta.

A total of 53.4 per cent of the province’s rainfall in the first six months was categorised as acid rain, a 7.1 percentage point rise over the same time last year, a report released yesterday by the Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau showed.

Two-thirds of the 21 cities in the province were affected by acid rain. Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan , Zhuhai , Foshan , Maoming , Zhaoqing , Huizhou and Zhongshan were among the worst-hit.

Provincial meteorologists said the average pH level of rain – the measure of its acidity – was 4.81 in Guangdong during the period. Rain with a pH level below 5.6 is regarded as acidic.

Acid rain increases the acidity of soil and water, lowers crop output and kills animals in rivers and lakes.

Guangdong authorities have pledged to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide, the main cause of acid rain, by 4 per cent and chemical oxygen demand, a measure of water pollution, by 3.5 per cent this year.

The bureau’s report said sulfur dioxide emissions in 13 cities had dropped, but did not say by how much.

Guangdong recorded an 8 per cent drop in acid rain last year but the bureau did not explain why levels had risen this year.

Chinese Academy of Sciences researcher Kuang Yaoqiu said acid rain in the Pearl River Delta was caused by high levels of vehicle fumes and sulfur dioxide emissions from power plants and polluting factories driven by rapid economic development.

“We saw a big reduction in acid rain frequency last year because Guangdong authorities shut down all the province’s coal mines at the end of 2005 for safety inspections,” he said.

“During 2006 and 2007, Guangdong also ordered its industrial sector to use imported coal, which led to lower sulfur dioxide emissions and helped to lower pollution.

“I think many factors, like reopened underground coal mines, and power plants, have led to a pick up in acid rain in Guangdong this year.”

Professor Kuang said he was not optimistic that Guangdong would see reductions in acid rain or improvements in air quality even though authorities had moved many high-polluting factories from the Pearl River Delta.

“Many of those factories just moved to neighbouring places, like west and north Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi province . Those local governments do not have environmental protection rules or pollution-treatment regulations as strict as the delta,” he said.

Environment Satellites To Watch For Potential Disasters

Sep 4th, 2008
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Shi Jiangtao – SCMP – Updated on Sep 04, 2008

Two environmental satellites will be launched this week to track degradation and cope with natural disasters, state media reported.

The optical satellites, Environment 1A and 1B, would be sent into orbit by a Long March 2C carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in Shanxi province tomorrow or on Saturday, the People’s Daily website said.

The announcement was made yesterday by the Bureau of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, formerly a ministry-level body and now part of the new Ministry of Industry and Information.

Environmental officials hailed the move as a major step in the fight against pollution and natural disasters.

Environmental protection vice-minister Wu Xiaoqing told the China Business News that the satellites, which would cover most of the country, would significantly enhance the ability to monitor environmental changes and provide real-time data. Although there are more than 2,000 stations across the mainland to monitor environment and natural disasters, environmental watchdogs have complained about a data shortage in Earth observations.

Environmental authorities have pushed for the launch of satellites for years, which they said was a necessary move to “cope with the dynamic environment and the occurrence of natural disasters”. But their launch had been postponed several times.

The two satellites being launched this week are the first of eight to be launched in the next few years, which will eventually work as a network.

Mr Wu said the satellites would play an important role in forecasting a wide range of disasters, such as floods, droughts, typhoons, landslides, earthquakes, forest fires and sandstorms, and help with disaster relief. He gave no further details.

Cases of rampant pollution, degradation and natural disasters have wreaked havoc, causing huge economic losses. Disaster-relief efforts were hampered by lack of satellite information following the magnitude-8 earthquake that hit Sichuan in May, leaving nearly 88,000 dead or missing and millions homeless.

The nation has launched land resources satellites before in an attempt to collect and analyse warning signs of potential natural disasters.

Beijing Saw 14 ‘Top Grade’ Days In August

Sep 2nd, 2008
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Agence France-Presse in Beijing – Updated on Sep 02, 2008

As Beijingers started their working week on another day of clear skies, the capital’s environmental protection bureau reported that the city experienced 14 days of “level one” air quality, the highest possible reading, last month.

Main pollutants were down 50 per cent from normal during the Olympics, and 45 per cent for the whole month, the bureau said on its website.

“This was the best level in 10 years,” it said.

Among drastic measures to ensure clean air for the Olympics, private cars were allowed on the roads only on every second day using an odd and even number plate system. This took about 1 million of the city’s 3.3 million cars off the roads.

More than 100 heavily polluting factories were also temporarily closed, while some construction work was suspended.

These measures started on July 20 and are due to remain in place until September 20 following the end of the Paralympics, which begin on Saturday.

The improvement in air quality has sparked online debates on whether to continue the measures, particularly the restrictions on car use. More than 400,000 people have joined a discussion on www.ynet. com, the website of the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper, on whether to keep anti-pollution measures going, with about half in support.

“In the past few years, many of the people I know have had cancer, and this is definitely linked to air pollution,” one posting said. “Where health is concerned, it’s worth making some sacrifices, like leaving the house earlier, being squeezed in the bus sometimes.”

The Beijing Times quoted the city environmental protection bureau saying it would take measures to continue to improve the air quality after the Games, including a possible charge on vehicle emissions. But it made no mention of the alternate driving days. The city’s air quality is routinely rated among the worst in the world by global agencies.

Manufacturers Suffer From ‘Olympic Effect’

Sep 2nd, 2008
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Denise Tsang – SCMP – Updated on Sep 02, 2008

Mainland manufacturing shrank last month for the second consecutive month as exports softened and factories shuttered production to clear the air for the Beijing Olympics.

Slowing factory production increases pressure on Beijing to introduce new measures to avert a sharp fall in economic growth.

The purchasing managers’ index (PMI) compiled by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing remained at 48.4 for the second month in August. A reading below 50 means manufacturing is contracting.

Economists said the world’s fastest-growing economy was feeling the rippling impact of slowing economic activity in the United States, Japan and the European Union.

Manufacturing was likely to stabilise in the coming months when Beijing lifts anti-pollution measures that suspended factory production before and during the Olympic Games. Still, slowing global growth would continue to have an impact.

Zhang Liqun, an economist at the State Council’s development research centre, said companies continued to operate in a hostile environment even though factory gate price inflation was easing.

A separate purchasing managers’ index by CLSA slipped to 49.2 last month from 53.3 in July, the first drop since November 2005.

But CLSA said the “Olympic effect” had probably made the slump in last month’s manufacturing more severe than it really was. Factories within several hundred kilometres of Beijing were ordered to shut down to improve the air quality for athletes.

Without the Olympics, “it would have been modestly lower than July, primarily reflecting softer export orders, but still comfortably above the 50 break-even line”, said CLSA economic researcher Eric Fishwick. “Manufacturing growth is slowing but nowhere near as rapidly as the drop in the August PMI suggests.”

Morgan Stanley chief economist Wang Qing said he did not think manufacturing would shrink further in coming months as factories would gradually resume production.

“It will stabilise after the one-off factor of the Olympics-related suspension of production activities,” Mr Wang said. “Factory-gate prices will peak along with the downward trend of consumer price inflation.”

He added that shrinking manufacturing would foster a slower pace of yuan appreciation. A stronger yuan makes mainland-made good less competitive on world markets.

The yuan softened to 6.83 yesterday against the US dollar from its historical peak of 6.81 in July, according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.

Credit Suisse chief economist Tao Dong said a slowing economy would reduce inflationary pressure.

“The receding inflationary threat is positive news for Beijing, as the government has more policy tools and experience to deal with a growth slowdown,” Mr Tao said.

He expected that loan quotas for smaller firms would be lifted further and the reserve ratio for banks would be cut 50 basis points by the end of this year.

He also expected Beijing to beef up spending on infrastructure to avoid a sharp fall in growth.

Heat is on America

Sep 2nd, 2008
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Updated on Sep 02, 2008 – SCMP

As the Democrats and Republicans rally round their candidates for the US presidency, it’s a good time to ask what we can expect the winner and his administration to do about climate change. Will the next president continue George W. Bush’s policy of trying to kill the international climate regime, or will he take this crucial problem more seriously?

One thing seems clear: starting next year, the US is unlikely to continue opposing efforts to devise policies that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While we can expect Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress to join forces in promoting regulations that limit greenhouse gas pollution, even under John McCain things will change; he has expressed concerns about climate change for some years.

Under the next US president, policies on climate change will be driven by pressures building inside and outside Washington. Indeed, most action in the US to limit greenhouse gas emissions has occurred at the grass roots. The US public is expressing growing concern about climate change. A June poll found that 62 per cent of American adults believe the next president should take “strong action to address climate change soon after taking office”. This change in public opinion is reflected in consumer behaviour. The price of petrol has pushed many more consumers towards fuel-efficient and less-polluting cars, demonstrating the potential of climate-motivated petrol taxes to shape public behaviour.

In recent years, a growing number of US states have passed laws and adopted climate-change action plans. These measures include carbon-reduction targets, energy-efficiency and renewable-energy standards, and regional cap-and-trade agreements. This action outside Washington is raising the pressure on Congress to respond at the national level, and inevitably will affect how the US behaves in future international climate negotiations.

One thing to expect is for Congress to advocate trade policies and measures that will protect US businesses. This will involve a push for tariffs on imports made by methods more polluting than those in the US – with predictable opposition from free-trade advocates and adversely affected industries. Many of these trade-related measures are implicitly, and often explicitly, focused on Chinese manufacturers, which have long enjoyed subsidised energy and relatively low environmental standards. Alas, it is not the nature of Congress to pass ideal legislation. The first of the new climate-related trade laws is likely to be messy, have unpredicted outcomes and favour politically influential industries.

Trade measures being considered by Congress will not be welcomed by some countries, which will challenge them for undermining free-trade agreements. But if vocal opposition comes from China, already perceived in Washington as trading unfairly, resolve in Congress to protect US industries might be reinforced.

Alternatively, collective opposition from major developed economies, if led by the European Union and combined with evidence of harm to American businesses and consumers, could blunt major climate-related tariffs.

If too few countries are willing to join in substantially limiting greenhouse gases, it is possible that the US government could focus on protecting entrenched industrial interests and mustering support among countries opposed to robust cuts. In this respect, the US and China could become allies.

It is possible the next US president will seek to muster global support for the kind of greenhouse gas cuts being implemented in Europe. The US has the rare ability to use economic incentives to bring more countries into a much stronger climate agreement.

It is now undeniable that US policymakers at all levels, and the American people themselves, are catching up with climate science. We may soon view the Bush years as a temporary, if painful, pause in US international environmental leadership.

Paul G. Harris is director of the Environmental Studies Programme, director of the Centre for Asian Pacific Studies, and a professor of political science at Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Beijing Residents Protest Against Pollution

Sep 1st, 2008
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Associated Press in Beijing – Updated on Sep 01, 2008

Scores of people protested in Beijing against a garbage disposal plant they say has been releasing noxious fumes into the air, with two demonstrators hurt in a scuffle with security officials, a rights group said on Sunday.

The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said the protesters on Saturday called for the resignation of the top environment official in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, where the Gao’antun garbage incineration plant is located.

The rights group said about 500 people were involved in the protest, but the number could not immediately be confirmed. The Beijing Public Security Bureau’s information office said on Sunday that it had no information about the incident.

The demonstration was held near the plant, and a tussle between protesters and the authorities resulted in two protesters being hurt, the group said in a statement.

The rights group also said one of the organisers of the protest went missing on Saturday night and was presumably taken away by security officials.

An employee of a restaurant near the road junction where the demonstration was held said “many people” took part in a protest, with some wearing face masks.

The employee, who only gave her surname, Zhang, said she was not clear about the reason for the gathering.

The group said the protest was organised by residents of two apartment complexes in the district. Telephone numbers of the complexes were not immediately available.

A man from a team set up by the Chaoyang district government to look into the issue said about 100 people participated in the protest.

According to the rights group, thousands of residents living near the garbage disposal plant have suffered from rank and poisonous air released by the plant.

It said the plant had closed during the Olympic Games, which were held in Beijing in August, but resumed operations after the games ended on August 24.

The statement said respiratory and other health problems have surfaced among some residents near the plant.

Separately, a petitioner from Hubei province was detained and sent to a labour camp for 15 months after accepting a phone interview by a foreign journalist during the Olympics, another rights group said Sunday.

On August 28, Wang Guilan was sent for re-education through labour for “disturbing the public order”, and was believed to be currently held at a detention centre in Enshi, a city in Hubei, the overseas-based Chinese Human Rights Defenders said in a statement.

Residents Fed Up With ‘Toxic’ Centre

Sep 1st, 2008
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Raymond Li – SCMP – Updated on Sep 01, 2008

Hundreds of angry residents who live near a trash processing centre in Beijing’s Chaoyang district took to the streets on Friday to protest against toxic emissions, a resident said yesterday.

The protest came as residents failed to have their grievances heard after being exposed to foul air and toxic emissions for several years.

The rubbish processing centre, including a landfill site and incinerator, has been running since 2002, but local government gave building approval for many residential estates nearby, particularly affordable housing projects for low-income families.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been exposed to suspected carcinogenic emissions from the incinerator and foul air. One village is 600 metres from the site.

Zhang Xueyou, a resident from the Wan Xiang Xin Tian estate, said the smell was particularly bad on rainy or overcast days.

Protestors wearing face masks stopped several trucks carrying trash into the centre as police watched. Mr Zhang, who joined the demonstration, said the protest had been peaceful and he was not aware of anyone being detained by police. “We were simply there to express our disapproval of the management of the centre as they have the know-how to tackle the problem,” he said.

Residents were disappointed as authorities, including the director of district, who met residents during the protest, had failed to outline any action they would take against the pollution, he said.

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