TOPIC 'Environment' on Aug 07, 2009 (CEST)
China Warned on Coal Based Emissions
The environmental group Greenpeace has warned that China’s increasing use of coal is coming at a terrible price, and called on them to turn toward renewable fuels for the expanding future of the world’s most populous nation.
Greenpeace released a new study outlining the rapid increase in coal consumption in china, mostly for electric power that is needed for rapid industrialization of the nation’s interior. The report, “Polluting Power: Ranking China’s Power Companies” noted that China has 792 GW (GigaWatts, a measure of power) of electrical capacity in 2008, up from 629 GW in 2004 and second only to the United States. 75% of this electricity is generated by burning coal.
"To ensure energy security, environmental protection and healthy economic and societal development, the electricity sector... must play a strong role in tackling climate change and reducing China's reliance on coal," the report said. A previous study by Greenpeace, “The True Cost of Coal in China Report” in 2008, estimated that the resulting environmental and health degradation cost Chinese society RMB 87 billion in 2008 alone (about US$ 12.7 billion).
The problem is compounded by the fact that China’s power industrial is notoriously inefficient, relying on older plants and designs that, on average, burn 1.8 times more coal than similar facilities in Japan and the United States. The resulting excessive greenhouse gas emissions are seen as the most troubling problem in the long term.
“The more coal a company burns, the more carbon dioxide it emits, and the greater their contribution to worsening climate change and climate disasters,” the study noted. “The carbon dioxide emissions of China’s top three power companies in 2008 were already bigger than the total emissions of the United Kingdom in the same year.”
Greenpeace is sounding the alarm on the scale of this growing problem. "China is suffering the pains of extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves, typhoons and floods, worsened by climate change," Greenpeace China's climate campaigner Yang Ailun said as he unveiled a new report.
"These power companies can and must help China to prevent climate disaster by rapidly increasing efficiency and the share of renewable energy such as wind and solar,” Yang concluded.
China’s own policies call for 15% of all energy to come from renewable sources by 2015. Greenpeace is encouraging the nation to work hard to meet these goals and expand them as it continues to expand industrial output.
Jason Grace
on behalf of the
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