The toughest targets in China\u2019s eleventh Five-Year Plan relate to energy-saving and emissions-reduction. Rapid economic growth in 2006 and 2007 meant leaps in energy consumption and a rise in pollution levels, but then the financial crisis hit China in the second half of 2008. By the fourth quarter, the declining economy had relieved some of the pressure to reach energy-saving and emissions-reduction targets.<\/p>\n
The Five-Year Plan, released in 2006, contains quantifiable and binding targets for energy-saving and emissions-reduction: by 2010, energy consumption per unit of GDP (energy intensity) should have fallen by 20% on 2005 levels; absolute levels of SO2 and Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) should have been reduced by 10%. These are tough targets, and there is an ongoing debate as to whether they were set too high.<\/p>\n
However, the financial crisis means that energy consumption in China has been hit. Pollution has fallen, much as it did during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997. According to the China Electricity Council, the demand for electricity dropped in September 2008: electricity generation fell by 3.4%. That trend continued, with a 4% fall in October. Excluding holiday periods, this was the first drop of its kind since 1999.<\/p>\n
The financial crisis also caused China\u2019s energy intensity to fall 4.59% in 2008, while COD and sulphur dioxide emissions fell 4.42% and 5.95% respectively, exceeding annual goals. In the past three years, energy intensity has fallen 10.08%, COD and sulphur dioxide emissions by 6.61% and 8.95% respectively.<\/p>\n
The financial crisis has done China a favour, but it will pass \u2013 unlike the long-term challenges. In fact, the need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions will only increase.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s current targets will now be reached easily, but longer-term aims will not be achieved so readily. Energy-saving and emissions-reduction are not the same as greenhouse-gas curbs. Energy-saving does reduce pollution, but atmospheric pollutants such as sulphur dioxide and particulate matter can be removed using technical fixes \u2013 with scrubbers<\/a>, for example. Greenhouse gases can be captured and stored, but the methods for doing so are not yet commercially viable. Moreover, conventional pollutants, such as sulphur dioxide, do not increase much once per capita GDP reaches around US$10,000, but greenhouse-gas emissions are on the increase in countries with a per capita GDP of US$30,000.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n