{"id":31356,"date":"2013-09-13T14:37:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T14:37:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-05-14T18:43:54","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T18:43:54","slug":"6356-scepticism-over-china-s-air-pollution-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/6356-scepticism-over-china-s-air-pollution-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Scepticism over China\u2019s air pollution plans"},"content":{"rendered":"

China’s action plan for air pollution<\/a>, published this week, requires cuts in PM2.5 levels of 25% in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, 20% in the Yangtze delta, and 15% in the Pearl River delta, all by 2017.<\/p>\n

Talks on the plan have been underway since spring this year, with a well-publicised tug of war between central and provincial governments over coal use.<\/p>\n

The plan lists 33 measures, including further incentives for new-energy vehicles, fuel quality improvements, dealing with small coal furnaces and reductions in coal use in the three key regions.<\/p>\n

Notably, there is a ban on new coal-fired power stations in three regions surrounding Beijing<\/a>, Shanghai and Guangzhou, with the exception of combined heat and power plants: “On the precondition that the highest environmental standards are met and water supplies are guaranteed, the commercialised and scaled development of the gas-from-coal sector.”<\/p>\n

Other quantified targets for 2017 include a drop of around 20% in energy intensity of industrial added value on 2012 levels; and a fall in the percentage of coal use in total energy consumption to 65% or less. By 2015 150 billion cubic meters of new natural gas pipeline capacity will come online in the three key regions.<\/p>\n

However, Greenpeace says that despite the government’s laudable determination, there is no chance of a 25% drop in PM2.5 levels in Beijing <\/a>over the coming five years.<\/p>\n

It has calculated that to achieve the 2017 target of a 25% cut in PM2.5 levels, coal use will have to fall by between 80 million and 90 million tonnes in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region over the next five years, while annual increases in coal use in Shanxi and Inner Mongolia will have to be restricted to 2% or less. The figures released by Beijing and its neighbours do not go this far.<\/p>\n

Huang Wei, Greenpeace’s climate and energy campaigner, said that China’s air pollution problems are due to an over-reliance on coal. She said the action plan only talks about reducing coal. “There aren’t any genuine binding targets, and provincial governments<\/a> are left to make their own commitments. That means any benefits for air pollution will be heavily discounted.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After months of negotiations, China has released a five-year action plan for cutting air pollution, which includes a ban on new coal-fired power stations. But Green groups say there is no chance of Beijing meeting its air quality targets<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1088,"featured_media":56767,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[760],"tags":[],"hashtags":[],"country":[],"class_list":["post-31356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pollution"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nScepticism over China\u2019s air pollution plans | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After months of negotiations, China has released a five-year action plan for cutting air pollution, which includes a ban on new coal-fired power stations. 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