[cai-asia] CAI-Asia China Project E-Newsletter Issue No. 47, 2009
Huang Shan
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Air Quality, Energy, Transport, and Climate Change in China
CAI-Asia China Project E-Newsletter
Issue No. 47, 2009
(Compiled by Shan HUANG)
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Included in this issue:
- 14,000 stranded as fog continues to blanket SW China
- China's unit GDP energy consumption cut raised to 5.2%
- China adopts amendment to renewable energy law
- Beijingers waste more time in traffic due to soaring car population
- Highlights of Wen's exclusive interview with Xinhua
AIR QUALITY
-facts
Cold wave numbs North China, relief efforts intensified (December 26, 2009)
The coldest day of the season in Beijing could have frozen Mao Lijun to death. But the 30-something man luckily turned to police for help who directed him to Dongcheng relief center early on Friday morning.
His body temperature had dropped below 30 C, said Wu Shenshen, a worker at the center. What could have made matters worse for Mao was the strong wind that lashed the capital from Thursday evening to Friday morning.
English link: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2009-12/26/content_19135768.htm
14,000 stranded as fog continues to blanket SW China (December 25, 2009)
More than 14,000 passengers were stranded as heavy fog continued to blanket the Shuangliu International Airport of Chengdu, Sichuan Province, Friday.
The fog forced the closure of the airport for six and a half hours, delaying 126 flights and causing cancellation of 24 flights while another 17 flights landed in nearby airports, said Lu Junming, a publicity official of the airport..
More than 1,000 passengers had been staying at the airport since Thursday when the fog started to blanket the region and forced the closure of the airport.
English link: http://www.china.org.cn/china/2009-12/25/content_19134861.htm
Lhasa embraces first snow since winter (December 19, 2009)
Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, greeted the first snowfall this winter on Saturday.
The snow came later than usual this year, as the city usually has its first snow in late October, said local meteorologists.
The light snow improves the air quality of Lhasa, where the air has been extremely dry due to the lack of rainfall, said an official with Tibet Meteorological Bureau.
English link: http://english.eastday.com/e/091219/u1a4891339.html
ENERGY
-facts
China's unit GDP energy consumption cut raised to 5.2% (December 25, 2009)
China has revised its 2008 unit GDP energy consumption cut to 5.2 percent from the previous 4.59 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Friday.
The energy cut increased 12.45 percent from 2005.
National energy consumption totaled an equivalent of 2.91 billion tonnes of standard coal, up 2.12 percent from the previous data. Figures for 2005 to 2007 were also revised.
The new statistics showed that output of the country's primary energy equaled 2.65 billion tonnes of standard coal in 2008, which included 2.8 billion tonnes of raw coal, 195 million tonnes of natural crude oil and 80.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas, according to NBS director Ma Jiantang.
English link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/25/content_12703217.htm
China's green energy goes to waste in distribution bottleneck (December 23, 2009)
Green electricity from north China's growing wind power generators is being wasted because the country's power grid cannot absorb it, power experts have said.
"The greatest headache for wind power developers is that a large part of the power capacity cannot be absorbed by the grid and is wasted," said Si Jun, Inner Mongolia wind power project manager of China Datang Corporation (Datang).
Inner Mongolia's wind power turbines have a capacity of 7.05 gigawatts. Wind power units under construction will have a capacity of 3.25 gigawatts.
English link: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2009-12/23/content_19114726.htm
-initiatives
China adopts amendment to renewable energy law (December 26, 2009)
China's top legislature adopted Saturday an amendment to the renewable energy law to require electricity grid companies to buy all the power produced by renewable energy generators.
The amendment says the State Council energy department and the state power regulatory agency should supervise the purchases.
The amendment, approved by lawmakers after it was heard the second time at a five-day meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, aims to support the country's fledgling renewable energy sector.
English link: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2009-12/26/content_19136273.htm
TRANSPORT
-facts
China's electrified railway mileage exceeds 30,000 kilometers (December 26, 2009)
China's electrified railway mileage has surpassed 30,000 kilometers, ranking the second in the world, said the China CREC Railway Electrification Bureau Group (CCREBG) on Saturday.
It achieved the goal with the completion of a 1,422.2-kilometer electrified railway line which connects Beijing and Lehua in south China's Jiangxi Province on Saturday, according to the CCREBG.
The project, involving an investment of more than 7.6 billion yuan (or1.112 billion U.S. dollars), will increase the trains' speed from 120 kilometers to 160 kilometers per hour and raise the transportation volume from 3,500 tonnes to 6,000 tonnes by each train.
Highways closed as blizzard hits NE China (December 25, 2009)
Northeast China's Liaoning Province closed 14 of its 15 highways Friday, due to a cold snap that hit the region on Thursday night bringing freezing temperatures and snow.
The meteorological station in Shenyang, Liaoning's capital, issued a snow storm alert Friday morning, and forecast that temperatures would drop to 24 degree Celsius below freezing on Saturday in the province's northern areas.
The snow continued in Shenyang this morning, causing rush hour traffic difficulties.
The highway to the capital's airport was closed this morning. The Taoxian International Airport said it had reduced flights, as the runway was getting slippery.
English link: http://www.china.org.cn/china/2009-12/25/content_19131334.htm
Beijingers waste more time in traffic due to soaring car population (December 25, 2009)
Beijingers waste seven more minutes on clogged roads each day compared with two years ago, a report said.
The time increase is directly linked to the city's soaring car population, which increased by one million during the same period, the biennial study on residents' mobility from Beijing-based Horizon Research said.
Beijing residents now spend an average of 62.3 minutes on daily commutes made during rush hour, an increase of 7.3 minutes from 2007, according to the study.
With no major traffic jams, residents still spent 40.1 minutes traveling to and from work everyday, said the survey, which will be officially released in January.
The study emphasizes the impact new cars on Beijing's roads is having on the daily lives of residents in Beijing, Horizon research director Zhang Hui said yesterday.
English link: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-12/25/content_9230501.htm
-initiatives
China's rail development on faster track (December 26, 2009)
The Wuhan-Guangzhou high-speed railway with the world's fastest train journey at a 350-km-per-hour designed speed, started operation Saturday.
Two passenger trains rolled out the Wuhan Railway Station and Guangzhou North Railway Station at about 9 a.m. and reached the terminals within three hours, compared with the previous 10 and a half hours.
The service between Wuhan, a metropolis in central China, and Guangzhou City, a business hub in the southern Guangdong Province, was put into trial operation on Dec. 9, reaching a maximum speed of 394.2 km per hour.
English link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/26/content_12706811.htm
S32 Heads To Zhejiang (December 26, 2009)
A new expressway connecting the city to neighboring Zhejiang Province will open to traffic by the end of the year.
The Shanghai-Jiaxing-Huzhou Expressway, or S32, runs from Pudong International Airport across the Minpu Bridge to connect with the Zhejiang Expressway at its west end.
Shanghai now has four expressways linking to Zhejiang.
English link: http://english.eastday.com/e/091226/u1a4907080.html
CLIMATE CHANGE
-initiatives
China vows to promote climate talks (December 27, 2009)
China will make unswerving efforts and work jointly with the international community for the completion of the Bali Roadmap negotiations at the Mexico climate talks next year, a senior official said Saturday.
Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told Xinhua that China, as it has always done, would continue to play an active and constructive role on that front.
Also head of the Chinese delegation to the Copenhagen climate conference, Xie said developed countries bound by the Kyoto Protocol should confirm their second-phase emission reduction targets as soon as possible.
English link: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2009-12/27/content_19137205.htm
OTHER
Highlights of Wen's exclusive interview with Xinhua (December 27, 2009)
Following are highlights of Premier Wen Jiabao's exclusive interview with Xinhua on Sunday at Ziguangge building inside Zhongnanhai, an office compound of the central authorities at the heart of Beijing.
(related with environment, energy, transport and climate change)
OVERCAPACITY WORRIES
Wen noted that the problem of industrial overcapacity in China had no relation with the central government's investment in the 4-trillion-yuan (585.6 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package.
…….
DEFENDING CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT RIGHTS
Wen urged the world to understand the fact that development remained the top priority of developing countries.
……
ROLE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
China should rely on science and technology to change its growth pattern, Wen said.
"It is a structural problem for China's economy, which is still unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable," Wen said.
Wen said the country should continue to give full play to its advantage in the manufacturing sector, while strive to develop key are as related to the environment and people's living, such as the Internet, green economy, low-carbon economy, environment protection technology and biomedicine.
English link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-12/27/content_12712433.htm
5 held in toxic pollution probe (December 24, 2009)
At least five people have been detained for dumping large amounts of toxic chemical waste in east China's Anhui Province, causing water and soil pollution in two counties, said investigators Thursday.
A spokesman with the Bozhou Bureau of Environmental Protection said no deaths or illness had been reported in connection with the pollution.
The bureau launched the investigation after local people reported the pollution earlier this month, he said.
English link: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2009-12/24/content_19125920.htm
China-Norway eco-partnering set to deepen in the future (December 23, 2009)
Editor's note: China and Norway have made considerable progress in nurturing joint environmental protection initiatives between the two countries. Nina Rr, the environmental counselor for the Norwegian embassy in Beijing, spoke to China Daily about the issues that unite the two nations.
English link: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-12/23/content_9216614.htm
Burning trash safe, officials say (December 22, 2009)
In an attempt to stop people from protesting garbage incinerators, officials here are maintaining that no death and cancer cases are directly related to burning trash in this way, officials said.
"It is a rumor that the number of death or cancer cases rised after the garbage incinerator in Likeng was put into operation three years ago," said Su Zequn, vice-mayor of Guangzhou.
Su was responding to opposition from the public to the building of two more planned incinerators in the city's Panyu and Huadu districts.
English link: http://english.eastday.com/e/091222/u1a4897308.html
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Ms. Shan HUANG
Research and Program Assistant
CAI-Asia Center
Tel/fax: 86-10-65661650
Cel: 86 134 2624 4966
Email: shan....@cai-asia.org
Website: www.cleanairnet.org/china
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