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Anti-emission targets reached months early
Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily |
September 17, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA has reached its target of cutting discharges of major pollutants ahead of schedule, yet the country may fail to meet an energy efficiency target for this year, officials said yesterday.
The emission of sulfur dioxide dropped 13 percent by the end of last year compared with the figure of 2005, beating by a year the country's goal for its 11th five-year plan (2006-2010), Zhou Shengxian, China's environment chief, said.
Moreover, chemical oxygen demand shrank 2.4 percent year on year in the second quarter, hitting that mark six months ahead of time, he said.
China's 11th five-year plan had set a goal in 2005 of reducing emissions of major pollutants by 10 percent.
Zhou said at a forum on environment and developing countries yesterday that amid soaring economic growth, China experienced a leap in pollution control and prevention.
By the end of last year, 71 percent of coal-burning power generation units had installed sulfur removal facilities, compared with 12 percent in 2005.
The rate for sewage treatment in urban areas jumped to 72 percent last year from 52 percent in 2005.
However, the country may fail to meet an energy efficiency target set for this year because its efforts to revive its economy in the wake of a global slump have set back several years of progress on reducing energy usage, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Zhang Laiwu told a press conference yesterday.
"We still have a lot of challenges to meet. We should not be too optimistic about that. Our task remains arduous," Zhang said.
The government plan suffered a setback this year as China sought to jump-start its stalling economy with a stimulus that focused heavily on upgrading infrastructure, sparking a construction boom that boosted demand for steel, cement and other energy-intensive products.
China has made key strides in many areas of clean technology, including solar, wind, and alternative fuels, but much of country's difficulty lies in that its economic development over the past three decades has relied on labor-intensive and energy-intensive growth, Zhang said.
"We had a resource-intensive growth pattern with very low labor costs," he said. "The essential issue for us is whether or not we are able to move from low-end to high-end, and change from a resource-based economy to science and technology-based and knowledge-based economy."
In the past five years, China has spent 10 billion yuan (US$1.47 billion) on research and development for energy conservation and emission reduction projects, Zhang said.
Its work in green technology has resulted new advances, including its first solar thermal power plant, the world's first coal-fired power plant carbon-capture project and vehicles that include hybrid and all-electric models.
The emission of sulfur dioxide dropped 13 percent by the end of last year compared with the figure of 2005, beating by a year the country's goal for its 11th five-year plan (2006-2010), Zhou Shengxian, China's environment chief, said.
Moreover, chemical oxygen demand shrank 2.4 percent year on year in the second quarter, hitting that mark six months ahead of time, he said.
China's 11th five-year plan had set a goal in 2005 of reducing emissions of major pollutants by 10 percent.
Zhou said at a forum on environment and developing countries yesterday that amid soaring economic growth, China experienced a leap in pollution control and prevention.
By the end of last year, 71 percent of coal-burning power generation units had installed sulfur removal facilities, compared with 12 percent in 2005.
The rate for sewage treatment in urban areas jumped to 72 percent last year from 52 percent in 2005.
However, the country may fail to meet an energy efficiency target set for this year because its efforts to revive its economy in the wake of a global slump have set back several years of progress on reducing energy usage, Vice Minister of Science and Technology Zhang Laiwu told a press conference yesterday.
"We still have a lot of challenges to meet. We should not be too optimistic about that. Our task remains arduous," Zhang said.
The government plan suffered a setback this year as China sought to jump-start its stalling economy with a stimulus that focused heavily on upgrading infrastructure, sparking a construction boom that boosted demand for steel, cement and other energy-intensive products.
China has made key strides in many areas of clean technology, including solar, wind, and alternative fuels, but much of country's difficulty lies in that its economic development over the past three decades has relied on labor-intensive and energy-intensive growth, Zhang said.
"We had a resource-intensive growth pattern with very low labor costs," he said. "The essential issue for us is whether or not we are able to move from low-end to high-end, and change from a resource-based economy to science and technology-based and knowledge-based economy."
In the past five years, China has spent 10 billion yuan (US$1.47 billion) on research and development for energy conservation and emission reduction projects, Zhang said.
Its work in green technology has resulted new advances, including its first solar thermal power plant, the world's first coal-fired power plant carbon-capture project and vehicles that include hybrid and all-electric models.
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