China's State Council announced comprehensive measures to fight pollution that included a halt to construction of coal-fired power plants in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai and plans to nudge the energy mix away from coal. The city of Beijing issued a separate plan to deal with smog, specifically the threat posed by ultra-fine PM 2.5 particles, and included a target to cut coal consumption within the city by 50% (13 million tons) in five years.
Experts doubt how successful these new plans will be, but the consensus is that prospects for the Beijing plan are better than usual and the State Council's announcement is a serious commitment by the central government. Accountability for the Beijing plan is detailed and the recognition of PM 2.5 danger is a complete turn around from just a 14 months ago when China's environment minister accused the US embassy of stirring up trouble by publishing hourly pollution updates over its four-year old PM 2.5 twitter feed. For the national plan, steps to address inefficiency in Hebei's steel industry stand out as having the potential for real impact if carried out.
On the supply side, Xi Jinping and Chinese energy companies signed agreements with Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan that pave the way for China to quadruple natural gas pipeline imports over the next ten years. Also, the near certainty of China's becoming the world's largest oil importer in the next years is making more of an impression on journalists: the combination of declining US imports and increasing Chinese imports means that this symbolic intersection has arrived well ahead of schedule.
Beijing Airs Anti-Smog Plan to Slash Coal Use, Vehicles - RFA Michael Lelyveld Beijing has taken a new pledge to clean up its air with plans for deep cuts in coal use and curbs on cars. In the latest push to clear the capital's soot-soiled skies, Beijing's municipal government issued a five-year "action plan" on Sept. 2, vowing to remove 25 percent of the smallest smog-forming particles by 2017. The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Bureau only began releasing reports on the fine particulates known as PM2.5 in 2012 after years of claiming progress in the number of "blue sky days." But under the new plan, regulators are both recognizing the city's problem with PM2.5 and promising to fight it with tougher steps to control emissions from factories, homes, and cars. "It's a declaration of war against PM2.5," the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said on its website, as cited by Reuters. Among many measures, the bureau plans to lower coal use in the city by more than 50 percent from 2012 levels, reducing annual consumption by 13 million tons in five years, the official Xinhua news agency said. The authorities would force 1,200 companies to clean up or close polluting production facilities. Beijing would cap the number of vehicles on its roads at 6 million in 2017 from 5.35 million now by reducing new registrations. The city is also considering congestion fees.
China Bans New Coal-Fired Plants in 3 Regions - ABC News China announced Thursday that it will ban new coal-fired power plants in three key industrial regions around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in its latest bid to combat the country's notorious air pollution. The action plan from the State Council, China's Cabinet, also aims to cut coal's share of the country's total primary energy use to below 65 percent by 2017 and increase the share of nuclear power, natural gas and renewable energy. According to Chinese government statistics, coal consumption accounted for 68.4 percent of total energy use in 2011. New coal-fired power plants will be banned for new projects in the region surrounding Beijing, in the Yangtze Delta region near Shanghai and in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong province, the State Council said.
China seeks cut in coal usage to boost air quality - FT.com ...The targets are built around a commitment by Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing, to cut coal usage by 40m tons in 2017 compared with 2012, after months of negotiations with provincial officials wary of killing their industrial base . The cut is based on estimates of how much coal consumption could be eliminated by forcing small or antiquated steel, cement and other industrial plants to close. Steel capacity in the province will drop by 60m tons by 2017, the Hebei government pledged in a separate announcement. The city of Tangshan in northern Hebei is home to about one quarter of China's steel making capacity, and although closing those plants would also help resolve the country's steel glut, the private steelmakers there have already survived many years of central planners' efforts to put them out of business. ..."It's the first step for regions to set a coal target, after 6 per cent per year growth over the past five years. This means they will have to reverse the current trend of coal use growth and to do that you have to adopt cleaner energy," said Li Yan, who heads Greenpeace's climate and energy campaign in Beijing.
China to cut coal use, shut polluters, in bid to clear the air | Reuters China unveiled comprehensive new measures to tackle air pollution on Thursday, with plans to slash coal consumption and close polluting mills, factories and smelters, but experts said implementing the bold targets would be a major challenge. China has been under heavy pressure to address the causes of air pollution after thick, hazardous smog engulfed much of the industrial north, including the capital, Beijing, in January. It has also been anxious to head off potential sources of unrest as an increasingly affluent urban population turns against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has spoiled much of China's air, water and soil. ...Northern Hebei province, China's biggest steel-producing region, has announced it would slash coal use by 40 million metric tons over the 2012-2015 period.
China local governments propose 2-10 percent coal resource tax: paper | Reuters China's top four coal-producing provinces have proposed that the national coal resource tax be set at between 2 to 10 percent of sales value, local media reported on Tuesday, as part of Beijing's efforts to introduce broader resource tax reforms. Steam coal miners in China , the world's top producer and importer of the fuel, are currently taxed based on sales volumes that are usually very low. Beijing has been planning a value-based tax for years, but efforts to push through changes have stalled over concerns higher prices would hurt economic growth. Faced with weak demand at home at a time when global coal prices have plunged under a supply crush, the governments of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Xinjiang and Qinghai areas have proposed that the tax reform must not increase miners' burden and that all other arbitrary levies must be scrapped, the 21st Century Business Herald said, citing government officials. Steam coal prices in China have been steadily falling since December and have dropped about 15 percent this year. Miners' profits have decreased and inventories have climbed, while the amount of money owed to miners by their customers have also surged, according to a recent report by the coal association.