China will step up efforts to cut its emissions and improve energy
efficiency this year after record air pollution in Beijing, where the national
legislature opened its annual meeting today. The government will reduce carbon
emissions and energy use per unit of gross domestic product by at least 3.7
percent in 2013 and carry out carbon-trading trials, the National Development
and Reform Commission said in a report today. China’s top economic planning
agency said carbon intensity fell 5 percent, and energy use per unit of GDP
slid 3.6 percent last year, beating targets of 3.5 percent.
The government will introduce reforms to the pricing
mechanisms for oil products and natural gas, the report showed. The NDRC
started trial gas-price programs in Guangdong and Guangxi provinces in southern
China in December 2011 and said they would be extended nationwide after an
evaluation. The problem is political will. Flush with $3.3 trillion of currency
reserves, China has the money to succeed. Yet almost any route it takes to go
green requires slower growth. China’s leaders for the next 10 years, President Xi
Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang, are under pressure to boost today’s 7.9 percent
growth rate and placate a populace seething over income inequality.
Recent environmental concerns, a “tight” gas market with
strong demand growth and the country becoming more dependent on pipeline and
liquefied natural gas imports point to an acceleration of reforms this year and
prices will increase. China is reaching its physical limits, and the unchecked
pursuit of economic growth now offers rewards that are compromised by environmental
degradation. China is already home to some of the world’s most polluted rivers
and water supplies and public fury is rising at a time when China’s censors are
fighting a losing battle against the Internet. China is facing another crisis
and here we are doing nothing to help.
Ryan Lindquist
March 22, 2013
3:55 PM
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/03/china-boosts-energy-emissions-goals-after-record-pollution
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