China update
Published by MAC on 2007-04-13
China update
13th April 2007
Regional Pollution Could Overwhelm Beijing's Clean Air Efforts
BEIJING, China, (ENS)
13th April 2007
Ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Beijing Municipality says it will employ new measures to raise the number of days of good air quality to 67 percent and cut down the emission of sulfur dioxide by 10 percent this year. But control of Beijing's air quality is not entirely in the city's hands. New research shows pollution blows in from other cities in the region.
The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said today that to bring the coal-burning pollutants under control, the city will use new energy sources to replace coal for the 1,105 remaining coal-fired boilers under 20 tons in the downtown area.
Coal will be replaced by other sources of power for the 20,000 families living in one-story houses in the Dongcheng and Xicheng districts, and for residents living within the Fifth-Ring Road, an area where urban and rural areas overlap.
To control vehicle pollutants, authorities are going to enforce the IV national emission standard for new vehicles in 2008.
In addition, a total of 2,580 old buses and 5,000 taxis and other highly polluting vehicles will be taken off the roads, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau said. In 2006, 15,000 polluting taxis and over 3,000 buses were eliminated while 4,000 natural gas driven buses were put into operation.
New measures are being put in place to control industrial pollution within the Beijing Municipality.
The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau says the city's five coal-burning power plants will complete their dust removal, desulfuration and denitration plans.
The Capital Steel Plant must cut down production by four million tons, while the No II Chemical Plant and the Organic Chemical Plant will stop production altogether.
Since 1988 Beijing has gone through 12 phases of air quality control. During the 13th phase in 2007, the city will also strive to control dust pollution, protect its ecological environment and promote the Green Olympics concept, according to the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
The objectives for the Olympic Games period set in 2004 by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games, BOCOG, are that concentrations of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and ground-level ozone should meet World Health Organization guidelines, and that particle concentrations should be comparable to levels in major cities in the developed countries.
But a study of Beijing's air quality just completed by a joint team of Chinese and U.S. scientists concludes that emission sources far from Beijing exert a significant influence on Beijing's air quality.
To ensure a healthy atmosphere for athletes and spectators at the 2008 Summer Olympics, scientists at Tsinghua University, Peking University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have been working with the U.S. Energy Department's Argonne National Laboratory, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the University of Tennessee.
The team has researched and modeled the local and regional contributors to Beijing's air quality, leading to a greater understanding of regional air quality management and development of new emission control strategies.
One model by Chinese scientists found that emissions in China's third largest city, Tianjin, contributed 10 to 33 percent of the smog in Beijing.
The same study found that emissions in Hebei Province contributed six to 13 percent to Beijing smog pollution. Tianjin Municipality borders Hebei province to the north, south, and west - the municipality of Beijing is to the northwest.
"Typical industrial, coal-burning cities within several hundred kilometers of Beijing add to the local pollution," said David Streets, a senior scientist in Argonne's Decision and Information Sciences Division. "In these areas, emission controls on stationary sources and vehicles are not as stringent as in Beijing, and emissions are high.
"Air quality in Beijing in the summertime is dictated by meteorology and topography," Street explained. Each province's contribution varies greatly from day to day, depending on wind direction and other meteorological factors.
"Typically, temperatures are high, humidity is high, wind speeds are low, and the surrounding hills restrict venting of pollution. Thus, regional pollutants and ozone build up over several days until dispersed by wind or removed by rain," he said.
Steve Page, director of EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, said, "Over the past several years, Beijing has implemented a number of measures to improve air quality, and China is now looking at regional approaches to meeting air quality standards similar to successful approaches used in the U.S. The air quality improvements from their actions will benefit everyone."
The report, "Air quality during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," concludes that, even in the event that Beijing generates no manmade emissions, levels of particulate matter, PM, and ozone could still be high and could exceed healthful levels under unfavorable meteorological conditions.
"Because the limit of zero emissions cannot be achieved in practice, and because China is presently undergoing tremendous economic growth, the threat of higher regional emissions and higher concentrations of PM and ozone by 2008 is very real," the report states.
This report has been widely cited by Chinese policy makers, including the Beijing mayor, in requesting that the central government implement unprecedented regional control programs to ensure that the air quality goals for 2008 will be met in Beijing.
Chalco seeks NDRC approval to develop Guinean bauxite mine
The Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd. (Chalco) has applied to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) for approval to develop bauxite mines in and around the Mamou Region of the African country of Guinea, the NDRC announced on April 13. Chalco plans to invest RMB 71.2 million ($9.22 million) in the Guinean bauxite project, according to NDRC's announcement.
According to Chalco's annual report 2006 released this March, Chalco has submitted an exploration plan to the Ministry of Mines of Guinea.
The Ministry of Commerce of China (MOFCOM) announced last June that Chalco obtained permission in November 2005 to carry out geological surveys of Guinean bauxite reserves in the prefectures of Mamou, Kindia, Dalaba and Pita, a total area of 11,000 square kilometers. Chalco launched a 2 to 3 year exploration prospecting project last May. The bauxite project is Chalco's first in Guinea, according to MOFCOM.
Chalco appointed Ren Xianhua as director for the Chalco-Guinea project last December. Chalco's other overseas projects include the Aurukun bauxite mining project in Australia, the Dak Nong bauxite mining project in Vietnam and the joint venture alumina refinery project with CVRD in Brazil.
[source: Interfax China Metals, 14 April 2007: see also Guinea story on this week's Africa Africa update]
Nothing Green about Apple
Our Planet weekly newsletter
8 April 2007
Reporting by Roddy Scheer
Chinese PC maker Lonovo is the computer company with the biggest eco-conscience according to Greenpeace.
In its latest global “green” ranking of consumer electronics manufacturers, the nonprofit Greenpeace International crowned a new king of environmental responsibility in Chinese PC maker Lenovo. California’s Apple Inc. qualified as the worst of the bunch for the second year in a row.
Lenovo, which bought IBM’s consumer electronics division in 2005, edged out last year’s champ, Nokia, for the top spot this year because of its forward-thinking policies and practices to reduce so-called e-waste (old electronic equipment that can leach toxic substances into landfills and water tables). The company offers take-back and recycling in all of the countries where it sells products. While Greenpeace gives Lenovo high marks for reporting the amount of e-waste it recycles as a percentage of sales, it would like to see the company phase some harmful chemicals out of its product line entirely. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Dell and Samsung rounded out Greenpeace’s top five.
Apple Inc. was ranked last in Greenpeace’s original ranking last year due to its use of polluting toxic chemicals and its lack of resolve on recycling. In response, Greenpeace launched the “Green My Apple” campaign, which asks people to send a letter to Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs asking him to address the issues.
In releasing the ranking, Greenpeace praised Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Computers, for challenging “the entire industry to adopt a worldwide takeback policy, something we put on our wish list to Dell when the campaign first started, and several companies have met and even exceeded our demands.” The organization maintains that ongoing dialogues with Greenpeace campaigners have helped several of the 14 companies ranked to improve their overall environmental performance.
Source: Greenpeace USA