Pollution Update : China to cut pollutant emissions by over 30%
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Is China really leading the way in respect to its air pollution? Comments below or at twitter.com/#!/LearnFromNature
China has set a goal of reducing its major pollutant emissions by more than 30 to 40percent by 2015 in its latest 12th Five-Year Plan (2010-2015) for environment protection, according to a Wednesday report in the People’s Daily newspaper.
Compared with the 11th five-year plan, more indicators, greater pressure, stricter requirements and much higher investment needs are featured in China’s latest environmental protection outline,issued by the State Council,or China’s Cabinet, an unnamed official with the Ministry ofEnvironmental Protection said in the report.
The outline specifies 7 major indicators, with ammonia nitrogen and nitric oxide added as two new indicators, the official said. The plan calls for ammonia nitrogen and nitric oxide emissions to becut by 10 percent by 2015, while chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulfur dioxide emissionsshould drop by 8 percent, the report said.
COD and sulfur dioxide emissions dropped by 12.45 percent and 14.29 percent, respectively, from2005 to 2010.
The five-year outline also calls for an investment of 3.4 trillion yuan ($539 billion) in environmental protection efforts, or 1.4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product during the period, theofficial was quoted as saying.
Eight major projects, including reducing major pollutant emissions and resolving environmental problems that affect people’s health, will require a investment of nearly 1.5 trillion yuan, the officialsaid.
Increasing the number of pollution control indicators, expanding pollution control regions and reinforcing restrictions on total pollution volume in large industries will be effective ways to reducemajor pollutant emissions, the official said in the report.
He said the number of major cities covered by China’s air quality index system has expanded from113 to 333, with stricter assessment standards established as well.
On Saturday, Beijing‘s environmental authority began to use the PM2.5 air quality measurement standard to provide more precise air quality monitoring results.
The official said the measurement standard will also be adopted in all major areas of the country,including the Yangtze River Delta, Zhujiang River Delta and the neighboring cities of Chengdu andChongqing for better prevention and control of air pollution.
The outline also includes nuclear waste, heavy metals and dangerous chemicals as materials that should be focused on in terms of eliminating environmental risks, the official said.
The outline states that local governments should shoulder most of the responsibilities in financing and implementing the five-year plan, with midterm and final evaluations to be conducted in 2013and 2015, respectively, the report said.
Evaluation results will be taken into account when assessing the overall work of local governments, according to the report.
Source : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-02/01/content_14519469.htm
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Pollution Update : China’s urban areas lax on reporting
From China Daily | https://twitter.com/#!/LearnFromNature
Image by thewamphyri via Flickr
Most big cities in China still failed to publish adequate pollution information in 2011despite the gradual establishment and consolidation of a nationwide environmental protectiontransparency mechanism, a newly published report found.
Only 19 out of 113 cities got a passing score of 60 out of 100, based on the Pollution InformationTransparency Index, jointly developed by the Beijing-based Institute of Public and EnvironmentalAffairs (IPE) and US-based Natural Resources Defense Council.
The average score was 40. But the result is already an improvement compared to the average of31 for 2008, when the study was first conducted, and 36 for 2009 and 2010.
“This shows an environmental transparency mechanism (has been in the process of) beingestablished in China since the country mandated by law the publication of pollution information in2008,” said Ma Jun, director of IPE. “But we’re still at a very initial stage, especially with more than10 cities scoring less than 20.”
Zhu Xiao, an associate professor with the law school at Renmin University of China, said themajority of the 113 cities still failed to fully abide by the laws and regulations on pollutioninformation disclosure. “If they do, they can easily get a score around 65,” said Zhu, who wasinvolved in designing the index.
Ningbo of Zhejiang province and Shenzhen of Guangdong province topped the transparencyranking, scoring over 80, with other cities in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta alsoachieving big breakthroughs in 2011, the report found.
But some major polluting provinces, such as Shandong and Sichuan, and the Inner Mongoliaautonomous region, were criticized over their poor performance with regard to publishing pollutioninformation.
“For instance, Shandong province, the country’s biggest emitter of sulfur dioxide and nitrogenoxide (two major air pollutants), even saw some of its cities regressing on information disclosure,”said Ma.
Cities in western China are generally lagging behind on publishing pollution information. This isseen as cause for concern because the development of the country’s vast and ecologically fragilewestern region has already brought with it polluting industries.
Environmental experts found that the stubbornness of those local governments that withholdpollution information is the major obstacle.
Dai Renhui, partner of Beijing Huanzhu Law Firm, which focuses on environmental lawsuits, said allhis attempts to apply for pollution information from county-level governments had failed.
Liu Shuai, from the environmental protection committee at Hunan provincial people’s congress, hadsimilar experiences in the province, which has been hardest hit by heavy-metal pollution.
“This is because some local officials are still obsessed with making decisions without listening topublic opinion and some are simply afraid that publishing pollution information will reveal problemsand cause themselves trouble,” Liu said.
Source : http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-01/17/content_14457664.htm
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