CHINESE GOV’T ANNOUNCES PLAN TO CURTAIL COAL USE

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
9/13/13

The Chinese government announced major plans to slash coal use in three major cities this week in a bid to curtail the country’s notoriously bad air pollution. The 1.75 trillion yuan ($290 billion) action plan, unveiled by China’s State Council Sept. 12, would ban new coal plants from being built in the industrial regions surrounding the three eastern metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, areas that cumulatively house nearly one-third of the country’s coal capacity, according to Greenpeace. State media said the goal of the plan was to cut coal consumption to 65 percent of total primary energy use by 2017 and ramp up the use of renewables, nuclear and natural gas-fired electricity generation. Coal accounted for nearly 69 percent of total energy use in 2011, according to state media.

The plan also aims to update inefficient production capacity within high-emitting industrial sectors while more strictly enforcing environmental protection standards to phase out excess production capacity. State media reports said the plan would cut particulate matter density in the three major cities by at least 10 percent by 2017. Environmental groups cheered the move. “China’s political leadership has set an ambitious timeline to solve China’s air pollution crisis, responding to the mandate set by the Chinese public, especially in the heavily polluted cities around Beijing. The targets can only be met by tackling China’s coal consumption growth and the plan takes very important steps in that direction,” Li Yan, a climate and energy campaign manager at Greenpeace East Asia, said in a statement.

Plan Omits CCS

The plan, however, made no specific mention of carbon capture and storage as a way to mitigate CO2 emissions from coal plants, despite a May policy statement from the country’s National Development and Reform Commission that called for the wider promotion and deployment of pilot and demonstration projects. That document reflected language used in the Chinese government’s most recent Five-Year Plan, which called for reducing carbon intensity and flagged CCS as a priority technology for further development.

China has in recent years significantly upped efforts to clean up its power sector after prolonged international pressure. The government began gradually rolling out cap-and-trade pilot programs in several of its major provinces and cities earlier this year, and rumors began circulating earlier this year that officials were considering a targeted carbon tax for some industries.