BEIJING, China — The city of Beijing has announced that it will ban coal use by 2020 in hopes to reduce the deadly levels of pollution that have plagued the country, the major cities in particular.
Recently China has begun to act against pollution, with Beijing’s Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau posting the plan on its website, stressing the prioritization of electricity and natural gas as alternatives for heating. The trend is further apparent after the government recently chose to include environmental protection as a criterion for leadership judgment.
Coal provided for a quarter of Beijing’s energy consumption in 2012 but also for 22 percent of the fine particles polluting the city’s air. Other contributors to the city’s pollution include motor vehicles, industrial production and general dust.
However, even with the ban in Beijing, coal use around the country is expected to dramatically increase as the country continues to develop and its energy needs continue to grow. China’s coal use is a large producer of greenhouse gases, resulting in China’s status as the world’s largest emitter of carbon and other polluting gases.
The current trend to natural gas has also attracted criticisms arguing that the move may exacerbate China’s pollution problem.
The Chinese government has plans to construct more coal-to-gas plants and restrict new coal-fired plants around Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to combat pollution. However research done by Greenpeace China has shown that these new plants would produce almost double the amount of the emissions limit set by regulators. Duke University found that the coal-to-gas plants would produce 32 to 86 percent more greenhouse gas emissions compared to the coal-fired plants.
In response, the Chinese government has released a report cautioning against the “blind development of the coal-to-gas plants” that could result in more public health concerns rather than helping to reduce pollution. Of the ten most polluted cities in the world, seven reside within China.
Looking at the broader scope, China is facing huge environmental hurdles, with 90 percent of its underground water and 70 percent of its rivers polluted. A third of those polluted rivers are so contaminated that they pose real risks to public health.
Discontent in China concerning pollution has increased. What began with protests in rural areas against such environmental disasters that caused ‘cancer villages,’ discontent has spread to the cities.
Concerning the environment, this has been one of few protests that the government has responded to positively, essentially declaring war on pollution. The Chinese government is now one of the largest spenders on renewable energy production, recently committing $290 billion to pursue renewable projects over the course of five years.
The economic cost of pollution has been made more aware in China, with the World Bank estimating the cost of pollution in 2010 to be approximately $242 billion each year. However, the human cost is much more devastating with the smog contributes to approximately a million premature deaths every year.
As China continues to struggles to change its policy of economic development with little regard for the environment, the millions in China continue to struggle and suffer the consequences of pollution, especially those in poverty and in rural areas where their voices are heard even less than those in the city.
– William Ying
Sources: Washington Post, Reuters, Al Jazeera 1, Al Jazeera 2, Al Jazeera 3, The Guardian
Photo: AOL