China claims "world's biggest carbon emissions cut"
Published by MAC on 2011-11-30Source: Commodity Online, Xinhua
In October 2011 we pointed out that China's avowed major reduction of its dependency on coal is considerably less spectacular than might at first appear. See: China's energy-saving campaign saves 150 mln tons of coal
Nonetheless, according to a new report, the country's proportionate reduction in carbon emissions - including those from coal-powered plants - is the largest recorded by any state in the four years between 2006 and 2010.
As we also commented in our earlier article: "Beijing's energy policy is in marked contrast to that of its closest competitor, India, where the government and industry's thirst for the black stuff shows no sign of abating.
"On top of this, the proportional rate of coal imports to India from overseas mines (particularly ones in Indonesia) is on the increase".
Last week the Indian government did indeed announce it would search for 35 million tonnes of coal to be imported over the coming fiscal year, thus adding to its own carbon toll.
China realizes world's biggest carbon emission cut
Xinhua
26 November 2011
BEIJING - China reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 billion tonnes between 2006 and 2010, the biggest decrease of any country in the period, according to a new report.
The country's energy intensity in 2010, or energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP), reduced by 19.1 percent from the level of 2005, equal to saving the energy consumption of 630 million tonnes of standard coal, and resulting in the emission of 1.5 billion fewer tonnes of greenhouse gas, said the report on China's low-carbon development, published by the Institute of Global Low-carbon Economy, University of International Business and Economics, and the Social Sciences Academic Press.
Although China has become a major carbon emitter, it has realized the biggest carbon emission reduction across the world, said a press release from the report's research team on Saturday.
"The carbon emission reduction policy in China has been one of the strictest and most effectively implemented in the world," the release said.
Over the five years, the country managed to sustain an annual average economic growth of 11.2 percent, with an annual energy consumption increase of 6.6 percent, according to the report.
Efforts to shut down energy-inefficient and highly polluting thermal power plants led to about 50 million tonnes of carbon emissions being cut, the report said.
From 2007 to 2009, the country closed thermal power plants with a total capacity of 54 million kw.
China also shut down energy-inefficient industrial projects such as steel factories, cement plants and coal-mining companies over the past five years, according to the report.
It launched 10 major energy-saving programs, including updating coal-fueled industrial boilers, improving the energy efficiency of the heating supply network, promoting green residential and office buildings and installing low-carbon public lighting systems.
The programs helped the country save the equivalent energy consumption of 240 million tonnes of standard coal, equal to a cut of about 550 million tonnes in carbon emissions, the report said.
Efforts to increase the use of alternative energies and forestation programs also contributed to carbon emission control, it added.
Non-fossil energies accounted for 8.3 percent of the country's annual energy consumption in 2010, up from 7.5 percent in 2005.
Forest coverage in China reached 20.36 percent in 2010, up from 18.2 percent in 2005.
In the next five years, the country has promised to further reduce energy intensity by 16 percent and increase the ratio of non-fossil energies to 11.4 percent of the annual energy consumption.
Also, it aims to cut the carbon dioxide emission per unit of GDP by 17 percent from the level of 2010, which is the first time China included such a goal in its five-year economic and social development plan.
Xuan Xiaowei, a research fellow from the Development Research Center of the State Council and one of the report's authors, admitted that the country would face great challenges to fulfill these three goals.
The key to realizing them is to further reduce the energy intensity of the heavy industrial sector, he said.
The report also noted that, over the past three decades, China has made great progress in reducing energy intensity but the energy consumption structure has barely changed, with coal as the major fuel.
More efforts should be made to introduce alternative energies such as solar power, wind power, nuclear power and hydropower, it said.
India to import 35 million tons of coal for 2011-12
Commodity Online
26 November 2011
NEW DELHI: Many states in India have increased load shedding or power cuts to avoid total blackout due to lower availability of Coal to generate electricity.
To meet the growing gap between the requirements and its domestic availability, the government has assigned the thermal power stations designed on indigenous coal to import 35 million tons of coal for 2011-12.
Of the 35 million tons of coal imports, almost 15.45 million tons of coal would be consumed by National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC).
Meanwhile, almost 10 billion units of electricity remained unsold during the first seven months of the Fiscal 12. The introduction of loading shedding or power cuts by states is expected to increase the difficulty of NTPC to sell its produced electricity, reported Business Line.
According to the reports, around 13 billion units generated went unused during 2010-11 fiscal.
In addition, [other] power stations have also been envisaged to operate on imported coal. The Coal import requirement for such power stations for the year 2011-12 was assessed as 20 million tonne.
NTPC is the country's largest state run power utility.