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CARBON WORLDS
China cuts coal, emissions still growing
by Staff Writers
Beijing (UPI) Jul 6, 2010


US aims at power plant emissions reduction in 31 states
Washington (AFP) July 6, 2010 - The US Environmental Protection Agency proposed rules Tuesday to reduce toxic emissions from power plants across 31 states on the US eastern seaboard and the nation's capital. The aim, said the EPA, is by 2014 for sulfur dioxide (SO2) levels to be reduced by 71 percent over 2005 levels, said the agency. In the same period, nitrogen oxides (NOx) would be cut 52 percent. "This rule is designed to cut pollution that spreads hundreds of miles and has enormous negative impacts on millions of Americans," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

"We're working to limit pollution at its source, rather than waiting for it to move across the country," Jackson said. The new proposal, called the transport rule, uses the Clean Air Act's "good neighbor" provision to reduce emissions at power plants whose polluting output is transported by wind across state lines, throughout the US eastern seaboard. The agency, which will hold public hearings before the provisions take effect, is working to "save billions in health costs, help increase American educational and economic productivity, and -- most importantly -- save lives," Jackson said in a statement in announcing the move.

Gina McCarthy, the EPA deputy director, said in a press conference call with reporters that the agency did not expect a large number of power plant closures because of the provisions. The EPA estimates the move would save 120 billion dollars in health costs, as well as missed work and school days because of health issues due to atmosphere pollution -- dwarfing annual cost of compliance for power plants, said to be 2.8 billion dollars in 2014. Each year, according to US figures, atmosphere pollution attributed to power plant emissions contribute to an estimated 14,000 to 36,000 premature deaths, 23,000 nonfatal heart attacks, 21,000 cases of acute bronchitis, and 240,000 cases of aggravated asthma.

China is likely to reach its target of closing small coal-fired power plants totaling 10 million kilowatts of capacity by August, said a government official.

That's in addition to 60.06 million kilowatts that have been shut down from 2006-09.

"We have promised to the international community that 15 percent of our power will be generated from non-fossil sources by 2020," said Zhang Guobao, director of the National Energy Administration, state-run news agency Xinhua reports.

Non-fossil energy accounts for around 7.8 percent of China's energy.

The government, Zhang said, is readjusting its energy structure by giving priority to the development of clean and low-carbon energies, including hydroelectric, nuclear, wind and solar power.

China -- the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases -- pledged last November in advance of the December U.N. climate change conference to cut its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent of 2005 levels by 2020.

But even though China has doubled its wind and solar energy for the fifth consecutive year, its emissions from fossil-fuel combustion, which includes burning waste gas from oil drilling and other industrial operations, increased by 9 percent last year, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency says, The New York Times reports.

By comparison, emissions across other parts of the world, such as in the European Union, Japan and the United States, decreased by 7 percent the same year.

The agency said last week that China's per capita emissions in 2009 were 6.1 tons, up from 2.2 tons in 1990. It attributes China's rise in emissions to the country's massive economic development, warning that its per capita emissions are quickly approaching levels seen in industrialized countries.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao said in May that while the country's energy efficiency had improved by more than 14 percent from 2005 to 2009, it had deteriorated by 3.2 percent in the first quarter of this year.

And last month Gao Shixian, an energy official at China's National Development and Reform Commission admitted during a speech at the Clean Energy Expo China that the country faces "an arduous task" just to reach its existing energy-efficiency goals, The New York Times reports.

If China isn't able to meet these goals, the risk of avoiding widespread environmental damage from a rise in temperatures is "very close to zero," said Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency in Paris.

The IEA estimates that by 2020, China's emissions of energy-related greenhouse gases would increase more than the rest of the world's combined increase.

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New Zealand launches emissions trading scheme
Wellington (AFP) July 1, 2010
New Zealand launched an emissions trading scheme Thursday in a bid to curb the greenhouse gases responsible for climate change but the scheme has angered both businesses and environmentalists. Energy, transport and manufacturing industries will from Thursday have to start paying for their emissions of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which have risen 23 percent in New Zealand since ... read more


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