Party and State: China Bans Coal Power Plants

Thursday, September 12, 2013

China Bans Coal Power Plants

In an attempt to downgrade it's AQI from "chewable", coal-fired power plants in key areas around Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai will be banned. The move comes after an intense leafleting campaign and some signs being installed failed to clean up the skies around the major cities that are permanently shrouded in grey gunk filled skies.

The State Council said the country's air pollution situation is "grim" and is "harming people's health and affecting social harmony and stability." The action plan calls for the density of fine particulate matter — a gauge of air pollution — in Beijing to drop by 25 percent by 2017 from 2012 levels and by at least 10 percent in cities nationally.

Ever since the announcement that the God-awful air quality had caused a 14% downturn in tourism to China, officials have been desperate to reign in polluters, and at least try to keep the AQI below 90. Initially taking bold steps to outlaw the US Embassy from broadcasting it's air quality index figures on Twitter, the Chinese government has finally come around to the idea that China's crack-like dependence on coal might be affecting the air somewhat. From

Earlier in the year, figures from the official Chinese air quality monitoring stations hit 700 on it's PM2.5 scale, making the air in Beijing worse than what you might find in an airport smoking lounge. Burning coal fuel means that people in the south live five and half years longer than people in the north, where coal burning was heavily promoted by the government. Added to that, deaths caused by unsafe mining conditions cost the state an estimated 1.7 trillion yuan a year - nearly 7% of the countries GDP.

Burning coal contributes a number of noxious gases to the atmosphere, none of which are particularly helpful when it comes to living a long and happy life. When Greenpeace released it's "True Cost of Coal" report in 2008, it showed that smoking a cigarette was probably more beneficial to human health than take in a deep breath in some parts of China. Well, not that bad, but it was pretty bad, but it does generate 375 million tonnes of ash, which ends up in someone's lungs somewhere.

http://youtu.be/cUW8L-kX3pQ

Since the US government estimates that China gets around 70% of it's energy needs from burning coal there's clearly a long way to go before we can expect to see permanent blue skies over Beijing. Until then, the CCP promises that they'll try and get it down to a respectable 65% over the next four years.

Under normal circumstances, we would say don't hold your breath....