Reports say the Chinese capital, Beijing, plagued by serious health harming pollution, has developed plans to cut carbon emissions by a massive 25 per cent by 2018.
According to Thomson Reuters Point Carbon Beijing’s Clean Air Plan will reduce the city’s carbon emissions by 20 million tonnes (Mt) by 2018.
Such a reduction would make significant progress towards recommended air quality levels in the Chinese capital.
Reuters Newsagency reports the city of Beijing has published a detailed plan to reduce its air pollution by 25 per cent below 2012 levels by 2017, in order to solve the “airpocalypse” that has been polluting the city.
According to Hongliang Chai, analyst at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon, “The lion’s share of reductions in carbon emissions will need to come from the city’s heat and power sectors.
This will entail them switching from coal to gas, with industrial shutdowns also likely to contribute to emissions reductions.
“We estimate that 3.69 billion cubic metres of gas will be needed by 2015, and 5.35 billion cubic metres by 2018, to replace coal in the city’s power and gas sectors.” Mr Chai said.
“This means the city will need to increase more than half of its 2013 gas consumption within five years.
“This extra 5.35 billion cubic metres demanded by the capital alone equates to 10 per cent of China’s total gas import, or one-fifth of the country’s total liquefied natural gas (LNG) import in 2013.
Mr Chai added: “If pollution reduction policies from Beijing’s energy and industrial sectors underperform, we expect the city policymakers will close additional industrial facilities in order to meet China’s overall air quality targets.”
Reuters reports in addition to fuel switching in the power and heat sectors, shutdowns in the industrial and cement industries will have a significant impact on the city’s goal to reduce air pollutions, in particular PM2.5, the main air pollutant that poses health risks.
Beijing will slash more than half of its 2012 cement output of nearly 9Mt to 4Mt in 2017, and according to Thomson Reuters Point Carbon analysis, the carbon emission reductions from the cement industry will be 2Mt in 2018.
Mr Chai concluded: “While Beijing and other regions have set ambitious clean air targets, China’s overall emissions will change little, even if policymakers meet their current five-year clean air plans.
“However, given China’s near-perfect correlation between coal use and carbon emissions, new policies designed to improve air quality will have a sizeable positive impact on the climate.”
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