Green Options

A “green economy” can be built in China in less than 20 years, argues a new McKinsey report. The new study, “China’s Green Revolution“, offers the most comprehensive quantitative analysis to date of China’s abatement cost curve.
Previous studies of a similar ilk, like the Stern Review, have incorporated social benefits to partially offset the cost of scaling up energy efficient and clean technologies. In contrast, the latest McKinsey report considers only technology-related costs and attaches a figure to the cost of green initiatives in China.

So what is the final damage? While costs are negative for upgrades in some industries, like buildings, due to the savings generated from energy efficiency improvements, a total 1.5-2 trillion yuan (USD 220-295 billion) would have to be spent every year until 2030 in order to reach McKinsey’s alternative scenario.

The theme of China’s annual National People’s Congress taking place this week – the proceedings of which remain highly secretive beforehand – has been largely an economic one.
Although the environment is hardly the priority issue du jour, China has not entirely changed its course with regard to the environment, despite the economic turmoil, as a “worst case scenario” might have suggested. Legislation on the management of electronic waste, signed into effect this week by China’s cabinet, the State Council, is a key example of China’s continued commitment to making progress on environmental protection.

The new law mandates the establishment of centralized funding for enlargement and improvement of safe electronic recycling facilities in China. It also places responsibility on manufacturers, retailers, repair and customer service providers and recycling companies to collect and responsibly handle electronic waste; though the wording of the scope of their responsibility as well as punitive measures for noncompliance is vague.

These regulations aim to reduce a stream of pollution that builds each year. The problem of industrialized countries’ illegal exportation of e-waste on China and other developing countries has generated significant attention and debate in recent years, both inside and outside China. While advocacy groups like Greenpeace point fingers at the corporations for not taking efforts to control the disposal of their products or designing them with fewer toxic components, insufficient legislation and monitoring by both sending and receiving countries has exacerbated the problem.

Following last week’s post on contamination of the water supply for the city of Yancheng, China, state-run media Xinhua News has released an update on the news item.
According to a government circular cited in the Xinhua article, seven officials responsible for water supervision have been punished and two have been removed from office for lacking oversight. The Mayor of the city has pledged to close over 10% of the city’s [...]

Hong Kong tycoon Stanley Ho is most famous in business for his vast and infamous casino empire and unofficial title as one of Asia’s richest people (his estimated US$8 billion net worth earned him the 113th rank in Forbes’ 2007 list of “the World’s Billionaires”). Might news of his recent clean energy joint venture with Portugal’s top power company bring him a new title: “the Chinese T. Boone Pickens“?
According to Macauhub, a government-sponsored news publication-cum-commerce division that reports business-related news in the Pearl River region and in Portugese-speaking countries, Ho has created a renewable energy partner firm with Portugal’s Energias de Portugal (EDP), which will be known as EDP-Energy Solutions Asia.

Authorities from China’s coastal city of Yancheng, in the province of Jiangsu, shut off water last Friday and restricted the supply for most of the weekend following citizen reports of foul smelling water. An estimated one million of the city’s 1.5 million residents were left without water due to what government identified as the presence of two variants of carbolic acid – carcinogen hydroxybenzene and phenol — in the city’s water supply.
The local government identified Biaoxin Chemical Company as the party responsible for the tainted water, which illegally discharged the toxic chemicals from its facility, said state media Xinhua news agency. Xinhua also reported that the plant has been shut down and its top executives arrested. Officials have not provided any additional information; and state media China Daily reports that no one has come forward with symptoms of poisoning have not been independently confirmed.

Certain pairs just seem to go together: peas and carrots; peanut butter and jelly; and teenagers and cell phones. Clinton and China is another magical combination: at least, that has been the case for Bill Clinton.
Throughout his presidency, a time in which China entered the WTO, and subsequent philanthropic involvement in China, Clinton has enjoyed a popularity that, by my completely unscientific measure, exceeds just about any other American or American leader since Nixon.

This may explain, in part, how Hillary earned a favorable reputation in China a while back. I have encountered countless cabbies whose thumbs up for “xi-la-li” (Hillary) came after their thumbs up for “ke-lun-dun” (Bill Clinton). [Full disclosure: not directly after; that spot is usually reserved for "Le-wen-si-ji", another American who enjoys tongue-in-cheek popularity in China.] At the beginning of the primaries, it seemed that China might be pulling for a Clinton victory; but warm feelings turned sour when Clinton’s stance on China became increasingly critical.

We will soon find out how China will receive Clinton in her new position as Secretary of State, since she has just announced her first trip to Asia, with China scheduled to be a critical stopoff. What’s more, Clinton aides have identified energy and climate change as two issues that will be at the top of her agenda.

Figures released by the General Administration of Customs in China last week reveal a rise in LNG imports to 3.3 tons in 2008, up from 2.9m tons the year prior. Despite 15% growth over the course of the year, December figures were down 23% from November.
The economic downturn, widely credited for December’s sluggish demand, suggests that 2009 import levels will not surpass those of 2008. Indeed, 2009 figures may even fall short of last year’s, due to the unique conditions that spurred LNG imports in 2008. Precautionary preparation for the Beijing Olympics was a major driver of surging LNG demand in the summer of 2008. Plagued with domestic shortages of natural gas, the Chinese shored up their stockpiles of gas and oil in the lead up to the Olympics.

How could 4,000 LNG-powered buses and cabs Beijing installed on the road and the conversion of burners in several power plants from coal-fired to gas-fired require such an influx, you ask?  It did not, which is why China, having made excessive preparations for the Olympics, relaxed in October as the falling numbers suggest.

With the Copenhagen Summit on the horizon, environmental organizations and leaders are hard at work to develop a viable multilateral framework for climate policy coordination. In their January 2009 release of a new report: “China’s Low Carbon Leadership in Cities”, the Climate Group has distilled the goal down from a national to municipal context, highlighting the critical role that local government can play in establishing and promoting low carbon strategies for economic development in China’s cities.
The report, published in Chinese, highlights case studies of exemplary leadership in low carbon development in 12 Chinese cities - including innovation and deployment of solar energy, LED lighting, and electric cars technology - in what appears to be a rally cry for support from China’s power base and attempt to broaden understanding of the issue. The tone of the report is set out in its first paragraph: all countries should be viewed as equals, and developing countries’ policy choices for tomorrow shall be given equal respect as the advances that industrialized countries have already made in this area.

Why cities? The report’s Executive Summary argues that cities, responsible for a higher proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions than the percentage of the world’s population they support, have a responsibility to lead the way in addressing climate change issues. It also refers to energy insecurity and a heightened threat of natural disasters as two results of climate change that particularly affect cities.