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Tuesday, November 24, 2009
China's Perspective on Carbon
I just got some interesting articles from a Chinese newspaper, and I think they're worth summarizing. Since China is nearly equal to the US in CO2 emissions while being a developing nation with low per-capita emissions, the perspective is very interesting! As a developing nation, they didn't have clean technologies or money for higher initial capital, so they built cheap and dirty coal plants for a decade while trying to develop. Energy is linked very closely with wealth - lots of cheap energy is what got the US rich and why they fight wars in the middle east.
Article #1 - Coal plant efficiency and CO2 levels
Some statistics you should know:
China plans to change how they operate power systems using US tech, since it's cheaper than building new tech. The plan: green energy runs all the time; highly efficient plants run as power requirements increase during the day; the dirtiest plants are the last ones to turn on. (In Ontario, nuclear can't be turned off so we always use it. Green power such as hydro is often the easiest one to shut off, so they often opt for coal if it's already running! Thanks to the new Green Energy Act, I think they now have to buy green energy first, but I need to confirm that.)
Article #2 - China's environmental pledges
China made some pledges towards the environment in September. A lot of it is about intensifying the efficiency their power generation. Of note: they want to get 15% of their energy consumption green by 2020. They currently import 50% of their energy and that number is rising, so that places a lot of pressure on other economies to clean up (bad for our tar sands). There is also some bitterness towards the US and other consumer economies that emit significantly more per capita than they do. Going along with the getting other economies to go green, they're also pledging adaptation support to smaller, less developed countries than themselves. Note that China itself is a developing nation, and they are pledging support!!
Article #3 - One possible Copenhagen treaty framework
A UN sponsored Chinese think-tank came up with a plan about who should share the burden of climate change. This plan is possible framework for the Copenhagen treaty. They considered that much of the damage was done during the industrialization between 1850 and 1950. They suggest US should bear 37% of the burden, the EU an another 34%, and China would bear 1.6%. (Canada wasn't mentioned) Developing nations, which argue that if they did not pollute then they should not be bound to any treaties, do not need to be bound in this plan until they pass a specific threshold of total emissions. Under this plan, all countries that are bound must allow green technology to be freely shared.
Article #1 - Coal plant efficiency and CO2 levels
Some statistics you should know:
- 350ppm is the "safe" level of CO2 in the atmosphere.
- 385ppm is where we are now, and increasing by 2ppm per year.
China plans to change how they operate power systems using US tech, since it's cheaper than building new tech. The plan: green energy runs all the time; highly efficient plants run as power requirements increase during the day; the dirtiest plants are the last ones to turn on. (In Ontario, nuclear can't be turned off so we always use it. Green power such as hydro is often the easiest one to shut off, so they often opt for coal if it's already running! Thanks to the new Green Energy Act, I think they now have to buy green energy first, but I need to confirm that.)
Article #2 - China's environmental pledges
China made some pledges towards the environment in September. A lot of it is about intensifying the efficiency their power generation. Of note: they want to get 15% of their energy consumption green by 2020. They currently import 50% of their energy and that number is rising, so that places a lot of pressure on other economies to clean up (bad for our tar sands). There is also some bitterness towards the US and other consumer economies that emit significantly more per capita than they do. Going along with the getting other economies to go green, they're also pledging adaptation support to smaller, less developed countries than themselves. Note that China itself is a developing nation, and they are pledging support!!
Article #3 - One possible Copenhagen treaty framework
A UN sponsored Chinese think-tank came up with a plan about who should share the burden of climate change. This plan is possible framework for the Copenhagen treaty. They considered that much of the damage was done during the industrialization between 1850 and 1950. They suggest US should bear 37% of the burden, the EU an another 34%, and China would bear 1.6%. (Canada wasn't mentioned) Developing nations, which argue that if they did not pollute then they should not be bound to any treaties, do not need to be bound in this plan until they pass a specific threshold of total emissions. Under this plan, all countries that are bound must allow green technology to be freely shared.
