The Wider Environment

Lean, mean but not very green yet

11/01/2007 16:20:04

Much domestic policy in concerns reconciling the country’s breakneck economic growth with the need to protect, preserve and restore the environment. With that in mind, Beijing has set strict targets for enterprises to cut emissions as part of the 1006-10 five year plan. But the project has not got off to a good start:

China is failing to meet new targets on energy efficiency and pollution emissions, officials said.

set the targets in a bid to rein in the environmental costs of the country's rapid economic growth.

But only Beijing and five other provinces or municipalities improved efficiency by 4% and cut emissions by 2% in the first six months of 2006.

"Nationwide, it is certain that last year's [targets] could not be achieved," official Han Wenke said.

The initiative was launched by Premier Wen Jiaobao in March 2006, and links energy consumption to GDP growth. As well as simply curbing the use of pollutants – China burned 30% of the world’s entire coal output in 2006, according to government estimates – the aim is to pull growth in energy consumption below growth in the general economy, effectively translating environmental gains into economic efficiency. Despite linking the performance of senior officials and cadres with success in reducing energy consumption, things seem to have got off to a slow start. But it’s not all bad news:

Chinese corporations and the government, through tax receipts, are major beneficiaries of the new system of trading in global carbon credits, according to a media report.

 The nation has become the world's largest source of developing-world carbon credits purchased by Western firms, The Wall Street Journal Online reported, citing estimates from the World Bank.

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