Green China: Nation's push for clean energy commended
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E-mail China Daily, November 27, 2012
With regard to nuclear power, China has always taken a cautious and conservative approach to this capricious alternative and has a relatively small total of 16 nuclear power stations in four different locations, which are mainly along its coastline so that seawater can be used for cooling.
That is less than 3 percent of the world's total of 443 nuclear power stations. Furthermore, these 16 nuclear power stations provide only 1 percent of the country's power needs.
With runaway industrial development inevitably came the pollution problems that still blight some of China's biggest cities, but considerable improvements to air quality have been achieved through a wide range of measures.
According to the Beijing non-profit Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, several cities are now being more open about their air quality information, including Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
"Some cities have moved forward," said Institute Director Ma Jun. "But among all of China's 113 cities, there are still many not making proper disclosures."
Beijing is now releasing details of air pollutants comprising tiny particulate matter about 2.5 micrometers in size, which is a much higher standard than the PM10 measure previously used.
The following statistics underscore the seemingly permanent pollution problem in Beijing: The population has now swelled to 17 million; the number of cars on its roads is now 5 million plus, or an additional 1.5 million in the past four years; and 27 million tons of coal were burned by the capital in 2010.
On the other side of the ledger, Beijing now has 35 new monitoring locations and has become the leading city in China in its monitoring of PM2.5 data.
The author is deputy chairman and secretary general of the China Energy Fund Committee. The committee, based in Hong Kong, is a think tank specializing in China-related energy issues.
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