Six Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGO) launched an
energy-saving campaign in Beijing Saturday to urge people
throughout the country to set the temperature of their air
conditioners above 26 degrees centigrade in the
summer.??
The "26-degree Campaign" was initiated jointly by Global Village
of Beijing, World Wide Foundation for Nature in China, China
Association for NGO Cooperation, Friends of Nature, Institute of
Environment and Development and Green Earth Volunteers.
They urged the government departments at all levels to set
examples to all people in response to the campaign while working
out relevant policies as well and called all organizations,
enterprises and citizens to give active responses to the campaign
so as to save energy and relieve the electric power shortage.
In the following 180 days, the six NGOs' volunteers will
undertake the campaign around public places including hotels,
shopping malls and office buildings by asking people to set the
temperature of their air conditioners above 26 degrees centigrade,
according to Liao Xiaoyi, creator of the Global Village of
Beijing.
By the end of this campaign, the organizers will try to find out
how much energy will have been saved, Liao said.
China may be facing the most severe power shortage since the
1980s, with a gap of 30 million kilowatts between electricity
demand and supply this summer, according to General Manager Zhao
Xizheng of the State Power Grid Company.
A total of 24 provincial areas imposed power brownouts in the
past few months.
The temperature is usually set on 24 to 26 degrees centigrade.
If it is up two more degrees, 400 to 600 million kilowatts or two
to three billion yuan can be saved in Beijing only while 160,000 to
250,000 tons of coal can be saved, according to the organizers of
the campaign. That means to reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide
by 2400 to 3500 tons and carbon dioxide by 350,000 to 550,000 tons,
they added.
The campaign has gained support from the State Environmental
Protection Administration of China and the United Nations
Environment Program while more than 30 NGOs all over the country
have responded to the campaign.
(Xinhua News Agency June 27, 2004)