High consumption of power in the 10th
Five-Year Plan period (2000-05), especially after 2002, has led
to a number of environmental protection targets not being met in
this period, the State Environmental Protection Administration
(SEPA) said in Beijing yesterday..
Eight of the 20 environmental goals set for the 10th Five-Year
Plan have not been met, said Zou Shoumin, deputy head of the
Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning (CAEP).?
The five-year plan stipulated that discharges of sulphur dioxide
should be cut by 10 percent, but in fact compared with the levels
of 2000 releases of the pollutant had actually increased by 27
percent in 2005.
Another six goals, among them the reduction of carbon dioxide
discharges and industrial solid waste and increasing the
capabilities of wastewater treatment had not been fully
realized.
"We worked out the 10th Five-Year Plan on the basis of economic
levels in 1998 and 1999," Zou said. "However, after 2002 China
witnessed rapid development after the Asian financial crisis of
1997."
CAEP expected that in 2005 China's energy consumption would not
exceed 1.5 billion tons standard coal. However, the country had
used 2.2 billion tons that year.
Thermal-power generation, as the biggest consumer of coal and
discharger of sulphur dioxide, had seen growth far beyond the plan.
According to the plan, in 2005, the installed capability of
thermo-power generation was about 400 milion kw. But the de-facto
installed capability reached more than 500 million kw.
"Energy consumption and thermo-power generation development made
a major contribution to the failure of sulphur dioxide reductions,"
Zou said.
"But during that period, the country's environmental status
generally improved, although the problem of? pollution remains
pressing," said Zhu Jianping, deputy director of China National
Environmental Monitoring Centre.
The old approach of economic growth first and pollution
treatments second has largely resulted in the current situation, Qu
Geping, president of the China Environmental Protection Foundation,
said at a meeting on urban environment and sustainable development
in Shanghai yesterday.
Poor decisions taken about the use of resources were also
responsible, Qu said. As a large consumer of coal China had from
the very beginning allowed crude coal to be burned before being
processed to reduce pollutants.
Maurice Strong, environmental expert and first director of the
United Nations Environment Program, said at the meeting that China
is now on the right track to protect the environment.
"China is showing its commitment to the challenge," Strong
said.
(China Daily April 13, 2006)