China discharged 25.49 million tons of sulfur dioxide in 2005,
topping the world's list, said the country's national environmental
watchdog Thursday at a news conference.
The amount is 27 percent over that in 2000, said the State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), noting that 21.684
million tons came from industrial discharge and 3.89 million tons
from living discharge.
Each ton of the discharge may cause 20,000 yuan (about US$2,500)
of economic losses, said Li Xinmin, deputy director of SEPA's air
pollution department.
Calculating on that basis, China may have suffered a total loss
of 509.8 billion yuan (US$63.625 billion) in 2005.
Li said China's coal consumption increased more than 800 million
tons in the 2001-2005 period, among which 500 million were wolfed
by the power industry.
"Coal accounts for 70 percent of China's energy consumption.
This fact is hard to change in a short term," he said.
He explained that 80 percent of the coal is used for direct
combustion, and coal-fired power plants have burnt half of the
total coal in China, which generates large amounts of sulfur
dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and soot.
The country, with only about 5 million kilowatt capacity of
desulfurization facilities put into operation by 2000, has been
promoting desulfurization work among thermal power plants.
By the end of 2005, there had been 142 desulfurization projects,
either completed or under construction, for major in-service
thermal power plants with a total installed capacity of
approximately 50 million kilowatts.
In its early Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year (2006-2010) Plan
for National Economic and Social Development, China promised a ten
percent reduction of the country's total sulfur dioxide emissions
by 2010 as compared with the end of the previous five-year
period.
To achieve that end, the country's annual sulfur dioxide
discharge must be controlled as no more than 22.95 million
tons.
"This is a compulsory target," said Li.
SEPA has signed a set of documents with China's six largest
electric power companies, who discharge more than 60 percent of the
country's total, prompting them to reduce their emission to set
levels.
(Xinhua News Agency August 3, 2006)