China to meet 2010 pollution standards
BEIJING, CHINA - China is on track to meet its pollution targets by 2010 even though it is still struggling to deal with its coal-dependent energy sector, the country's environment minister has reported to parliament.
By the end of 2010, China aims to cut the emissions of major pollutants by 10 percent compared with 2005 levels.
In a report delivered to China's parliament, minister Zhou Shengxian said annual sulfur dioxide emissions are projected to hit 22 million tons by 2010, 10 percent lower than the 2005 baseline, but with 70 percent of China's energy needs still met by coal, the challenges remain daunting.
"We cannot bring down the high level of atmospheric pollution, which has been brought about by an energy structure dominated by coal," he said in the report posted on the ministry's website.
Zhou noted that pollution continued to blight China's urban areas, with particulate matter and sulfur dioxide emissions still "at a relatively high level," and eastern coastal cities also suffering heavy amounts of ash haze and ozone pollution.
Pollution also remains a serious problem in the Yangtze and Pearl river delta regions, as well as in the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan area of northern China.
The regions cover only 6.3 percent of China's total land area but are responsible for 40 percent of the country's total coal consumption and produce 50 percent of the its steel, Zhou said.
He said that China would continue to eliminate obsolete steel smelters, power plants and paper mills over the course of 2009, and was currently drawing up new emission reduction targets for the 2011-2015 period.
Related News
National Steel Car appealing decision in legal challenge of Ontario electricity fee it calls an unconstitutional tax
TORONTO - A manufacturer of steel rail cars is pursuing an appeal after its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a major Ontario electricity fee was struck down earlier this year.
Lawyers for Hamilton, Ont.-based National Steel Car Ltd. filed a notice of appeal in July after Ontario Superior Court Justice Wendy Matheson ruled in June that an electricity fee, known as the global adjustment, was a regulatory charge, and not an unconstitutional tax used to finance policy goals, as National Steel Car alleges.
The company, the decision noted, began its legal crusade last year after seeing its electricity bills had “increased dramatically”…
