BEIJING China unveiled comprehensive new measures to tackle air pollution on Thursday, with plans to...

1. China to cut coal use, shut polluters, in bid to clear the air |
Reuters
BEIJING China unveiled comprehensive new measures to tackle air pollution on Thursday, with
plans to slash coal consumption and close polluting mills, factories and smelters, but experts said
implementing the bold targets would be a major challenge.
China has been under heavy pressure to address the causes of air pollution after thick, hazardous
smog engulfed much of the industrial north, including the capital, Beijing, in January.
It has also been anxious to head off potential sources of unrest as an increasingly affluent urban
population turns against a growth-at-all-costs economic model that has spoiled much of China's air,
water and soil.
China published the plan on its official website (www.gov.cn), also promising to boost nuclear power
and natural gas use. Environmentalists welcomed the plan but were skeptical about its effective
implementation.
"The coal consumption reduction targets for key industrial areas are a good sign they are taking air
pollution and public health more seriously, but to make those targets happen, the action plan is a bit
disappointing and there are loopholes," said Huang Wei, a campaigner with Greenpeace in Beijing.
Beijing has struggled to get wayward provinces and industries to adhere to its anti-pollution
measures and there were few concrete measures in the new plan to help strengthen its ability to
monitor and punish those who violate the rules.
"We don't see any fundamental structural changes, and this could be a potential risk in China's
efforts to meet targets to reduce PM 2.5," said Huang, referring to China's plan to cut a key
indicator of air pollution by 25 percent in Beijing and surrounding provinces by 2017.
Coal, which supplies more than three-quarters of China's total electricity needs, has been identified
as one of the main areas it needs to tackle. China would cut total consumption of the fossil fuel to
below 65 percent of primary energy use by 2017 under the new plan, down from 66.8 percent last
year.
Green groups were expecting the action plan to include detailed regional coal consumption cuts, but
those cuts appear to have been left to the provinces to settle themselves.
Northern Hebei province, China's biggest steel-producing region, has announced it would slash coal
use by 40 million metric tons over the 2012-2015 period.
Other targets in the plan were also generally in line with a previous plans. It said it would aim to
raise the share of non-fossil fuel energy to 13 percent by 2017, up from 11.4 percent in 2012. Its
previous target stood at 15 percent by 2020.
To help meet that target, it would raise installed nuclear capacity to 50 gigawatts (GW) by 2017, up
from 12.5 GW now and slightly accelerating a previous 2020 target of 58 GW.

2. It would add 150 billion cubic meters of natural gas trunk pipeline transmission capacity
http://www.lg.com/us/air-conditioners by the end of 2015 to cover industrial areas like the Beijing-
Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze and Pearl river deltas in the east and southeast.
CLOSING CAPACITY, OPENING LOOPHOLES
China has long sought to use tougher anti-pollution controls to tackle overcapacity in sprawling and
ill-regulated industries like iron and steel, aluminum and cement. The iron and steel sector is the
second biggest consumer of coal after power.
Thursday's plan said China would speed up the closure of old industrial capacity and "basically
complete" work to relocate plants to coastal areas, as well as tackle pollution and overcapacity in the
sectors by 2017.
It also said a 2015 target to close outdated capacity in industrial sectors would be accelerated to
2014, and it would also halt construction of all unapproved projects in industries facing
overcapacity. Experts said the impact would be limited.
"For aluminum, a lot of the production was never approved by state government but was
haphazardly approved by local governments, so what has already come online cannot be reversed,"
said Yongan Futures base metals analyst Zhu Shiwei. Zhu said the measures might at least curb new
capacity growth.
China would also stop approving new thermal power
plants and cut coal consumption in industrial areas,
although Greenpeace's Huang said the target didn't
appear to be mandatory.
Hebei would cut coal consumption by 40 million
metric tons from 2012 to 2017, and Beijing had also
promised to reduce its total consumption by 13
million metric tons to less than 10 million metric tons
over the same period. Others, including the heavy
industrial hub of Shandong and the manufacturing
base of Jiangsu, both on the eastern coast, were likely
to follow.
However, eastern coastal regions would be allowed to
source more thermal electricity from other provinces through the power grid, raising the possibility
that China's coal consumption would be moved inland rather than actually reduced.
"For (big coal-producing) places like Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, this might be a potential loophole
for them to actually increase their coal consumption," Huang said.
Experts also said China's bid to tackle coal consumption could be stymied by its weak monitoring
capability.
"Measuring is still a big problem. Even if you look at the provincial energy data and the national
data, there is a massive discrepancy of around 200-300 million metric tons and it could be more than

3. that," said Yang Fuqiang, senior Beijing-based adviser with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
(Additional reporting by Fayen Wong and Ruby Lian in SHANGHAI; Editing by Michael Perry and
Paul Tait)