China’s anti-pollution efforts stink

When toxic-chemical spills in its rivers threaten the water supply in neighboring countries, China’s lax environmental record becomes a serious regional issue.

However, when researchers in California report that on a given day 25% of the pollution littering the skies above Los Angeles has wafted over from China, the country’s battle to clean up its degraded environment turns into a world war. It’s not just China’s trade imbalance that is commanding international attention these days; the country is also increasingly known as the world’s greatest exporter of pollution.
…Nor did the release this month of a SEPA report confirming that China has retained its title as the world’s greatest emitter of sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain. This is a position the country has held since 1995, and the SEPA report showed that the problem is getting worse, not better.

The agency reported that sulfur-dioxide emissions reached a record high last year of almost 25.5 million tonnes, a rise of 27% since 2000, costing the country $62.7 billion in economic losses. With results such as this, it is hard to see how China will meet Premier Wen Jiabao’s stated goal of cutting pollution by 10% by 2010.

Most of the increase in sulfur-dioxide discharges is caused by coal-burning power plants working overtime to support two decades of economic growth averaging more than 9% a year. China is the world’s largest coal producer – and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

Overall, SEPA estimates pollution costs China $200 billion a year, or 10% of its GDP. According to the World Bank, 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are in China, where poisoned air leads to 400,000 premature deaths every year. With car ownership in the country also soaring, experts say China will overtake the United States in the next decade as the world’s greatest emitter of greenhouse gases, which scientists link to global warming.

So SEPA has a lot of work to do. But is making China green again a mission impossible?

Asia Times