China Building Coal Stockpiles of 100 Million Tonnes, Calls For Greater Emission Cuts From Developed Nations

China is building four to six coal reserves each with capacity exceeding 20 million tonnes in order to address the problem of shortage of the fuel. Meanwhile, Chinese officials also called upon the leaders of developed nations to set ambitious carbon emission reduction goals.

China is the world’s largest coal producer and consumer but lately the demand has outpaced supply, a trend likely to continue into the next year. To address this gap in demand-supply China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has planned to build coal reserves in the the eastern province of Shandong which will be ready within three to five years. According to the officials of the NDRC, the stockpiles are meant for use with the province only and China has substantial coal supply on the national level.

Coal remains China’s primary source of energy and it is also exported to many neighboring countries as well. Easy and plentiful availability of coal is one of the major reasons behind China’s strong resistance to any kind of emission reduction targets. Instead, officials from the NDRC itself called upon the developed nations to commit to more ambitious emission targets closer to 25 to 40 percent by the year 2020 from 1990 levels.

Reports about shortage of coal reserves have been doing the rounds lately with some of them predicting a peak in coal supplies by 2025. India, too, has been facing shortage of coal.

How About a Global Carbon Labelling Law?

The Copenhagen round of talks aimed at building a consensus about the features of the next climate treaty is scheduled to take place this December however, there seem to be no signs of consensus over how the world should proceed to reduce its carbon emissions. Which tool would be most effective? Clean Development Mechanism, a global carbon tax or maybe a global carbon labelling law?

Clean Development Mechanism has been tried, tested and, well, has been branded somewhat ineffective by not only the people outside the system but the people who are actually a part of it, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Bureaucratic delays, procedural wrongdoings in approval of projects and failure to make any difference at the grass-root level are some of the well known problems with this scheme.

The European Union has proposed that the CDM be replaced by a global carbon tax. United States saw a national carbon tax bill introduced in the Congress. The bill calls for levying an ‘carbon equivalency fee’ on imported products, in addition to the nationwide carbon tax in order to neutralize the losses incurred by domestic manufacturers. China has opposed this move saying that the developed countries are in part responsible for the emissions as they are the end users.

China Tries to Censor EIA Report of Proposed Oil Refinery in Environmentally Sensitive Area

A proposed oil refinery project north of Hong Kong has ran into trouble after acquisitions that the government kept the administration in Hong Kong out of the discussion about the potential negative environmental impacts of the project. The episode highlights the weak EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) regulations in China.

The proposed $5 billion refinery-cum-storage facility, which is to be build in the Nansha district of the Guangdong province, would be one of the largest in Asia and is a collaborative project of Sinopec and the Kuwait Oil Company. According to media reports, the EIA report has not been made public and there has been no public discussion and scrutiny of the project (and the proposed alternatives) and its environmental impacts.

It is understood that the authorities have also directed website managers across China to block any attempts to discuss the environmental impacts of the project on the Internet. Following is the translation of the message sent to various Chinese news websites. 

China Opposes US Plans to Levy Carbon Tax on Imported Goods

With fears of being pressurized to agree to mandatory emissions cuts under the new climate treaty, China has up the ante and is looking to hit back at the developed countries by holding them accountable for a size-able portion of its carbon emissions. According to a recent study, 15 to 25 percent of China’s carbon emissions originate from manufacturing of goods exported to developed countries.

The Director of China’s Climate Change department, Gao Li,  has said that since the western countries are these final users of the carbon intensive products they should share the responsibility for the same with the Chinese government. Mr. Li also said that sharing equal responsibility was essential to reach any fair agreement over reducing the carbon emissions.

These statements came almost a week after a carbon tax bill was introduced in the US Congresswhich called for levying an ‘carbon equivalency fee’ on imported products, in addition to the nationwide carbon tax in order to neutralize the losses incurred by domestic manufacturers. The bill, if passed, would also allow the US government to withhold revenue generated from the equivalence fee till the time the producer nation agrees to a domestic carbon tax of its own. 

US to Have a National Climate Registry; Will India & China Follow?

Environment Protection Agency has announced that the US government would maintain a registry of all carbon emissions produced from some 13,000 high polluting industries. Companies emitting more than 25,000 metric tonnes of carbon emissions yearly will be required to report to this registry.

The plan to have a climate registry has been doing the rounds since 2007 and although a Climate Registry exists covering various American, Canadian and Mexican states, this would be much broader and mandatory in nature. Terming the decision as ‘critical step towards protection of health and environment’, the  that emissions data is essential in order to tackle the problem of climate change. The registry would require the companies to report their methane emissions also, another major greenhouse gas. 

United States is not bound by any international treaty to maintain a national climate registry unlike the Annex 1 countries under the Kyoto Protocol. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the developed nations (which ratified the treaty) were mandated to create and maintain an annual climate registry so as to monitor any increase or decrease in the carbon emissions and to determine, on the basis of tonnes of emissions, the number of emission allowances and carbon credits the countries (or the companies) are entitled to. The United States is a signatory to the treaty but has not ratified the same.

Al Gore Hopes Obama’s Radical Measures Would Bring the World Closer to Climate Deal

Al Gore in a scene from his documentary An Inconvenient Truth

Speaking at the International Climate Change Congress, the former US Vice President and imminent environmental activist Al Gore expressed hope that a broad consensus on a new and ground-breaking climate deal would be reached soon. Al Gore pointed out the new steps initiated by the current US President Barack Obama, to promote renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions, as one of the main reasons for an emerging possibility of successful negotiations for a new climate deal. 

President Obama has been quite aggressive in breaking away from the policies of his predecessor, President George W. Bush. His administration has answered to the critics of United States’ climate policy (or the lack of it!). No doubt the confidence among the environmental activists, like Gore, is high given the revolutionary measures announced by President Obama. 

The European Union has been eagerly waiting for some kind of cap and trade scheme from the United States so that the much needed credit to finance the technology transfer from developed nations to poor nations could obtained. 

The European Union is also looking at the United States to pass a carbon tax bill which eventually could form the foundations of a global carbon tax effective enough to replace the current Clean Development Mechanism of offsetting carbon emissions. A national carbon tax in the United States would put pressure on rest of the world and especially the advanced developing countries like India and China to agree to a global carbon tax, and possibly mandatory emission reduction targets. 

The Obama administration has also pledged billions of dollars of investments in renewable energy in the form of direct infrastructure spending in building wind farms and solar power plants, tax rebates to families who wish to install solar panels and in research & development of new and affordable forms of renewable energy. 

The steps taken by the United States may very trigger steps from the European Union to adopt stricter carbon emission reduction targets potentially laying foundations of long-term targets. 

For the first time in almost a decade the United States has acknowledged its responsibility as being the one of the largest polluters in the world. India and China have long accused United States of being negligent towards its duty to act decisively on critical environmental issues. Now that the times have changed the pressure to act is now on the developing nations.

Image: Juampe López (Creative Commons)