February 27 (China
Daily) --
China
's
energy saving effort succeeded in meeting their basic goals last year, but the
nation still has a long way ahead in ensuring a sustainable energy supply, a
senior energy official said Wednesday.
Xu Dingming, vice director of the Office of
National Energy Leading Group (NELG), made the remarks Wednesday at the
Coal-Gen Sustainability China forum in
Beijing
.
He quoted primary statistics as saying that
last year,
China
was expected to consume 2.65 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, up 7.8
percent from 2006. But consumption growth slowed by 1.81 percent year-on-year.
Energy consumption per unit of GDP was
1.1663 tons of standard coal equivalent, down 3.27 percent from 2006. That
decline was 1.94 percent faster than the year before. In 2007, the country
saved a notable 89.77 million tons of standard coal equivalent in energy.
According to
China
's 11th Five-Year Plan, it
aims to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent from 2005 before
2010 by improving resources, utilizing efficient technology, and saving energy.
Meanwhile, the nation's energy policy moved
forward last year, according to Xu.
Last December, the NELG released a draft of
the first Energy Law and solicited public opinion on its website. The draft was
received warmly.
"Since then, the government has
listened to advice from energy experts both at home and abroad," Xu said.
"Taking these opinions seriously, the NELG is now making adjustments to
the draft, and will soon submit it to the State Council."
However, he warned that the energy industry
should remain cool at all times and think in the long term as far as the
nation's energy development strategy and energy security.
Crude oil futures at the
New York
market hit a fresh record high
Tuesday, as the light crude contract for April delivery settled at over $
100 a
barrel again. Analysts said to
continue to expect three digit prices, and energy prices will attract more
attention worldwide.
Moreover, this month's snowstorms in
southern provinces also tested the nation's energy supply system, triggering
more thoughts about the consequences of massive power strain.
In
China
's first energy white paper
last December, the government pledged to develop the coal industry in an
orderly way, while exploring more renewable energy sources such as hydro,
nuclear, solar and wind energy to meet the growing needs of the nation's
booming economy.
However, renewable energy doesn't mean
frugality can be neglected, according to Xu. Energy saving is not only a
responsibility of the government, but is also a symbol of social progress and
the progress of mankind in general.
He suggested that people begin to save
energy in details, such as driving less and refraining from too much
air-conditioning. "Good consumption habits did contribute a lot to energy
saving," said Xu.
Convened by the Allied Resource Allocator
(ARA), an international management service organization, the forum is part of
its
Asia
energy dialogue series aiming to
boost exchanges on sustainable energy development among power companies,
experts and officials. The meeting is scheduled to last until Friday.
China
,
Germany
seek green energy co-op
February 1 (China
Daily) -- Sino-German
collaboration on renewable energy can set a good example for other countries, a
senior official with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said
yesterday.
China
and
Germany
should expand cooperation
to promote the use of renewable energy and achieve more sustainable
development, Wu Guihui, deputy director of the energy bureau of the NDRC, told
an energy forum.
"It (use of renewable energy) is really
important now as
China
is making great efforts in energy saving and environmental protection," he
said.
China
is improving energy efficiency and using
more renewable energy sources, and thus playing an important role in combating
global warming, said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
As big energy consumers the two nations can
expand cooperation in environmental technology, he said.
As the world's fastest growing major
economy,
China
has set a target of cutting energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent
and pollutant discharges by 10 percent from 2006 to 2010.
The world's second-largest energy consumer
is also making increased use of renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
The government has set a target of raising the ratio of renewable energy in its
total energy mix to 10 percent by 2010 and 15 percent by 2020. Renewable energy
currently accounts for 8 percent of the total energy consumption.
In some sectors such as wind power,
China
has seen over 100 percent
annual growth in the past three years.
A total investment of 2 trillion yuan ($277.8
billion) is needed to meet the renewable energy target by 2020, according
to the NDRC, the nation's top economic planning body.
The Chinese market provides major
opportunities for German companies, said Jurgen Heraeus, a representative of
the Federal Association of German Industry. Leading wind power company Nordex,
for example, has seen over 50 percent annual growth of its business in
China
.
Several German energy majors said they are
keen on
China
's
energy sector. Siemens earlier said it plans to inject half of its 10 billion
yuan mid-term investment in
China
into energy-saving and environmentally friendly technologies.
February 4 (China
Daily)-- It's for sure - the long-expected draft of energy legislation won't be
ready in time for lawmakers to read at the annual session of the National
People's Congress in March.
Some observers
believe it is still pending because the government might reshuffle its diverse
energy administrations to form a powerful single energy ministry, while others
say the consolidation is impossible in the near future due to
"complicated" reasons.
Yet the law is
still in the works. Officials and experts have reached some consensus on tasks
of the new energy governing body no matter when it is established: it should
perform better in saving energy and improving efficiency, rather than only
helping dig up more resources to feed the demand of rapidly developing
China
.
"When
drafting the new law we have to always bear in mind the latest developments and
trends worldwide," Ye Rongsi, deputy head of energy law drafting team
under the National Energy Leading Group, tells China Business Weekly.
The most
important factor, Ye notes, is that the world is entering a high-price cycle
and moving from fossil fuels to an era of renewable energy.
"The draft
will facilitate
China
to adapt to new developments," says Ye, insisting that a new energy law
should address the financial system, climate change, pricing deregulation,
market incentives and scientific research.
The widely
circulated draft emphasizes a unified management system to plan and supervise
China
's energy
sector, which is currently managed by a number of government departments and
agencies.
"We need to
set up an overarching agency to take responsibility for
China
's challenging energy
sector," says Ye, adding that improving energy efficiency and guaranteeing
energy security are among the law's top goals.
Feng Fei,
industry policy department director under the
State
Council
Development
Research
Center
,
a think-tank directly responsible to the central government, stresses the
urgency of establishing a unified national agency to oversee
China
's energy
sector.
"We should
not only emphasize unified management, but also pay close attention to
independent supervision and regulation of the energy sector," says Feng,
who adds that "strict supervision over energy management" should be a
key to the legislative framework.
Industry
observers contend that
China
lacks a systematic means to manage all its energy industries and standards
across the country. Thermal electricity generation, nuclear power, oil and gas,
coal mining and renewable energy all have different management systems.
The National
Energy Leading Group under the State Council currently has temporary
responsibility for energy policy research and long-term planning, while the
Energy Bureau under the National Development and Research Commission (NDRC) is
responsible for project design and approval.
China
has an
electricity regulatory body to supervise the country's State-owned grid
companies, but there is no regulatory body for oil, coal and natural gas
companies.
"The
experience from developed economies shows that effective supervision and
regulation can help reduce or curb abuses in positions of monopoly," says
Feng.
Despite the high
expectations of experts and officials for a cabinet-level ministry to improve
energy administration, the delay of the new energy law is likely to rule out
discussions on a unified national energy body at the parliamentary session in
March, as there is still no legislative framework.
Dong Chaojie,
deputy department director at the State Council's Legislative Affairs Office,
says the timetable was still up in the air despite the fact that it's been in
the draft stage for two years.
"We haven't
discussed it yet," says Dong. Under the legislative process, Dong's office
can decide when to submit drafts for the National People's Congress to read and
vote on.
She says it was
"complicated" to weigh the interests of all stakeholders and parties
governed by the energy legislation.
"It will
take further time" to consolidate input from all stakeholders, she says.
Ye from the
drafting team says the "year 2009 is the earliest possible date for the
legislative body to read and vote on the draft".
But no matter
when it will be, "a unified energy administrative body" should be the
result, he says.
Barbara Finamore,
president of the China-US Energy Efficiency Alliance, says the nation's energy
agencies have struggled with few employees and an unusual division of
responsibilities that have made consolidating authority difficult.
"Given the
background, significant institutional restructuring may be required in order to
administer a cohesive national energy plan," says Finamore.
New task of
energy ministry
Finamore adds
that energy conservation should be the major task of a new energy ministry, as
that is what was stressed in a recent national energy White Paper.
While official
discussions on the governing structure for the future energy ministry continue
behind closed doors, sources close to planners tell China Business Weekly that
saving energy will be a key task.
The National
People's Congress announced last month that reform of the administrative branch
of the government will be on the agenda of its coming annual session, although
it did not specify the matters for discussion.
Whether or not
the proposed ministry of energy is soon established, there will be a
"major increase in human resources" to help the country implement its
policy of energy conservation and emission reductions, according to the sources
When releasing
the central government's White Paper on energy last month, the NDRC spokesman
did not touch on the issue of the proposed new government agency. But sources
say the NDRC has a shortage of staff devoted to energy issues. "It's a
long-time headache," says one.
Beijing
has set
mandatory goals to lower the nation's energy intensity by 20 percent and cut
major emissions by 10 percent during the 2006-2010 period compared to the
nation's 2005 levels.
After they fell
short of their targets in 2006, officials at all levels have been told by
Beijing
to make a better
effort in 2007- or risk their careers.
The existing
government teams that oversee energy efficiency and emission cuts are likely to
form the mainstay of the new ministry of energy, one source says.
But its
relationship with large national energy corporations is still to be decided.
The energy giants are now all under the management of the State-owned Assets
Supervision and Administration Commission.
Finamore says the
draft energy law has many good provisions. "If it becomes law and is fully
implemented,
China
will have more opportunities to save energy."
February 4 (China Daily) -- We must not undermine
other resources in pursuit of bio-fuels, says an article in People's Daily. The
following is an excerpt:
To meet the
growing demands for energy and environmental protection, many countries are
researching and developing bio-fuels, which have become a heated topic in the
world. Many countries and regions plan to develop bio-fuels. The European Union
wants 10 percent of its transportation to be powered by bio-fuels by 2020.
However, experts have expressed opposing opinions, throwing cold water on the
emerging sector.
Bio-fuels are
believed to be a source of clean energy. But experts have said that
Brazil
has cut
down some of its rain forest so it can plant sugar cane to produce ethanol. The
amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the lost rain forest was actually greater
than that reduced by the use of bio-fuels. Simply put, the loss outweighs the
gain. Similar cases have happened in some Southeast Asian countries.
Experts have also
raised questions about how renewable bio-fuels are. Petroleum and coal are
finite, meaning they will eventually all be gone some day. But bio-fuels are
grown and thus seem inexhaustible.
However, experts
have pointed out that the production of bio-fuels requires large tracts of
arable land, which also bears the responsibility of growing food for human
beings. If more resources are used to make bio-fuels, people will be competing
with cars for nourishment.
Moreover, plants
need water, which is also a scarce resource. Without land and water, it will be
impossible to produce bio-fuels.
All people want
to develop new sources of energy, but the process is very complex. Bio-fuels
are only one alternative. Our exploration of other alternatives should not
stop.
China
power firms face tough year
February 20 (Reuters) -- It
promises to be a tough year for the mainland's power industry, but generators
remain good long-term bets and their coal suppliers offer even better odds.
After the worst snowstorms in half a century
battered the country's energy infrastructure, companies such as Huaneng Power
International and Datang International Power face record coal prices until
2010, with little government help in sight.
And plans by the country's two power grid
operators - State Grid Corp of
China
and China Southern Power Grid Co - to list and raise billions of dollars to
upgrade transmission lines may have to wait as
Beijing
must first tackle a rigid tariff
system that is squeezing profits.
Coal prices rose 20 percent in some areas
last month alone.
With inflation hitting an 11-year high in
January,
Beijing
is reluctant to raise power prices.
Huadian Power Deputy General Manager Zhong
Tonglin captured the mood when he told investors last week that the company's
first-quarter results will "not be pretty".
Power generators can expect double-digit
consumption growth in the world's biggest electricity market outside the
United States
,
but investors may prefer coal miners Shenhua Energy and China Coal.
"The snowstorms piled the pressure on
power producers' already squeezed margins," said Alex Fan of the Daiwa
Institute of Research. "But the key point is the pricing mechanism.
Without freeing up power prices, generators can hardly have rosy results, and
grid companies can't attract investors."
Unusually harsh weather last month snapped
power lines and disrupted coal shipments, sparking 42 gigawatts of power
shortages at its peak - enough to power 40 million homes - and highlighted
underinvestment, especially in transmission, just as the country's power grid
duopoly braced to go public.
The State Grid planned to boost investment
in upgrades and expansion by a fifth to $35 billion this year, part of
Beijing
's plan to spend
more than $140 billion on the nation's power web in the five years leading up
to 2010.
"What's the selling point? It's only
after the government improves the pricing mechanism that the power grid firms
can list successfully," Daiwa's Fan said.
China Resources Power will be hardest hit
because two plants in southern
Hunan
have shut down and have yet to fully resume operations.
Core Pacific-Yamaichi's Henry Li downgraded
its shares to "hold" and cut its 2008 net profit forecast by 6
percent.
Analysts agree the government must reform
its tariff system to lure investors.
February 19 (China Daily) -- Construction of the Ningde nuclear power station
began in
Fujian
Province
yesterday.
The
51.2-billion-yuan ($7.1 billion) plant is being built on three islands in the
village
of
Beiwan
in Fuding,
143 km
north of
Fuzhou
.
The first phase
of the project comprises the construction of four nuclear reactors, each with a
capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW). The plant will use the same technology as the
existing nuclear facility in Ling Ao, the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC) said yesterday.
The first reactor
is expected to be put into commercial use at the end of 2012. Once completed,
the four reactors will generate 30 billion kWh of electricity a year, the NDRC
said.
The China
Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, Datang International Power Generation Co and
Fujian Coal Industry Group are jointly funding the project.
Zhang Guobao,
NDRC vice-minister, said the Ningde power station will significantly ease the
strain on energy supply in the southeastern coastal area, as well as aid
environmental protection efforts in the region.
It will also
provide a huge boost to the economy of the province, he said.
In addition to
the Ningde project, other nuclear power stations are planned for
Fujian
.
The country's
largest nuclear power company, China National Nuclear Corp, has planned six
1,000-MW reactors for its Fuqing project in the province.
Also, China
Guodian Corp, one of the nation's top five power producers, has launched its
first nuclear project in
Fujian
.
Guodian has set up a division to work on the project in the coastal city of
Zhangzhou
, a source from
the company told China Daily.
However, the
Guodian project is still at an early stage and has not yet received government
approval, the source said.
As the world's
second-largest energy consumer,
China
is looking more to nuclear power for a balanced energy mix. According to
official figures, nuclear power is now the third largest power source in the
country.
The 11 nuclear
reactors currently in operation have a combined capacity of about 8,000 MW, and
last year generated 62.86 billion kWh, up more than 14 percent on 2006, the
Commission of Science Technology and Industry for National Defense said.
However, nuclear
power still accounts for less than 2 percent of the country's total output. The
NDRC said it wants to boost this figure to 4 percent by 2020.
Han Wenke from
the Energy Research Institute under the NDRC, said: "
China
has seen a transition in its
nuclear power industry from appropriate development to accelerated
development."
February 26 (Xinhua) --
Beijing
will try to ensure energy supplies during the Olympic Games with extra
stockpiles of oil, liquefied petroleum gas and coal, officials of the Beijing
Municipal Development and Reform Commission said on Monday.
An
official said that there would be a new inventory management system during the
Olympics, which will guarantee stocks of thermal coal in excess of the normal
level of 300,000 tons. Oil product inventories would exceed 300,000 tons as
well.
He
noted that a daily reporting mechanism would be used to monitor the energy
stockpiles.
Beijing
has also taken measures to reinforce energy
safety during the Olympics, such as completing municipal grid projects that aim
to meet a maximum load of 14.6 million kilowatts for 2008.
The
government is also working on a plan to ensure that 6.8 billion cubic meters of
natural gas is supplied to
Beijing
in 2008.
The
official also said that
Beijing
would limit its total energy consumption in 2008 to 65 million tons of coal
equivalent, so that the energy intensity of its economy would be reduced by
five percent.
February 5 (Xinhua) -- Many international auto giants saw their
sales in
China
surge with two-digit growth last year, greatly offsetting their sluggish
performance in other markets.
Xu Guozhen, vice-president of Ford Motor (
China
) Ltd, told Xinhua on Monday that a sales
slide in
North America
left Ford with a
negative growth in global markets last year, but its sales in China rose by a
sparkling 30 percent.
The concern of a possible US economic
recession, overwhelming subprime crisis and soaring oil prices have hit the
auto industry hard in the United States, the world's largest vehicle consumer
and producer.
The total sales of U.S.-made automobiles
last year slipped back to the 1998 level of 16.1 million vehicles, and sales of
its three major auto producers General Motors, Ford and Crysler fell by 7.5
percent.
General Motors, narrowly outsold
Toyota
by 3,500 more vehicles last year, managing to keep
its No. 1 seller title, which analysts attributed to its rapid sales growth in
China
.
General Motors sold more than 1.03 million
vehicles in
China
last year, up 18.5 percent or 160,000 vehicles from a year ago, while its sales
in global markets only rose by three percent.
The word's second largest auto maker
Toyota
also saw a straight sales rise of 62 percent in
China
last
year, compared with its six-percent rise in global markets. In its home
Japan
,
sales of new vehicles even fell back to the level three decades ago.
Yang Hongjian, an employee with the Toyota
Motor (
China
) Investment Co
Ltd, told reporters that
Toyota
sold a total of
499,000 vehicles in
China
last year.
German auto giant Volkswagen saw its sales
in
China
hit a record high of 910,491 vehicles in 2007. The figure, which ensured
China
surpassed
Germany
as having the most
Volkswagen consumers, was 28 percent higher than that of the previous year.
Dong Yang, deputy director of the China
Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), believed that
China
's auto
market will keep growing at a rapid pace for the long term.
"Chinese residents are shifting their
focus in consumption from food and clothing to housing and transport. Many
families still haven't got a car. Great demands have created a vast market for
international auto makers," Dong said.
Mei Wei Cheng, chairman and CEO of Ford
Motor (
China
)
Ltd, predicted that 50 percent of auto sales growth will come from the Chinese
market in the following 15 years.
Thus, international auto makers will keep
increasing their investment and market exploring efforts in
China
, Cheng
said.
Ford has recently announced that it will
invest $4 billion in the Asia-Pacific region in the next three to five
years, with its focusing on
China
.
VW China president Winfried Vahland also
revealed that his company plans to raise its technical export to
China
and aims
to sell one million vehicles in the country in 2008.
February 15 (Xinhua) --
China
passenger vehicle sales soared to a monthly high
in January, with the worst winter storms in half a century failing to dampen
the country's increasing love for cars, an industry group said.
Chinese car
makers sold 639,000 passenger vehicles last month, up 32 percent from the same
period in 2006 and 6.7 percent up from December, according to the China
Passenger Car Association.
January sales
exceeded those in the previous month for the first time in recent years,
despite coming at a time when dealers usually try various measures to reduce
stock in hope of bumping up sales figures before the year end, it said.
Sedans accounted
for three-quarters of the January figure, while sport utility vehicles (SUV)
sales jumped 60.5 percent year on year to 32,000 units, nearly twice as fast as
the industry average.
Passenger vehicle
production was up 14.5 percent year on year to 566,000 units. This included
423,000 sedans, 35,000 SUVs and 14,500 mini-vans.
Sales in
February, which only has 18 workdays due to the Spring Festival holiday, were
likely to be as high as 400,000 units because the freak winter weather had
delayed some January deliveries, the association said.
Vehicle
production and sales in the country both surged more than 20 percent to a
record 8.8 million units last year, in contrast to weakening sales worldwide.
In total,
China
, the
world's second largest car market, produced 6.38 million passenger vehicles and
sold 6.3 million units last year.
The association
forecasts imported passenger vehicle sales would continue to outpace those of
locally-made units this year.
Demand for
imported high-end cars would remain strong as they only had a few local rivals.
In addition, domestic oil prices were rather low and the country has a growing
rank of nouveau riche, it said.
The market for
indigenous low-emission cars was weakening domestically, while 81 percent of
imported SUVs and 70 percent of imported sedans had engines larger than 2.5
liters last year, both up 20 percentage points from a year earlier.
China
's
auto tariff policy not violating WTO principles
February 16 (Xinhua)-- Leading industry experts have defended
China's auto imports tariff policy in the wake of a ruling by the World Trade
Organization (WTO) which says the policy break its rules.
China
considers car parts as a whole vehicle if
they account for 60 percent or more of the value of a whole vehicle, and
charges a 15 percent higher tariff on them.
Zhao Yumin, a research fellow with the Trade
and Economic Cooperation Institute of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), told
Xinhua on Friday that the tax measure is aimed to prevent tax evasion by
companies who import whole cars as spare parts to avoid higher tariff rates.
"
China
has completely realized
promises the country made when it joined the WTO by remarkably slashing the
import tariff," Zhao said.
Mei Xinyu, an analyst with the Institute
echoed Zhao's sentiment, adding that "leveling the tariff gap is to
publicly encourage auto smuggling."
The WTO panel, however, largely upheld the
complaints filed by the
United States
,
European Union and
Canada
that
China
improperly taxed imported car parts at the same rate as finished vehicles,
sources close to the case said on Wednesday.
They argued that the Chinese tax measure,
which defied its WTO obligations, deterred auto-makers from using imported
parts to build cars in the country and cost jobs abroad.
It was the first time that
China
suffered
a defeat at the international trade body. But the decision is only an interim
ruling and
China
still has the right to appeal.
After informed of the interim result, the
Chinese mission to the world trade body said in a statement issued late
Thursday that "
China
is carefully studying the report and is preparing to submit its opinions to the
WTO panel.
"
China
respects the dispute settlement
procedures of the WTO and will not make comments on the case until the final
ruling is made," the statement also said.
Mei said
China
should appeal, "even if
the result is not what we wish. However, no panel has changed its findings
between an interim and final decision in WTO history. But it does not mean
China
cannot
make it happen."
"The root of disputes is high-grade
auto parts imports, as the domestic low-grade auto parts manufacturers can
serve the market," Zhao said.
China
's growing appetite for high-grade autos has
attracted foreign auto parts producers. They want to get the cake without
transferring the technology, he added. Lowering the import duty will be the
only way to take more from the market, he said.
Many foreign manufacturers pressured their
governments to influence the WTO to clear the obstacle, the Shanghai-based
China Business News quoted an anonymous MOC official as saying Friday.
According to the latest customs figures,
China
imported
$10.6 billion worth of auto parts last year, up 17.8 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, the country's auto parts
manufacture industry marked an industrial output of 670 billion yuan ($93.1
billion), statistics from China Association of Automobile Manufacturers showed.
Market analysts believe that even if the
panel's final decision, which is expected next month, backs up the interim
decision, not much influence would be felt by the domestic auto industry in the
long term.
"Only those foreign high-grade auto
manufacturers will benefit, " said Jia Xinguang, a senior analyst with
China Auto Consultation Co Ltd.
February 19 (China Daily) --
Beijing
will ban the sale of
new cars failing to meet the China IV emission standards, which are equivalent
to that of Euro IV, starting from March 1 this year, triggering price
fluctuation of new cars in the capital, the Beijing Business Today reported.
The price wars, which will mean greater
price reductions in the automobile market, surprised consumers with experts
attributing the discounts to the implementation of the new emission standards.
According to an insider of Beijing's
Yayuncun (Asian Games Village) auto market, one of the capital's biggest auto
markets, some vehicle models are temporarily out of stock due to supply
factors, but the shortage won't last long.
In addition, auto manufacturers had known of
the standards for a long time and had measures in place to meet the standards,
resulting in the postponement of price reduction waves.
Most vehicle distributors even cancelled
price reductions on the grounds of the China IV emission standards, which means
more cost on technical improvements resulting in an increase for the average
price of new models. But many new models, including the new Corolla, the Focus
and the Octavia, haven't raised their guide prices.
Insiders said the market will see more price
reductions after March 1.
According to information from Yayuncun auto
market, the Mazda 5, a hot-selling sedan, is now available without spending
additional money. The Chery A1, the indigenous brand Chery's first mini-sized
car complying with the China IV standards, is selling at 1,500 yuan ($209.8)
less.
The latest survey from the National
Development and Reform Commission's price monitoring center indicates that
China
's
automobile prices will continue to drop this year as a result of oversupply and
fiercer competition.
The price drop will be five percent,
slightly larger than last year's 4.86 percent as production rapidly expands in
the world's second-largest auto market, the survey suggests.
The growing production capacity is partly a
result of a series of mergers and acquisitions that help carmakers to
consolidate assets, according to the survey. Domestic auto manufacturers also
sped up their efforts to seek stock listings, helping the expansion, the survey
said.
More than 80 new models will be unveiled on
the domestic market this year, including updated versions, according to the
survey.
February 25 (China Daily) -- Rules governing auto sales in
China
should be enhanced to
establish a more efficient and transparent system and better protect
distributors and customers, according to industry experts.
Luo Lei, deputy
secretary-general of the China Automobile Dealers Association in
Beijing
, says adjustments
under consideration should better balance the interests of auto manufacturers
and distributors.
Experts point out
that current sales approaches place too much authority in the hands of
automakers and put distributors in a weak position.
"With the
control of franchising rights, international automakers established numerous
sales outlets in
China
,
which brought disordered competition among domestic distributors of the same
auto brand," says Luo. "The market is lacking in an efficient
mechanism to check the power of automakers and protect the sellers'
interests."
The current
management environment increases sellers' management costs and dilutes profits
of distributors, he says.
Customers and
distributors applaud the proposed changes as an important step forward for the
entire auto distribution system in
China
.
Along with
increasing demands from customers and distributors to revise the current
measures, experts say greater efforts should first be made to enforce current
rules.
Zhang Boshun,
secretary general of China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, says the
establishment of an efficient and transparent auto distribution system not only
calls for fair governing measures but also needs such rules to be enforced.
"It is still
open for discussion whether the current rules should be revised or
reserved," says Zhang. "But market participants who fail to comply
with current rules are disturbing the industry operation."
First introduced
in 2005, current regulations were designed to standardize auto sales, promote healthy
development of the market and protect the rights of consumers.
But since the
measures took effect three years ago, stakeholders have been calling for better
protection of interests among suppliers, sellers and customers. Industrial
insiders say implementation of the rules is a problem.
Under current
measures, auto dealers defer to companies authorized by auto suppliers for
sales, service and dealerships in a particular brand. Auto suppliers then have
the authority to develop sales plans and service networks, which includes
forecasts of operations, plans for outlet distribution, establishment of a
dealership network and outlet construction and standards for after-sales
services.
The current rules
require that auto suppliers should strengthen management over their networks,
standardize sales and after-sales services, and publish the names of
enterprises that are authorized - and not authorized - to sell its cars. They
are prohibited from interfering in the construction of dealerships, the
purchase of equipment and operations of distributors. They are also not allowed
to impose sales quotas or force combined sales of brands onto the distributors.
Yet dealers say
many suppliers set unrealistic sales quotas. They are now urging a limit be set
on suppliers' authority.
Industry insiders
say further efforts should be made to require suppliers to better administer
operations. They believe the sound development of the distribution system
requires supervision over auto suppliers.
"It is time
to set necessary limitations on automakers' authority in the distribution
system," says Luo. "The new specifications will be complementary to
current measures and well balance the interests of automakers, sellers and
customers."
According to Luo,
one of the members drafting the new measures, the latest version will not
change current rules entirely, but aims to specify auto suppliers'
responsibilities and provide more guidance to sellers.
He says the draft
specifications are in the process of soliciting comments and suggestions from
experts and are likely to be introduced this year.
February 11 (Xinhua) -- EIJING
- The Chinese government's task force tackling snow snarl alerted on Sunday
night the transportation situation remained grim as the return travel peak
looms, despite of remarkable easing.
"We
have managed to ease transportation amid snowy weather and major highways and
railways have resumed normal order," the Disaster Relief and
Emergency
Command
Center
under the State Council said in a notice.
The
overall situation, however, remained very grim as the nation braces for Lunar
New Year return traffic peak, the task force said.
Early
preparation should be made to guarantee smooth transportation in the face of
another round of precipitation and snow in south and southwest
China
in the
next 10 days, it warned.
China
is expected to see another peak of railway
traffic since Feb. 11, the six day of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday,
said the Ministry of Railway on Sunday.
Post-Spring
Festival railway traffic peak saw more than five million passengers daily last
year and we expect more passenger flow this year, predicted the ministry.
Highway
transportation in many areas hampered by icy and snowy weather has returned to
normalcy. About 28.1 million people have been carried by expressways and trunk
highways on Sunday, up 6.05 million over the previous day.
Some
4,291 flights carrying 535,000 passengers took off on Sunday, 23,000 more than
a day earlier.
February 25 (Xinhua) -- Snowfalls in parts of
China
have again
disrupted transportation and killed livestock, even as the country struggles to
recover from the worst winter in half a century.
Snow started to blanket the eastern
province
of
Shandong
on Sunday and as of
10 a
.m.
on Monday, 15 flights had been delayed at the airport in
Jinan
, the provincial capital. Some freeways
were closed and thousands of vehicles were stranded.
The weather bureau in
Shandong
said the snowfall averaged four to
five millimeters in most of the province, but in western Liaocheng city, the
accumulated snow was as deep as
10 mm
.
In the
Ili
River
Valley
in the far western Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, blizzards raged from
Thursday to Saturday. About 12,000 cattle were killed, causing losses of 18
million yuan (US$2.52 million).
"The continuous heavy snow and wintry weather
last week have sharply increased fatalities among ewes and lambs, as it is the
breeding season," said Ma Cheng, director of the husbandry bureau of Ili
Kazak Autonomous Prefecture.
Incomplete statistics as of Sunday night showed
that 10,830 sheep, 848 oxen, 240 horses and 90 pigs had been killed.
The region experienced prolonged icy weather in the
middle of December. Since then, 69,700 cattle had died in
Ili
.
In the past few weeks, the river valley was stricken by ice flows.
Heavy snow and blizzards have been forecast to hit
provinces spanning China's central, eastern and northern and northwestern
regions, including Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hubei, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu,
the National Meteorological Centre said on its Web site (www.nmc.gov.cn) on
Monday.
Blizzards were also expected in the northwestern
part of central
Hubei
province, already plagued by winter storms earlier this month.
The winter storms that struck much of central and
southern China left 129 people dead and losses so far have reached 151.65
billion yuan (US$21.11 billion), according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
February 18 (China Daily) -- The start of the new year
was marked by oil prices reaching $
100 a
barrel, which could greatly affect the global economy, and especially
China
,
the world's fastest growing economy.
Rising oil prices have
become a top global concern, as it consequently brings up the price of fuel and
other oil products, increases production costs, causes hikes to consumer goods
prices and ultimately puts inflation pressure on the Chinese economy.
Negative influence
Skyrocketing oil prices
force consumers to spend more on fuel consumption and squeeze expenditures on
other commodities. In 2003, No 93 gasoline was tagged at 3.02 yuan per liter in
China
,
and by the end of last year had climbed 76.8 percent to 5.43 yuan per liter.
For a family with a car, 200 to 350 yuan is spent per month more than 2003, an
increase of 35 to 65 percent.
Further price hikes are
forecast and many people intend to use other sources of transportation such as
buses, subways, bicycles and walking.
High oil prices also deal a
blow to the auto market, as consumers consider postponing car purchase plans. A
survey shows that 80 percent of respondents say they have to rethink buying a
car, while 36.6 percent say they have decided to wait for fuel prices to
decline.
Most important is that the
oil price increase has, to some extent, restrained consumer sentiment.
Individual consumption has been the key stimulus of
China
's economic growth, if this
sector shrinks, the economy, in general, will face difficulties.
Coal, electricity and oil
are the bottleneck that restrict
China
's
economic development, especially given that
China
's annual oil production has
stood at 170 million tons since 1993.
The nation is still in the
industrialization phase, a period during which economic growth relies
considerably on oil. For example,
China
currently imports 50 percent of its total consumption and is the second largest
oil consumer in the world after the
US
.
According to a survey
conducted by the International Monetary Fund, if oil prices in international
markets fluctuate by $1 per barrel,
China
's GDP will be affected by
0.046 percent.
High oil prices therefore
exert an obvious impact on
China
's
economy.
First, high oil prices
restrain the development of oil-related industries such as transportation,
agriculture and automobile manufacturing. Take civil aviation for example.
Costs are directly brought up by escalating oil prices, since gasoline
expenditures account for about one-fourth of the total.
In particular, Chinese
agriculture is seriously impacted. In the last five years, the price of diesel
oil commonly used in agricultural irrigation has risen 64.4 percent. Meanwhile,
downstream oil products such as urea fertilizer and plastic sheet have
increased 26.6 and 60 percent respectively. Consequently, agricultural
production and farmers' living conditions have been greatly affected.
Secondly, high oil prices
are likely to cause inflation. The escalating price of oil is sure to cause
price increases for plastics, rubber and chemical fiber, which are the
essential raw materials for manufacturing industries. As a result, costs in
industries such as construction materials, metallurgical and petrochemicals
will surge accordingly.
China
is now the biggest manufacturing country in the world, and the impact on
Chinese manufacturers will be even worse.
In order to make a profit or
simply survive, these manufacturers will shift the burden of rising costs to
customers by bringing up the prices of their products, which will eventually
force consumers to pay more.
According to a calculation
from the International Energy Agency (IEA), if oil prices surge $10 and the
price lasts for a year,
China
's
Consumer Price Index (CPI) will be pushed up 0.8 percent. Some domestic experts
also say that oil prices account for about 5 percent of all CPI fluctuation
factors. That is to say, if oil prices rise 10 percent, commodity prices will
increase 0.5 percent.
Complicated causes
Price escalation usually
results from a shortage of supply to meet the demand. Then what has caused the
imbalance between fuel supply and demand?
From 2001 to 2006, the
average annual growth rate of
China
's
GDP reached 9.8 percent, and the gross production of fuels reached 9.4 percent.
However, total consumption of fuels each year increased by 10.1 percent, 0.3
and 0.4 percent higher than the previous two.
With
China
undergoing industrialization, manufacturing industries developing rapidly and
people's living conditions improving greatly, the consumption of fuels such as
oil is steadily on the rise.
High energy-consuming
household appliances, such as refrigerators, TVs and air conditioners, are
becoming increasingly popular.
As of the end of September
2007, urban families owned 94.8 percent of air conditioners, 2.1 times more
than in 2000.
The automobile industry is
also developing unexpectedly. From 2003 to 2006, the average annual sales
growth in the domestic automobile market reached 1 million. As of the end of
June 2007,
China
owned 53.56 million automobiles, among which 32.39 million were private cars,
an increase of 20 percent year-on-year.
Consequently, consumption of
gasoline and diesel oil rose sharply. In 2006, 51.7 and 116.3 million tons were
consumed respectively, up 49.1 and 73.5 percent from 2000.
Urbanization is also
speeding up. With the development of a market economy, a growing amount of
surplus rural labor has flooded the urban areas. From 2001 to 2006, Chinese
urban dwellers developed from 480.6 million to 577.1 million. In 2006, urban
dwellers made up 43.9 percent of the total population; the 2001 figure was 34.7
percent. Consequently, a large number of new cities are emerging.
However, urbanization
requires an enormous amount of fuel. A city dweller consumes three times as
much energy as a rural resident on average.
As their numbers dwindle,
rural residents are increasingly turning to highly efficient agricultural
machinery.
As of the end of 2006, every
100 rural families possessed 1.83 automobiles and 23.45 tractors. These
machines are generally high consumers of electricity and diesel oil.
Rural living itself is now
becoming much more urbanized. Rural residents are earning more money to afford
durable goods. In 2006, rural residents' ownership of refrigerators, computers
and motorcycles increased 82.6, 480.9 and 103.2 percent respectively compared
with 2000.
Finally,
China
's current
industrial structure is inappropriate for heavy industry to take a dominating
position. However, investment in energy-consuming industries continues to grow.
Secondary industry contributed 44.8 percent to
China
's GDP in 2002, and the figure
rose to 47.5 percent in 2005 and 48.7 percent in 2006. Consumption of oil and
other fuels is unprecedented.
Unavoidable challenge
It is generally believed
that the impact of high oil prices on
China
's economy is unavoidable
because the imbalance between supply and demand cannot be solved at its root.
First, the demand in the
international oil market remains high. Besides, oil is priced in the US dollar.
Due to the greenback's continuous depreciation, oil prices are very likely to
keep rising.
Secondly, current oil
consumption in
China
surpasses production. Although
China
has made great efforts to increase oil production - growing from 16.3 million
tons in 2000 to 18.48 million tons in 2006 - a growing amount of imported oil
is needed. According to domestic experts, around 2020,
China
will have
to import 300 million tons of oil, or half of its total demand.
Thirdly, extensive economic
growth continues.
China
is now in the middle of its industrialization with too large a proportion of
high energy-consuming industries.
China
demands a huge amount of
energy to support its place as factory to the world.
Finally, the impact on
oil-related industries will continue. Oil and its downstream products are
essential raw materials. Escalating oil prices will bring up the production
costs of these industries. If they fail to transfer costs to customers, they
will suffer profit losses and perhaps bankruptcy.
Active responses
However, as long as measures
are taken, these unavoidable impacts can be reduced to an acceptable level.
In order to achieve the goal
of saving 20 percent energy during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2010), it is
of key importance to reduce secondary industry's consumption since it is the
major consumer.
People's awareness about
saving energy should be strengthened. Utilization efficiency should also be
improved. Stricter entry admittance should be given to those backward
enterprises with high consumption and pollution.
In addition, a fuel tax is a
practical means to force enterprises to adopt advanced technology and turn to
explore new and clean energy.
Furthermore,
China
should
carry out oil price reform according to international markets fluctuation, and
allow the price lever to regulate energy consumption.
Consideration should also be
given to disadvantaged groups and public service industries. Raise the standard
of social security and hand out temporary subsidies to those who have been
badly affected by rising liquid gas prices. College canteens should also
receive support from the government to guarantee students are not burdened. The
cost of public traffic and chemical fertilizers should be kept at an acceptable
level for they are closely related with peoples' daily lives and agricultural
production.
February 11 (China Daily) -- Policymakers working to determine when to close the
gap between the comparatively lower prices of refined oil products in
China
and those
on the international market have been struggling with the record-setting global
price.
At the beginning
of January, oil was selling for $
100 a
barrel.
When it rose to $
90 a
barrel, a spokesman for the National
Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the ministry-level body was in a
"difficult situation" reforming the country's energy and resources
pricing system.
The price of
crude oil in
China
is set by the global market, but the refined price is still regulated by the
government.
"The timing
is not good because
China
is already in a high-inflation cycle," an NDRC spokesman said, adding that
curbing inflation is a priority this year.
Analysts said it
is unlikely that the government will raise the prices of refined oil products.
They said the central government will continue to subsidize refiners, which
have run at a loss for years due to higher import costs.
Lin Boqing,
director of the
China
Center
for Energy Economics Research at
Xiamen
University
,
said energy pricing reform, especially for refined oil products, should
continue and that the government has said repeatedly "it is necessary to
reform the pricing mechanism of resource products to improve efficiency".
"But reform
should be carried out at the right time, with due consideration for all
concerned," Lin said.
He said low
energy prices had increased the competitiveness of high-energy-consuming,
high-polluting and resource-based industries, enlarged trade surpluses and
exacerbated yuan appreciation pressure.
The authorities
have raised the refined oil price four times since 2006. The current average
price is about $
65 a
barrel. The global crude price skyrocketed from $
70 a
barrel in July last year to $
100 a
barrel at the beginning of January.
Some refiners
have stopped production due to the high costs they must bear, which has led to
supply shortages in coastal areas. In response, the government has urged China
National Petroleum Corp and China Petrochemical Corp, the nation's two largest
oil producers, to go all out to ensure fuel supplies.
Fuel shortages
eased after prices began climbing last November, but many regions still face
tight diesel supplies. The NDRC raised the prices of gasoline, diesel oil and
aviation kerosene by 500 yuan (about $69) per ton, representing an increase of
8 percent. The average retail price of gasoline is now 5,980 yuan per ton, and
diesel is 5,520 yuan per ton.
China
scored new highs
both in oil output and consumption in 2007, boosted by the robust momentum of
its economic growth. Sources with the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry
Association said recently that
China
had produced 186.7 million tons of crude oil in 2007, up 1.6 percent from 2006.
The output
represented a record high, though the growth was slow, Deng Xianrong, a
researcher at the State Council's
Development
Research
Center
,
said.
The country's net
imports of crude oil climbed to 159.28 million tons last year, up 14.7 percent.
Consumption of crude oil, or the sum of net imports plus output, rose 7.3
percent to 346 million tons in 2007. That means that some 46.05 percent of the
county's crude oil consumption is met by imports.
The sizzling
economy, large influxes of investment in heavy industry and the many cars
crowding city streets have driven up
China
's demand for oil. The
country's GDP grew by 11.4 percent last year, the fastest rate in the past 13
years, with the industrial added value rising 18.5 percent from a year ago.
The diesel
shortage that hit the country in the second half of last year led to a sharp
rises in diesel imports.
China
imported 1.62 million tons of diesel in 2007, up 130.1 percent year-on-year,
with the volume of diesel exports dropping 14.9 percent to 660,000 tons.
China
charges full consumption tax on refined fuel oil
February 22 (China Daily) --
China
is levying a full consumption
tax on refined fuel oil and three other oil products retroactively from January
1, 2008, Xinhua learnt from an official circular on Thursday.
The circular, jointly
announced by Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation, said
the tax for fuel oil will be raised to 0.1 yuan per liter after having
collected only 30 percent of the tax since it was first introduced in April
2006.
According to the
circular, Naptha, a feedstock for producing high octane gasoline and other
petrochemical products, lubricants and solvent oil, would also be charged at a
full rate of 0.2 yuan per liter.
Analysts said the new
regulation will have little impact on the market.
Consumption tax is
one type of tax category
China
started to levy in 1994. The tax was placed on four oil products in 2006 as
part of efforts to encourage energy savings and to curb the development of
highly polluting and resource intensive sectors.
February 21 (China Daily) -- Triple-digit oil prices will
surely complicate the Chinese government's efforts to fight domestic inflation.
Yet, policymakers should face it with a greater sense of urgency to reform the
country's energy pricing system.
International oil
prices closed above $
100 a
barrel on Tuesday, shrugging off increasing evidence of a
US
recession.
When it briefly
touched the once unfathomable price for the first time early last month, it
seemed fairly reasonable to expect that the ongoing
US
slowdown would ease demand and
lead to a sharp fall in oil prices.
The recent strong
rebound after dropping by nearly 15 percent since then, however, has made it
clear that consumers should better prepare themselves for more expensive oil.
For
China
, a net
oil importer with a growing appetite, this is not good news.
The country's net
imports of crude oil climbed to 159.28 million tons last year, up 14.7 percent.
Some 46 percent of its crude oil consumption is met by imports.
Higher oil prices
means
China
will have to pay substantially more for imports. This is not so serious a
problem at the moment when the country is trying to slow its accumulation of
trade surplus.
But the extra
cost that the current energy pricing mechanism will incur to keep the lid on
domestic oil prices is highly worrisome.
At present, the
price of crude oil in
China
is set by the global market while the refined price is regulated by the
government. Instead of raising the refined price, the central government
subsidizes refiners for their loss due to higher import costs.
The comparatively
lower domestic prices of refined oil products can help prevent consumer
inflation from running out of control. But the cost the government and refiners
share to support lower domestic oil prices is too dear, which is estimated to
reach 170 billion yuan last year, 0.9 percent of the country's gross domestic
product.
The negative
impact such oil subsidies have on the country's efforts to raise energy
efficiency is even worse. It is all too clear that low oil prices play right
into the hands of inefficient energy-consumers.
A market-oriented
reform of the oil pricing system has been long overdue. The country's high
inflation should not be made an excuse to further postpone it.
Procrastination
on reform will only add to the inefficiency of the economy and impede the
country's preparation for the coming era of expensive oil.
February 23 (China Daily) -- Construction of the second west-east natural gas pipeline, costing 142.2
billion yuan, formally began on Friday.
The
9,102 km
project will pipe natural gas from
Turkmenistan
and the
Xinjiang Uygur
autonomous region to
the Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas.
It will traverse 12 provinces and autonomous regions before reaching the
eastern
municipality
of
Shanghai
and southern
Guangdong
province.
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC),
China
's largest oil producer, is
behind the project. It says the designed capacity of the pipeline is 30 billion
cu m per year.
PetroChina Co Ltd, a listed subsidiary of CNPC, had previously said it
would cooperate with another CNPC arm to invest a combined 16 billion yuan
building a gas pipeline from
China
to
Turkmenistan
.
Under an agreement signed by
China
and
Turkmenistan
in 2006,
China
will pipe
30 billion cu m of natural gas a year from the resource-rich central Asian
country, for 30 years.
The first west-east gas pipeline was put into commercial operation at
the end of 2004, starting from
Tarim
Basin
in Xinjiang and ending in
Shanghai
.
The
4,000 km
pipeline that crosses 10 provinces, has a designed annual transmission capacity
of 12 billion cu m.
China
plans to boost natural gas production by 50 percent before 2010 to meet
increasing demand
The nation's gas production is expected to be 90 billion cu m in 2010.
Natural gas will then account for 5.3 percent of the nation's total
energy consumption.
China
launches 2nd West-to-East gas pipeline project
February 22 (Xinhua)
--
China
on Friday began work on its second west-to-east
natural gas transmission pipeline, which will mainly carry natural gas from
Turkmenistan
and
China
's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous
Region to the Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas, the country's two most
developed regions.
Construction of
the 9,102-kilometer gas pipeline, which consists of a main line and eight
sub-lines, will cost an investment of 142.2 billion yuan ($20 billion).
With a designed
gas transmission capacity of 30 billion cubic meters per year, the pipeline
would traverse 12 provinces and autonomous regions before reaching eastern
municipality
of
Shangha
and southern
Guangdong
Province
.
The main line
extending
4,843 km
would start
from Khorgos in the northwestern Xinjiang to
Guangzhou
,
capital of
Guangdong
Province
.
The western
segment of the main line will go into operation by 2009, and the eastern
segment by the end of June in 2011, said Jiang Jiemin, general manager of China
National Petroleum Corporation.
The first massive
project to pipe natural gas from the west to the east was put into commercial
operation at the end of 2004, starting from the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang and
arriving in
Shanghai
.
The pipeline
extending
4,000 km
traverses 10
province-level regions, with designed annual gas transmission capacity of 12
billion cubic meters, which can ensure a stable gas supply of 30 years
China
's
natural gas output grows 23.1% in 2007
February 22 (Xinhua) --
China
's production of natural gas
rose 23.1 percent last year, faster than in 2006, to 69.31 billion cubic meters
as the country used more "clean" energy, an industry association
said.
In 2006, output
jumped 19.2 percent to 58.55 billion cubic meters, the China Petroleum and
Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA) said. It also said that output would
likely hit 76 billion cubic meters this year.
China
used 55.6
billion cubic meters of gas in 2006, an increase of 21.6 percent from a year
earlier, according to statistics from BP.
China
has set a target
of raising the proportion of natural gas in its total energy consumption to 5.3
percent in 2010 from 2.8 percent in 2005, amid efforts to curb pollution. Coal
now accounts for about 70 percent of total energy consumption.
The expansion of
the natural gas infrastructure, including pipelines, reflected the rapid
increases in output and consumption, the CPCIA said.
China
plans to start
building a second east-west gas pipeline this year. The first such pipeline
went into commercial operation in 2004.
The new pipeline
is scheduled to become operational in 2010 and will have a designed annual
transport capacity of 30 billion cubic meters. It will mainly move natural gas
from
Central Asia
to the Yangtze and Pearl
River Deltas, the country's two most developed regions.
Construction on
another pipeline, which will link the Puguang Gas Field in the southwestern
province
of
Sichuan
, one of the country's largest,
with the Yangtze River Delta, started last August.
China
urges
practical action to slow climate change
February 1 (Xinhua)--
HONOLULU
,
United States
- A senior Chinese official said here Wednesday
that all relevant countries should take practical actions to slow down the
climate change process.
Addressing a closed session at the second
"Major Economies Meeting on Energy Security and Climate Change,"
which opened here Wednesday, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of
China
's
National Development and Reform Commission, said that to discuss about setting
a long-term goal for slowing down climate change requires time.
"What matters most now is to urge all
countries in their various development phases to take practical action in
accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (
UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol.
The UNFCCC is the parent of the 1997 Kyoto
Protocol, the landmark environmental treaty negotiated in
Japan
's ancient
capital that mandates cuts in the gases blamed for global warming.
While working on a long-term target for slowing
down the climate change, all countries involved should be aware that the
formulating process itself must be scientific, environmentally valid,
economically feasible and fair, he said, adding that historical accumulation,
per capital emissions and the development demand of the developing countries
should also be weighed as well.
He made the remarks in response to greenhouse gases
emission reduction targets proposed by the European Union and some other
countries.
The European Union proposed that the global
emissions of greenhouse gases should be cut by 50 percent by
2050 in
comparison with that in 1990,
while some other countries proposed that the emissoins should be deducted by 50
percent than present.
It is hard to reach the target, he stressed.
Xie, who is regarded as the initiator and leader of
China
's
environmental protection program, spoke highly of the various measures and
achievements taken and scored by the developing nations in combating climate
change.
China
,
India
and other developing countries have cut more emissions of greenhouse gases than
they pledged in the Tokyo Protocol, he said, noting some developed nations,
however, have discharged more greenhouse gases than they should have with the
total emissions rising by 11 percent from 1990 to 2004.
Xie, the special envoy of Chinese President Hu
Jintao, noted that
China
will never discharge greenhouse gases randomly and willfully, but contribute to
the concerted efforts of the world in its fight against climate change by
joining hands with the international community.
He also commended the Bali Roadmap, which was
adopted at the 13- day conference in Bali of Indonesia in December of 2007,
staged by the UNFCCC, a strategy to tackle global warming.
The conference culminated in the adoption of the
Bali
roadmap, which charts the course for a new
negotiating process to be concluded by 2009 that will ultimately lead to a
post-2012 international agreement on climate change. Ground-breaking decisions
were taken which form core elements of the roadmap.
The two-day meeting in
Hawaii
is aimed at "developing a
detailed contribution in support of the Bali Roadmap for UN Negotiations,"
the organizers said.
Bush held the first round of the meeting in
September 2007 under an initiative he proposed in June in the face of
intensifying international pressure for
Washington
to do more to battle greenhouse-gas emissions.
China
snows show world faces new disasters
February 7 (Agencies) --
GENEVA
-
China
's
devastating snowstorms and cold of the past month show that the world must
prepare for new types of disasters caused by what was once called freak weather,
United Nations experts said on Wednesday.
The experts said the
Chinese events, which
Beijing
says affected some 100 million people and are likely to cost at least $7.5
billion, underlined the need for greater global cooperation on global weather
forecasting.
"So-called freak
weather is becoming more common, and reducing vulnerability to unexpected
extremes must be a top priority for governments," said Salvador Briceno,
head of the UN's disaster relief agency ISDR.
Separately, World
Meteorological Organisation (WMO) chief Michel Jarraud, said the freeze that
swept
China
from the north to its normally near-tropical southern provinces underlined the
need for better seasonal climate predictions.
"The world needs
to strengthen existing mechanisms that predict climate events and then ensure
that this information is made available to all, especially to the benefit of
people in developing countries," Jarraud said.
China
's Meteorological Administration says the
January extremes probably developed out of a
La Nina
- or low sea- surface temperatures - in
parts of the Pacific in the second half of last year combined with unusual
weather from the west.
More of the Same
It is also warning
that the country, now recovering as skies clear and power is restored from the freeze
which killed scores of people, must be ready for more of the same as a result
of global climate change.
Briceno said in a
statement from ISDR headquarters in
Geneva
that
China
's
sufferings underscored the need for all governments to build infrastructure
that can withstand previously unthinkable weather.
"When billions
of dollars in potential losses are balanced against the low costs of prevention
in the future, the choices should be clear," he said. Most countries could
expect to face similar situations in the coming years, he added.
Jarraud, speaking at
a news briefing, said it was essential to ensure better seasonal - as well as
short- and long-term climate predictions if lives were to be saved and
economies protected as weather patterns change.
Speaking after a
three-day meeting of specialists on weather and disaster relief from a wide
range of disciplines and international and national agencies, he said it was
also vital to ensure better transmission of forecasts around the globe.
The meeting was called
to prepare for a UN World Climate Conference in
Geneva
in the second half of next year which
will focus on the science underpinning seasonal predictions - an area in which
Jarraud said there had been too little investment.
The conference,
following two predecessors in 1979 and 1990 which set up key bodies on climate
change will decide what science is needed over the next decade to provide
reliable forecasting and urge governments to support it, he said.
February 25 (Agencies)--
China
will impose new restrictions on heavy
polluters trying to list on domestic stock markets, according to a document
released by the country's environmental watchdog today.
The State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said that the rules will help
restrain the "over-expansion" of high-polluting and high
energy-consuming enterprises and will also reduce capital risk.
SEPA launched a pilot
scheme last year, and said that the IPO plans of 10 companies - including China
Coal Energy - were delayed after failing to meet environmental standards.
According to the new
rules, companies from sectors designated as high-polluting and high-energy
consuming, which include thermal power, steel, cement and electrolytic
aluminum, will have to submit to an environmental inspection if they wish to
launch an IPO or apply for additional financing.
Their IPO application
to the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) will also have to include
recommendations drawn up by the environmental regulator before they are even
considered.
SEPA and the CSRC
will also set up a public information system to monitor the environmental
activities of companies already trading on the stock market, as well as set up
an "environmental performance" index that will enable shareholders to
monitor the behavior of listed companies.
Pan Yue,
deputy chief of SEPA, said that the measures were the third attempt to use
economic measures in the battle against pollution, following last year's
introduction of "green credit" and "green insurance"
schemes.
He also said that the
scheme would not only improve the environmental performance of listed
companies, but would also help protect the interests of investors.
During a campaign
against heavy polluters last year, the stock price of a number of firms -
including the electricity producers, Datang, Huaneng, Huadian and Guodian -
suffered, Pan noted.
Immature market entry
mechanisms had allowed big polluters to list and raise funds and thereby
increase their rates of pollution, but with state regulations on pollution and
efficiency becoming more stringent, investors are now facing bigger challenges,
he said.
Pan said last year
that China would introduce more economic mechanisms to help fight against
pollution and inefficiency, noting that previous one-off campaigns, known as
"environmental protection storms", had failed to get to the root of
the problem.
February 25 (Agencies) -- The central authorities have ordered
Beijing
and its five
surrounding provinces to cut industrial pollution for two months from late
July, in the latest move to ensure clean air for the Olympics and Paralympics.
The capital and its
neighboring
Tianjin
municipality, as well as the
provinces of
Hebei
,
Inner
Mongolia
,
Shanxi
and
Shandong
, will have to
cut emissions under a wide-ranging plan approved by the State Council in
September.
"The air quality
of
Beijing
is
definitely influenced by neighboring provinces and ... we have made this move
to guarantee air quality," Wang Jian, director of the air and noise
pollution control division at the State Environmental Protection Agency, said
yesterday.
The plan will include
using air-cleaning technology or partial closures rather than the wholesale
shutdown of industries.
"We took into
consideration the endurance of the economy and we don't think it will have too
big an impact on it," Wang said of the latest step.
The move, which is
based on studies at Tsinghua and
Peking
universities, starts by targeting major polluters such as power and steel
plants.
"It identifies
polluters down to individual power plants and factories, and specifies what
they need to do and when they should start and finish their pollution-reduction
projects," Wang said.
More than 10
factories in
Beijing
and
Hebei
previously scheduled for closure over
the next two years will be shut down before June, Wang said.
Beijing's worst
polluter, Shougang Steel, has said it would move its facilities out of the
capital by 2010 and reduce operations during the Olympics - part of a raft of
measures already in place in the capital.
The main
anti-pollution plan also recommended Beijing restrict the use of private
vehicles by banning cars with registrations ending in odd and even numbers on
alternate days, but said that details of the measures will be up to the city
authorities.
The scale of
pollution reduction will depend on climatic conditions in the capital during
the Olympic and Paralympics, Wang said, with more restrictive measures being
put in place if necessary.
"In the worst
weather conditions, more reductions would be required of industry, more
restrictions would be applied to vehicles and construction sites," he
said.
"But scientists
said the likelihood of such weather conditions in August is low."
"As long as the
plan is carried out properly, we will have no problem in meeting the standard
of air quality for the Olympics and Paralympics," Wang said.
In a related
development,
Beijing
will step up its pollution control efforts in various ways, such as closing
heavy-polluting plants and upgrading environmental remediation facilities.
The cleanup will
continue after the Olympics, according to a bulletin posted by the
Beijing
municipal
government last Friday, as the city plans to shut a total of 40 heavily
polluting, energy-intensive companies by the end of December.
February 26 (Xinhua) -- CHANGSHA:
China will go all out this year to check the worsening damage to the offshore
ecology caused mainly by the discharge of land-borne pollutants, a top maritime
official has said.
Sun Zhihui, director
of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), made the pledge while addressing an
ongoing annual conference in
Changsha
, capital
of
Hunan
province.
Industry experts
blame people's poor awareness of the harm done to marine ecology by pollutants
discharged by coastal cities.
Many cities discharge
raw sewage into offshore waters without treatment, Sun said.
He said the SOA will
tighten monitoring of the ecology of the waters off
China
and conduct experiments to
restore the marine ecology by establishing seven special protection zones this
year, including two marine nature reserves.
The SOA will be
stricter with its approval procedures and ban new projects that fall short of
standards for such things as environmental assessment, protection and energy
efficiency.
In the past, the
rules have been waived on some projects, Sun said.
All builders of
marine construction projects must present full details of their control targets
for sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand, which are key measurements of
air and water quality, Sun said.
The SOA will carry
out other ecological restoration projects by growing mangroves, developing sea
grass areas and seaside wetlands at coastal sections ranging from the Yellow
River estuary-Laizhou Bay, Xiamen bay, Minjiang estuary, to the areas off the
eastern coast of Hainan Island.
China
has a coastline of
18,000 km
and its seas contributed more
than 2.49 trillion yuan ($348 billion), 10 percent, of the country's gross
domestic product last year, according to an SOA report published on Feb 15.
The report said the
value of marine industries, including fishing, transport, oil and gas, tourism
and shipbuilding, grew 15 percent year on year, faster than the economy as a
whole. Some traditional industries such as transportation, tourism and fishing,
accounted for more than 80 percent of the total value of the marine economy,
SOA spokesman Li Haiqing said.
Emerging industries
such as the oceanic biological pharmaceuticals, which generated more than 4
billion yuan last year, also grew swiftly, the report said.
The marine industry
employed 31.5 million people last year, 1.9 million more than in 2006, the
report said.
China
will put quality ahead of speed in its
efforts to develop its marine economy during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).
By the end of 2010, the country's seas will contribute 11 percent of the
country's GDP and create more than 1 million jobs a year, the plan said.
Polluters
urged to buy 'green insurance'
February 19 (China Daily) -- The
country's top environmental watchdog and insurance regulator will jointly
promote insurance for polluters and help expedite compensation for victims,
officials said yesterday.
"This is the second step after the introduction of green
credits to use market instruments to treat environmental problems," Pan
Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration
(SEPA), said.
The latest pollution liability insurance policy, to be put in
place in 2015, covers the clean up of environmental accidents and indemnifies
the insured from pollution treatment costs, officials said.
Insurance products in a trial phase will be promoted to three
types of plants with high risks of environmental pollution mishaps - hazardous
chemical plants involved in production, selling, storage and transportation,
petrochemical plants and hazardous waste treatment plants.
"There has been a high frequency of environmental
accidents in the country," Pan said.
"Last year, there was one accident taking place every two
days.
"Without pollution liability insurance, the culprits
could not compensate victims and conduct cleanups, generating social
instability," he said.
The pollution liability insurance will provide a solution that
benefits the authorities, plants and residents, Pan said.
With the insurance scheme, the authorities will be able to
alleviate any financial burden from such pollution, Pan said. Plants can also
avoid going bankrupt with indemnities while residents can also get compensated
for suffering any pollution.
"It is a win-win solution," Pan said.
Dong Bo, an official with the China Insurance Regulatory
Commission (CIRC), also said the commission will work with SEPA and insurance
companies to develop insurance products and set up standards for claims.
Dong said insurer Huatai Insurance, based in
Beijing
, has started to develop such products
for sale.
He urged potential polluters to seriously consider such
insurance to protect themselves against accidents.
Bie Tao, director of the policy, law and regulation department
of SEPA, said a survey last year by SEPA and the CIRC showed that most
enterprises were not active in buying such green insurance because of the costs
involved. "SEPA will consider bundling the insurance with other
environmental protection regulations," Bie said.
"For example, SEPA will list the purchase of such
insurance as prerequisites for proving the environmental impact assessment of
projects or in allocating pollution discharge licenses."
China
envoy urges talks on
Bali
road map
February 13 (Xinhua) -- UNITED NATIONS --
China
's special representative for
climate change talks, Yu Qingtai, urged the international community to conduct
substantive negotiations aimed at securing a new global post-2012 agreement on
climate change by 2009.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly debate on climate change,
Yu said that the
Bali
roadmap, adopted at the
UN climate conference last December by delegates from nearly 190 nations, is
"only a beginning."
"The international community must continue with the task
of conducting substantive consultations and negotiations, so as to insure a
final agreement on the post-2012 international cooperation on climate change
within the next two years," he said.
Yu emphasized that any framework for future arrangements must be
firmly based on the principles established by the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, particularly the principle of
common but differentiated responsibilities.
The four building blocks of the roadmap -- mitigation, adaptation,
technology transfer and financing, are all important components for developing
an effective framework for responding to climate change, and should be given
equal attention, and none of them should be neglected, he noted.
Urging developed countries to further strengthen policies and
measures aimed at emission reduction, the special envoy said the concerns by
developing countries over adaptation, technology transfer and financing should
be addressed in earnest, so that they will have the capacity to make greater
contributions to confronting the challenge from climate change.
"The effectiveness of participation by the developing
countries will, to a significant extent, depend on whether the developed
countries will take substantive actions on financial and technological
assistance," he said.
"Effective mechanisms should be set up as soon as
possible to insure that measurable, reportable and verifiable assistance be
provided to the developing countries with regard to financial resources,
technology and capacity building," he said.
China
takes climate change "very seriously" and have adopted various
policies and measures to respond to the challenge, with " noticeable
success," he said.
"While making our own due contribution, we will also help
other developing countries to enhance their ability to adapt to climate
change," Yu added.
Representatives, including some 20 ministers, from more than
100 countries and international organizations attended the two-day high-level
session and exchanged views on ways to move forward the negotiating process
launched in the
Bali
conference. |
