China may be dirty but it's cleaning up its act

Jane Macartney in Beijing
Here’s a dirty little secret: China is the most polluted country on Earth, but it is also doing much more than most to save the environment.
The air in Linfen is thick enough to choke. The sky is obscured, black with grime and smog. This is among the most polluted cities in China, and hence in the world. But this is China past.
China future may not be far away. No farther, perhaps, than the neighbouring ancient walled town of Pingyao, also in the coal-producing heartland of Shanxi province. Look down from the centuries old city walls and you will see grey-tiled roofs scattered with shining panels soaking up solar power to heat the water for Pingyao’s residents.
China is still far from being a model on how to deal with climate change. After all, the filthy city of Linfen is at the heart of a coal industry that provides 80 per cent of China’s energy needs. This is a major reason why the world’s most populous county recently overtook the United States to become the world’s top producer of greenhouse gases.
After all, China needs energy to power the industrial juggernaut that provides employment, not to mention hot water and heating, for its 1.3 billion people.
What is less well known is that China is at the forefront of adopting technologies to reduce its reliance on the carbons that have made the country such a giant source of the world’s emissions.
That is where the solar panels in Pingyao become important.
China is also the world’s largest manufacturer — and consumer — of solar water heating panels.
It may not be much, but it is a start.
That China adds one new coal-powered power plant every week is something of a myth. But there is no doubt that its reliance on coal for energy outranks the rest of the world.
China may argue in public that it bears far less responsibility than the developed world for carbon emissions. But while stressing that it will rely on coal for its energy for many more decades — coal-fired energy is likely to account for at least 70 per cent of China’s needs for many years — the leadership long ago began investigating, and investing in, alternative energies.
Beijing has already implemented measures to get rid of small, inefficient and dirty power plants.
Rarely now does China build a plant of less than 300 megawatts, and more commonly it is investing in 600-megawatt installations. By 2006, nearly half of the country’s power generators were 600 megawatts or larger — and only 14 per cent were under 300 megawatts.
Furthermore, China is already building the most modern coal-fired power plants — the only country other than Germany and Japan to do so.
Investment is pouring into wind power. China plans to build seven large wind-power bases over the next decade, and already ranks fourth in the world in terms of installed capacity, at 12.2 gigawatts — about equal to the energy produced by two dozen average-sized coal-fired plants. There is still a long way to go. That is still a tiny proportion of total capacity of 800 gigawatts — most of it coal-fired. But it is a start, and is certain to rise.
No Communist Party official can hope to win promotion unless he can show his contribution to tackling climate change.