To Cut Carbon, China to Switch Off Polluting Factories
On its way to reduce its carbon emissions per unit of economic output 40 percent by 2020, China’s current plan requires it to use 20 percent less energy per unit of economic output than in 2005.
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To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Chinese government has tried the usual carrot and stick approach of governments in Europe and the US, but to no avail. Now it is literally closing the door on the dirtiest, most unprofessional and least efficient factories, the New York Times is reporting, leaving only the ones that have put energy efficiency measures in place to keep producing.
To reduce energy waste, 2,087 highly inefficient factories have been placed on a list by The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to be closed by the end of September.
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Just as here, their inefficient and polluting cement companies, steel mills and paper mills have resisted installing energy efficiency technology and have roped in local officials to help them delay and resist action.
But unlike here, there is no polluter-funded Chamber of Commerce to champion pollution in China. Here, dirty industries can spend fortunes they said they didn’t have to install efficiency measures, to lobby the government to weaken pollution rules. That is made possible because we grandfathered-in polluters – exempting the worst of them from action.
But the Chinese government is tough. All those years of delays are over. After September 30 these 2,087 biggest polluters will be unable to get bank loans, export credits, business licenses or land. And if necessary, the government will simply switch off their power.
Image: Think or Thwim
Susan Kraemer@Twitter
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