China power plant emissions to rise 60
pct by 2017
Wed Nov 14, 2007 2:54pm EST
By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Climate-warming emissions from China's power plants -- already
among the world's worst greenhouse polluters -- will rise by some 60 percent in the next decade, a new
global database showed on Wednesday.
Four Chinese power companies, including the biggest carbon dioxide emitter, Huaneng Power
International, were among the top 10 on the database; there were two each from the United States and
Germany and one each from South Africa and India.
The numbers show that despite international talk about cutting down on emissions that spur global
warming, these emissions are going to rise steeply for the next 10 years, said David Wheeler of the
Washington-based Center for Global Development, a nonpartisan think tank that compiled the database.
"Although our politics seem to be headed toward some new understanding and action here, the investment
picture that we see right now ... is a continued large-scale commitment to coal-fired production, which is
the most intensive in CO2 (carbon dioxide) pollution," Wheeler said by telephone.
This trend will occur not only in the fast-developing economies of China and India, but also in the United
States and to some extent in western Europe, he said.
The database -- dubbed CARMA, for Carbon Monitoring for Action, and available online at
http://carma.org -- lists carbon emissions from 50,000 power plants around the world, with figures for the
year 2000, 2007, and five to 10 years in the future, based on published plans.
100 CEOS WIELD THE POWER
By 2017, China will far outpace the United States, the current leader in power plant emissions of carbon
dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, the database found.
While China's future power generation will be less carbon-intensive, getting more electricity for
proportionally lower emissions, this comes at an environmental cost, the database's creators said.
China will use more nuclear power, which emits no greenhouse pollution but poses a challenge for safe
disposal of spent fuel, and get more electricity from the Three Gorges Dam, which environmentalists say
will trap silt, cause erosion and risk turning its reservoir into a pond of industrial chemicals and sewage.
The database was released less than a month before a December meeting of climate experts in Bali,
Indonesia, meant to chart a course to cut global warming emissions. It also coincides with intensifying
debate in the U.S. Congress over a bill to put mandatory limits on carbon emissions.
Internationally, the U.S. power sector is the top emitter, spewing nearly 2.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide
annually; China follows closely at 2.7 billion tonnes, with Russia at 661 million tonnes, India at 583
million tonnes and Japan at 400 million tonnes. Germany, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and
South Korea round out the top 10.
Wheeler noted that the top executives of the 100 biggest power companies worldwide preside over plants
that emit 57 percent of all emissions from this sector, giving them extraordinary influence.
"Despite the fact that we talk about national negotiations on this issue ... when all is said and done, those
who make the decisions about investments and future technologies are people like those 100 CEOs,"
Wheeler said. "That's a critical group and I think they should be engaged."
(Editing by Eric Walsh)