China’s Pollution Reduction Targets: revisiting statistics for early 2008
As people wait for the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) to release the data for major pollutant discharges of each province in the second half of 2008, it is worth revisiting MEP’s report from last year detailing emissions statistics for the first half of 2008. Released in September as a joint effort of MEP, the National Bureau of Statistics, and the National Development and Reform Commission, the report showed a small downward trend in pollution, with chemical oxygen demand (COD) down 2.48% and sulfur dioxide (SO2) down 3.96% from the same period the year before. MEP attributed the decrease to newly installed sewage treatment and the restructuring of energy-intensive, high-emission industries.
Last February, MEP Minister Zhou Shengxian announced specific 2008 interim targets for SO2 and COD: for SO2, 6% decrease from 2005 emissions; for COD, 5% decrease from 2005 emissions. Statistics for 2008 are due in the coming weeks. To achieve the targets, China must cut its SO2 emissions by 1.53 million tons and its COD levels by 707,000 tons from its 2005 baseline figures. For the first half of 2008, SO2 emissions total 12.13 million tons and COD emissions total 6.74 million tons. Emissions in the second half of 2008 would need a further reduction of 2.47% and 0.70% from first half 2008 figures for SO2 and COD respectively in order to hit the target.
We’ve organized an Excel file that lists the pollution numbers for each province in the first half of 2007 and the first half of 2008. Filters are attached that allow you to rank the provinces by any criteria, including which provinces demonstrated the greatest reductions in pollutants. These allow you to organize the data in different ways. We’ll post the second half 2008 numbers when they are released. We expect that the global economic downturn will have a significant impact on the pollution figures for this period, possibly reducing pollution emissions and letting China come closer to its 2008 interim targets.
Download the Excel chart here.
|
|
Province |
S02 (10,000 tons) |
|
1 |
Shandong |
92.9 |
|
2 |
Hebei |
78.82 |
|
3 |
Henan |
72.76 |
|
4 |
Shanxi |
71.51 |
|
5 |
Inner Mongolia |
70.45 |
|
6 |
Guizhou |
66.42 |
|
7 |
Jiangsu |
59.92 |
|
8 |
Guangxi |
59.16 |
|
9 |
Guangdong |
57.41 |
|
10 |
Liaoning |
54.74 |
The top 10 provinces in terms of COD releases were:
|
|
Province |
COD (10,000 tons) |
|
1 |
Guangxi |
54.55 |
|
2 |
Guangdong |
50.64 |
|
3 |
Jiangsu |
46.71 |
|
4 |
Hunan |
44.43 |
|
5 |
Sichuan |
37.05 |
|
6 |
Henan |
33.75 |
|
7 |
Shandong |
32.66 |
|
8 |
Liaoning |
30.3 |
|
9 |
Hubei |
30 |
|
10 |
Zhejiang |
29.32 |
Here are links to the official MEP press releases:
Chinese: http://www.mep.gov.cn/xcjy/zwhb/200809/t20080924_129291.htm
English: http://english.mep.gov.cn/News_service/news_release/200809/t20080928_129527.htm
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China meets 2008 interim targets for chemical oxygen demand and sulfur dioxide emissions…
Michael Zhang in our Beijing office put together the following analysis of recent announcements in China: At a presentation of the Government Work Report to the NPC and the CPPCC, Premier Wen Jiabao mentioned two figures that environmental analysts in….
[...] At a presentation of the Government Work Report to the NPC and the CPPCC, Premier Wen Jiabao mentioned two figures that environmental analysts in China have been keenly awaiting. Data for the first half of 2008 on chemical oxygen demand (COD), a measure of water pollution, and sulfur dioxide (SO2) was released several months ago. Many experts predicted that the year-end data would arrive in early March. [...]
[...] At a presentation of the Government Work Report to the NPC and the CPPCC, Premier Wen Jiabao mentioned two figures that environmental analysts in China have been keenly awaiting. Data for the first half of 2008 on chemical oxygen demand (COD), a measure of water pollution, and sulfur dioxide (SO2) was released several months ago. Many experts predicted that the year-end data would arrive in early March. [...]