China Clearing the Air & Cutting Emissions

Beijing environmental authorities have started releasing more detailed air quality data that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital’s air pollution is. But measurements from the first day were low compared with data US officials have been collecting for years. Meanwhile, seven provinces and cities in China are to set caps on their greenhouse gas emissions, the first time the Chinese government has called for these, having so far preferred softer “carbon intensity” targets.

Washington Post/Associated Press (21 January 2012):

Caving to public pressure, Beijing environmental authorities started releasing more detailed air quality data that may better reflect how bad the Chinese capital’s air pollution is. But one expert says measurements from the first day were low compared with data U.S. officials have been collecting for years.

The initial measurements were low on a day where you could see blue sky. After a week of smothering smog, the skies over the city were being cleared by a north wind.

The readings of PM2.5 — particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in size or about 1/30th the average width of a human hair — were being posted on Beijing’s environmental monitoring center’s website. Such small particulates can penetrate deep into the lungs, so measuring them is considered a more accurate reflection of air quality than other methods.

It is the first time Beijing has publicly revealed PM2.5 data and follows a clamor of calls by citizens on social networking sites tired of breathing in gray and yellow air. The U.S. Embassy measures PM2.5 from a device on its rooftop and releases the results, and some residents have even tested the air around their neighborhoods and posted the results online.

Beijing is releasing hourly readings of PM2.5 that are taken from one monitoring site about 4 miles (7 kilometers) west of Tiananmen Square, the monitoring center’s website said Saturday. It said the data was for research purposes and the public should only use it as a reference.

The reading at noon Saturday was 0.015 milligrams per cubic meter, which would be classed as “good” for a 24-hour exposure at that level, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards. The U.S. Embassy reading taken from its site on the eastern edge of downtown Beijing said its noon reading was “moderate.” Its readings are posted on Twitter.

Steven Andrews, an environmental consultant who has studied Beijing’s pollution data since 2006, said he was “already a bit suspicious” of Beijing’s PM2.5 data. Within the 24-hour period to noon Saturday, Beijing reported seven hourly figures “at the very low level” of 0.003 milligrams per cubic meter.

“In all of 2010 and 2011, the U.S. Embassy reported values at or below that level only 18 times out of over 15,000 hourly values or about 0.1 percent of the time,” said Andrews. “PM2.5 concentrations vary by area so a direct comparison between sites isn’t possible, but the numbers being reported during some hours seem surpisingly low.”

The Beijing center had promised to release PM2.5 data by the start of the Chinese Lunar New Year on Monday. It has six sites that can test for PM2.5 and 27 that can test for the larger, coarser PM10 particles that are considered less hazardous. The center is expected to buy equipment and build more monitoring sites to enable PM2.5 testing.

Beijing wasn’t expected to include PM2.5 in its daily roundups of the air quality anytime soon. Those disclosures, for example “light” or “serious,” are based on the amount of PM10, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide in the air.

Beijing interprets air quality using less stringent standards than the U.S. Embassy, so often when the government says pollution is “light,” the embassy terms it “hazardous.”

“There has been tremendous amounts of attention in the Chinese media — whichever newspaper you pick up, whichever radio station you listen to, channel you watch — they are all talking about PM2.5 and how levels are so high,” said Andrews.

“What has been so powerful is that people are skeptical, and I think rightly skeptical,” about the government’s descriptions of data, he said.

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Michael Marshall in New Scientist (17 January 2012):

Seven provinces and cities in China are to set caps on their greenhouse gas emissions, following a directive from central government. It’s the first time the Chinese government has called for any absolute caps on emissions, having so far preferred softer “carbon intensity” targets.

The move is a first step towards establishing carbon trading markets in China and further evidence of the country’s commitment to tackling climate change, says Felix Preston of Chatham House, a foreign-policy think tank based in London.

On 13 January China’s National Development and Reform Commission asked the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shenzhen, and the provinces of Hubei and Guangdong, to set “overall emissions control targets”.

The government hinted this move was coming last August, when it released a policy paper arguing that absolute caps were the only way to establish a working carbon market.

The new regional pilot projects are valuable steps towards a national carbon market, Preston says. For them to work, the cities and provinces will need to settle on stringent targets to keep the carbon price high, and collect reliable emissions data to ensure the targets are being met, he adds.

By allowing companies and institutions to trade emissions, carbon markets ensure that greenhouse gas emissions are cut in a cost-effective way. Europe has so far led the way in carbon markets after establishing its Emissions Trading Scheme in 2005. China would be a major new player.

A national Chinese carbon market would be a big step towards a global carbon market, says Preston, especially if the EU and Chinese markets could be linked.

Intensity cap

China has not yet set a national cap on its greenhouse gas emissions, citing the need to grow its economy. Instead it has set future limits on carbon intensity – the amount of greenhouse gases emitted per unit of GDP. Setting targets in this way allows emissions to grow while requiring industries to become more productive over time for a given level of emissions.

The current five-year plan, covering 2011 to 2015, requires the country to reduce the carbon dioxide emitted per unit of GDP by 17 per cent by 2015.

Preston says these intensity targets are fine when a country’s economy is growing rapidly, as is the case with China. But a fixed national cap would be better once China’s emissions peak, which could happen in the 2020s or 2030s. “A cap offers less uncertainty than an intensity target,” he says. “Over time it will make sense to have a fixed cap.”

Source: www.newscientist.com