Inconvenient Carbon Truths About China

Inconvenient Carbon Truths About China from GreenTechGrid

Quotes that summarize the article:

"If [China's] growth rate continues, in ten years China will be emitting four times the carbon of the U.S., meaning that the U.S. becomes an insignificant producer of carbon whether we go green or not."

"If you are seriously worried about global warming, the solution is in technology adopted by India and China. If you can't come up with cheap green, then the alternative is prayer."

I spent the past week at the Renewable Energy World (REW) Conference and Expo in Austin, Tx. The following was published in the REW magazine, and I felt it was rather applicable to our discussions on China. Enjoy!
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February 16, 2010

Are We Hypocrites on China?

by Stephen Lacey, Podcast Editor and Staff Writer

Oklahoma, United States [Renewable Energy World North America Magazine]

As the global community gets serious about supporting renewable energy and dealing with climate change, all eyes are on China. Most people view China as a player that will either make or break any international climate agreement. So why then, do people in the U.S. get so upset when China actually starts taking action on energy issues?

For example, last November a $1.5 billion, 600 MW wind project was announced for Texas. The project, which may qualify for stimulus funds, would be financed by American and Chinese investors and use 240 wind turbines manufactured in China. Many policymakers expressed deep outrage that stimulus dollars would be used to create manufacturing jobs overseas, rather than in the U.S.

In an attempt to assuage fears, the Chinese company providing the turbines announced shortly after that it would construct an 1,100 MW-a-year turbine manufacturing plant somewhere in the U.S. However, many policymakers and renewable energy advocates are still skeptical of the deal. For some reason, many of those same politicians barely said a word when Spain-based developer Iberdrola received more than $500 million in stimulus funds a month earlier.

Concerns like these are nothing new. Now that China is becoming a major player in manufacturing and deploying renewable energy equipment, there are growing concerns about how the country will impact the dynamics of this burgeoning industry in the U.S. The situation puts America in an uncomfortable position: We fully support China's aggressive expansion of renewables, but can we handle the consequences?

We won't just import more products from Chinese companies. We'll also import more products from American companies that are setting up shop in China. In recent months, we've seen some solar and battery companies move operations overseas, despite being offered large incentives from state governments. In the end, states can't always compete with China. People are now asking, "Will the clean energy revolution even take place here?"

Those fears are certainly valid, but some would argue they are not always warranted. A number of leading Chinese solar companies in an effort to meet the demand of local markets and build trust in their brands have announced new manufacturing facilities in the U.S. In addition, the more we engage China in trading these products, the more opportunities American companies will have to sell into the rapidly-growing Chinese market.

The Obama Administration has been pushing for more cooperation between China and the U.S. on renewable energy issues. As it turns out, on the same day the 600 MW Texas wind project was announced, China lifted its requirement for local wind turbines and components. That could be a boon for American and European manufacturers. After all, along with being the world's biggest emitter of carbon, China is also now the world's largest wind market.

"It is a win-win for the U.S. and China to cooperate as much as possible on renewable energy development. It only serves to help everyone if we welcome each other into each other's markets," says Lou Schwartz, an expert on the Chinese energy markets. "We need China and China needs us."

In other words, it all comes out in the wash.

"I think we have to avoid very narrowly looking at one deal or another and reaching the conclusion that somehow China is up and we're down...Over time, there will be plenty of business in China for U.S. manufacturers," says Schwartz.

That doesn't necessarily ease fears about U.S. jobs going overseas today. Much of the interest in renewable energy revolves around the promise of domestic manufacturing jobs. What if American products can't compete with Chinese products? Won't that put a damper on the U.S. renewable energy manufacturing sector?

These worries are also legitimate. But if our ultimate goal is to drive down the cost of renewable energy as quickly as possible, I'm all for China helping that process along.

"China needs to play a role if we are going to bring the cost of solar down to match the cost of generating energy from fossil fuels," says Steve Chan, chief strategy officer for Suntech Power, a top Chinese solar manufacturer.

China will certainly become more prominent as the renewable energy industry grows. Solar and wind resources are local, but the market for equipment to harness those resources is global. If we want the Chinese to do something about their dirty energy problem, we'd better be prepared to compete with them too.

This puts us in a tricky situation. Do we want to support cost reductions in manufacturing at the expense of local jobs? Is it hypocritical to push China to deal with climate change and then not deal with the consequences? And if we're so worried about China, can we even say if the U.S. will lose out in the deal?

The answers are not clear cut. We've only begun to see how China will impact the industry. But it is clear that the country is now a major force in renewable energy. And however you see that development–good or bad–this is only the beginning.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/02/are-we-hypocrites-on-china

Speaking of growth (Foreign Policy)

A snapshot from Foreign Policy magazine of a "new" city in a more remote region of China. The situation described here doesn't apply everywhere -- there are real boomtowns with rapidly growing populations, even in the country's west. But the article does describe the model of government-driven investment and infrastructure building that are being pursued in many localities.

(P.S. We will be visiting Inner Mongolia on our trip.)
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China's High-Growth Ghost Towns
Visiting the eerily vacant epicenter of unsustainable progress, far out in the grasslands of Inner Mongolia.

BY APRIL RABKIN | FEBRUARY 17, 2010
Foreign Policy (FP.com)

In the gritty Inner Mongolian wind, I stood at the pinnacle of the global economy, at least in terms of GDP growth: the main drag of one of the fastest growing cities in the fastest-growing region in all of China, the world's supposed new economic powerhouse.

Built in a breakneck five years, Kangbashi is a state-of-the-art city full of architectural marvels and sculpture gardens. There's just one thing missing: people. The city, built by the government and funded with coal money, its chief industries energy and carmaking, has been mostly vacant for as long as it has been complete, except for the massive municipal headquarters. It's a grand canyon of empty monoliths. In a paradox only possible in today's economic system, Kangbashi manages to be both a boom town and a ghost town at the same time.

Kangbashi represents a particularly destructive economic force at work in China today: an obsession with GDP that ignores all other metrics of progress or human capital. GDP as calculated in China -- or the rest of the world, for that matter -- doesn't make any distinction between quantity and quality, or between creative and destructive expenditures.

Due to the industrial pollution billowing out of the country's GDP-enhancing factories and mines, cancer is the leading cause of death in China. A recent government survey showed that 30 percent of children in Yunnan province suffer from lead poisoning. Perhaps the biggest and most destructive GDP boost came from construction of the Three Gorges Dam, for which 1.24 million people were evicted. Even some of the newly rich, however, shower in tainted brown tap water.

Health Information Regarding China

Several of you have inquired, so here is my best shot (so to speak) ;-)

The best place to find information about travel health is your doctor or health care provider, but here are links to a couple of good sources on the topic.

Kaiser Travel Health Page

Center For Disease Control - China Page

The Cities we will visit are Beijing, Yulin, Ordos, Baotou, Yichang, Sandouping, and Shanghai. We will be staying in hotels and not visiting farms.

I am going to the Kaiser Travel clinic Friday afternoon and let you know what they poke me with. Possibly H1N1 and Japanese Encephalitis . Hopefully not Rabies....

-k2

China Field Trip Calendar 2010

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Ind. & Ag. emissions prompt China to release "pollution-fighting" fish in lake

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/chinaenvironmentpollutionwater

SHANGHAI (AFP) – Authorities in eastern China have said they will release 20 million algae-eating fish into one of the nation's most scenic lakes that has been ravaged by pollution.

Taihu Lake, which straddles Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, has been severely polluted by sewage as well as industrial and agricultural waste, triggering a blue-green algae plague.

Authorities started using fish to try to clean up the lake in February last year when they released 10 million mostly green and silver carp into the water, after the algae tainted the drinking supply of millions of residents.

Over the next few days, around 20 million more algae-eating fish will be released into the water, the Taihu Lake Fisheries Management Committee said in a statement Monday.

The campaign, funded by the government and public donations, cost a total of 8.6 million yuan (1.3 million dollars), according to the statement.

A silver carp can consume 50 kilogrammes (110 pounds) of algae and other plankton in its lifetime while gaining only one kilogramme in weight, authorities have said.

Millions of algae-eating fish have been used in the past to clean up Taihu and other lakes, with previous efforts hailed as a boon for the local fishing industry despite concerns over consumption of fish that have feasted on toxins.

Algae blooms, which are common on freshwater lakes in China, are chiefly caused by the presence of untreated sewage containing high concentrations of nitrogen, a main ingredient in detergents and fertilisers.

China's environment has suffered severely amid the nation's breakneck economic growth over the past three decades.

This end-of-pipe "solution" can be ineffective:

Because they feed on plankton, they are sometimes successfully used as methods for controlling water quality, especially in the control of noxious cyanobacteria(blue-green algae). However, these efforts are sometimes not successful. Certain species of blue-green algae, notably the often toxic Mycrocystis, can pass through the gut of silver carp unharmed, and pick up nutrients while in the gut. Thus, in some cases blue-green algae blooms have been exacerbated by silver carp. Also, Mycrocystis has been shown to produce more toxins in the presence of silver carp. Silver carp, which have natural defenses to the toxins produced by blue-green algae, sometimes can contain enough algal toxins in their systems that they become hazardous to eat.^{[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_carp)}

Industrial pollution + Eutrophication + Hypoxia + Invasive species + Bioaccumulation + Booming Fisheries = Policy Failure and Noel going vegetarian during this trip.

China exceeds US to become Saudi Arabia's top oil customer

Notable milestone:

By the end of 2009, the amount of the crude oil that China imported from Saudi Arabia exceeded 1 million barrels per day, while the US, the primary importer of the country's oil before, imported less than 1 million barrels per day for the first time since more than 20 years.

Full article here: http://business.globaltimes.cn/china-economy/2010-02/507404.html