China uses four billion tons of coal every year, 'tough battle ahead against smog'.

SOURCE.

China uses four billion tons of coal every year, 'tough battle ahead against smog'. (icrosschina).

Burning coal and industrial emissions,exacerbated by burning crops, have covered northern Chinese cities in heavy smog, prompting experts to warn of the tough battle ahead as heating season starts.

Smog shrouded Beijing starting on Monday and did not disappear until dispersed by rain on Thursday. Environment authorities have issued repeated health warnings, advising people to stay indoors.

Neighboring Tianjin municipality and several cities in Hebei province have also been cloaked by smog this week.

Beijing environment statistics show the October-to-December quarter suffers the worst pollution, with smog once every four days on average. Experts say the main culprit is still pollutants discharged by heavy industry, though burning crop residue and lack of wind also contribute.

Hebei issued a broad ban on coal burning and industrial discharge from late August to early September to ensure air quality for the parade in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.

Zhang Liang, an environment engineer in Hebei Provincial Environment Emergency and Heavy Pollution Warning Center, said pollution was cut by 60 percent during the period.

Air quality has improved in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area compared to last year thanks to consistent effort by the government. In October last year, northern China was hit by four heavy pollution outbreaks, while the number was reduced to two this year.

However, experts said reducing smog is getting harder as Hebei still relies heavily on industry, including steel, chemical, construction material and glass industries.

In 2015, Hebei required 9.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas for its industrial plants, but was still 3.3 billion cubic meters short. The gap in demand will expand to 10.7 billion in 2017, statistics show.

Several city environment chiefs told Xinhua that money is needed to fund coal-to-electricity and coal-to-gas switches at local plants. In addition, technological support is also in heavy demand.

"We have invested heavily to contain sulphuric emissions from steel plants, but even after upgrading, the emissions can not be sufficiently controlled," said Chen Enhui, environment chief of Chengde city.

China uses four billion tons of coal every year, half of which are used by power plants and others by metallurgy, cement and industrial furnaces, said Lu Guangjie, an expert of China Association of Environmental Protection Industry (CAEPI).

"Most of the emissions by power plants have reached national emission standards, but it is difficult for other coal-burning facilities to reach such standards, and thus they should switch to gas," he said. Enditem.

Guess what?.....Coal is back! Consumption hits 44 year high

Guess what?.....Coal is back! Consumption hits 44 year high. (RT).

Coal’s consumption comes just below the 32.9 percent share for crude oil, which has lost market share for the 14th consecutive year, says BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2014.

Europe is increasing coal imports the fastest, buying the most from the US where cheaper shale gas is replacing coal at power stations.

“Europe is increasing its carbon emissions because it’s using too much coal because it’s cheap,” Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s Chief Financial Officer Simon Henry said in an interview on Bloomberg Television on June 3.

India made its second largest volumetric increase on record and contributed 21 percent in global growth.
China recorded the weakest absolute growth since 2008, but still accounted for 67 percent of the global total.

A "dramatic slowdown" in Chinese energy growth to 4.7 percent last year from 8.4 percent in 2012 puts a question mark over China's 2013 official economic growth figure of 7.7 percent, the Guardian quotes Christof Ruhl, BP's chief economist and author the statistical review.

"It is not easy to reconcile the slowdown in energy growth numbers and official [gross domestic product] numbers ... you can draw your own conclusions from that," Ruhl said.

However, the pace of growth of the global coal consumption is still below the 10-year average of 3.9 percent.

The production of coal globally grew by 0.8 percent, the weakest growth since 2002. Indonesia’s increase of 9.4 percent together with Australia’s 7.3 percent offset a decline in the US of 3.1 percent. China recorded the weakest volumetric growth of 1.2 percent in production since 2000.

Prof Nick Stern, author of the influential climate change report, the Stern Review, and the chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, said his latest study showed the economic risks of unchecked climate change overcame previous estimates. 

He warns that living standards could start to decline later this century unless the growth in annual emissions of greenhouse gases is checked.

Meanwhile the renewable energy sources continued to increase in 2013, reaching a record 2.7 percent of global energy consumption, up from 0.8 percent a decade ago.

China recorded the largest incremental growth in renewables, followed by the US, while growth in Europe’s leading players such as Germany, Spain and Italy was below average.

Globally the use of wind energy increased by 20.7 percent contributing more than half of renewable power growth. Solar power grew even more rapidly, by 33 percent, but from a smaller base.

Global biofuels production grew by below average at 6.1 percent.

Related:   China ‘the coal monster’ fuel dominated energy use overwhelms Obama’s EPA CO2 reduction schemes.

China ‘the coal monster’ fuel dominated energy use overwhelms Obama’s EPA CO2 reduction schemes.

China ‘the coal monster’ fuel dominated energy use overwhelms Obama’s EPA CO2 reduction schemes.HT: WUWT.

Obama’s ideological war on coal unnecessary, is wasteful, costly, inept, and pure political theater.

Guest essay by Larry Hamlin.

China’s energy consumption is climbing so rapidly that it’s energy use, which already exceeds ours, will be double U.S. levels by 2040 as shown from EIA data below. (1)

This increased coal fuel use by China results in its CO2 emissions climbing from 2012 levels of 8,994 million metric tons to 14,029 million metric tons in 2030 (EIA data shown below) which is an increase of 5,014 million metric tons of CO2.

The Obama EPA CO2 reduction proposal  amounts to a maximum reduction of about 500 million metric tons of CO2 by 2030 which is overwhelmed by the China’s increase which is 10 times larger than Obama’s EPA proposed reduction. Read the full story here.

'Death of a failed policy' - Germany’s CO2 and energy policy – about to falter.

'Death of a failed policy' - Germany’s CO2 and energy policy – about to falter? HT: WUWT.

On April 16th, 2014, a few quite remarkable statements were delivered during a discussion event at the premises of SMA Solar Technology AG, a leading German producer of photovoltaic panels and systems:

“The truth is that the Energy U-Turn (“Energiewende”, the German scheme aimed at pushing the “renewable” share of electricity production to 80 % by 2050) is about to fail”

“The truth is that under all aspects, we have underestimated the complexity of the “Energiewende”

“The noble aspiration of a decentralized energy supply, of self-sufficiency! This is of course utter madness”“Anyway, most other countries in Europe think we are crazy”

Had this been one of the small albeit growing number of German “sceptics” casting doubt upon the XXL-sized politico-economical scam that has cost the German populace more than € 500 billion since its inception in 2000, it would not have gotten more than a footnote in the local press, crammed somewhere in between “horoscope” and “lost and found”. In fact, the media actually tried to keep a lid on the facts by giving them as little coverage as possible.

But the man at the speaker’s desk was Sigmar Gabriel, acting vice-chancellor of the German government, Secretary of Commerce with responsibility for the said „Energiewende” and chairman of the German social democrats (SPD), the second-largest political force in the country.

Since December 2013, he is in charge of taming the runaway costs and growing security of supply risks that are unmasking the financial and technical nightmare of this ill-conceived project.

In the past few months, he seems to have gotten some unpleasant insights causing him to admit the above-mentioned inconvenient truths when he was pushed too far by a number of aggressive lobbyists of the “renewable energy” sector. 

Gabriel, famous for his irascible temper that once already resulted in a heated verbal exchange with a top-dog TV journalist live on air, appears to have become quite candid when he vented his anger during the debate.

He must have realized his own political fate is in jeopardy because the task he has been assigned has conducted him into a situation that will inevitably result in failure. 

With respect to electric energy generation, Germany has painted itself into a corner. Since the introduction of the “Renewable Energy” law (EEG) in 2000 aimed at replacing coal and gas-fired as well as nuclear power generation by so-called renewable energy sources, the household price for electricity has jumped by more than 200 %.

German customers now pay the second-highest electricity prices in Europe. At the same time, the task of stabilizing the grid against the massive erratic influx from solar and wind power plants that produce without regard for actual need has pushed the operators to their limits.

Now already, with a combined share of just some 13 % of total electricity production, their unreliable input is massively imperiling the stability of the grid.

Long-ignored financial and technical rules re-emerge and will force the German political class to abandon their “renewable” energy strategy centering on solar and wind power generation.

Since the only low CO2 alternative – nuclear power – has been deviled by all political parties and the media beyond any chance of short-term oblivion, Germany will soon have to revert to coal for its power needs.

And that in turn implies the country will have to abandon all aspirations to lower its CO2 emissions.

German politicians might soon find out that demonizing CO2 is becoming a speedy path to ruining their career. And given the importance of the country within Europe and the pioneering role it claimed in the international crusade against climate change by limiting CO2 emissions, this might well herald the start of a paradigm shift of epochal dimensions in the whole climate change debate.Hmmm........"So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”........He who laughs last has the best laugh!