Stimulus spending won't endanger environment

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-23 17:21

Wang Zhenfeng felt aggrieved when he was told about overseas media reports claiming that several new cement plants were under construction in his town, Sanhe, a medium-sized city not far from Beijing.

In April, the New York Times reported that new cement plants were being built in Duanjialing, a small town under the jurisdiction of Sanhe, which it said indicated that China had "at least temporarily backpedaled on some environmental restraints imposed" to revive its industrial production.

A picture accompanied the story, with a caption saying that it showed a "worker loading bags" at "one of the new cement plants."

As vice director of the city's environmental protection bureau, Wang said the picture puzzled him.

"No new cement plants are under construction in Sanhe at all. Actually, we have been shutting down cement factories," he told Xinhua last week.

"There is no such new plant, either in Duanjialing or the city proper of Sanhe," he stressed.

The government of Sanhe plans a permanent shutdown of 19 of the city's 20 cement production lines by the end of 2010. Those plants used traditional and more polluting shaft kilns, Wang said. The only cement factory that will remain open uses rotary kilns, which cause less pollution.

Of the 19 shaft kiln plants, nine were forced to close last year, he said. "The picture might show a plant that had not been shut down" yet, Wang said.

According to Wang, after the plants are all closed, sulphur dioxide emissions will be cut by 1,100 tons per year.

Worries over Sanhe's "new cement projects" are just a reflection of the world's concerns about China's environment. At least some of these worries spring from the impact of China's massive stimulus package, intended to ensure 8-percent economic growth.

The country's 4-trillion yuan ($586 billion) package, unveiled late last year to help the world's third-largest economy during the global downturn, gave rise to worries that the government might sacrifice its environment to boost the economy.

Overseas media organizations have reported that China had approved more new polluting projects, as most of its investment had or would go to the real economy, such as infrastructure projects, rather than into the financial sector.

Bloomberg said in a March report that China might be letting its "green goals" fall by the wayside as it trimmed spending on energy-saving and emission-reduction projects in the massive stimulus package, citing environmental groups.

There have also been overseas media reports that China might have eased its grip on environmental reviews of new projects, as the government was taking less time to examine and approve projects.

According to Bloomberg, the Ministry of Environmental Protection had announced that it would reduce the time needed for environmental-impact assessments of projects to two days from five, which was taken as a "worrying sign."

China's "government has squandered a chance to use the downturn to put China on a cleaner growth path, and has instead laid the foundation for another toxic cycle of hypergrowth," New York Times said, citing the views of environmentalists.

Firm path to green economy

But many officials argue that China has actually taken the downturn as an opportunity to restructure its industries and benefit the environment.

Zhang Lijun, vice minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said during the country's top legislative and advisory meetings in March that China's measures to tackle the crisis were not only about ensuring 8-percent growth.

They were also intended to promote domestic consumption and economic restructuring, including eliminating polluting, inefficient and wasteful factories, he said.

When China set guidelines for its stimulus plan in November, the government had made it clear that not all the investment would go into projects that would worsen the problems of overcapacity, high energy use and high emissions levels.

Instead, of the 230 billion yuan central government spending that had already been distributed, 10 percent had been directly invested in energy saving, pollution reduction and environmental protection projects, said Han Yongwen, secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Committee (NDRC), during an exclusive interview with Xinhua in late April. The NDRC is China's top planning agency.

"The stimulus plan did not delay China's process of energy conservation and emission reduction. Actually, it was strengthened with the package," Zhao Jiarong, director of the environment and resource department of the NDRC, told Xinhua during an interview early this month.

Meanwhile, China had also emphasized eliminating obsolete capacity as part of its support plans for 10 major industries released over the past few months. Those industries included textiles, non-ferrous metals and petrochemicals.

In 2009 alone, China plans to shut down 15 million kilowatts of small thermal-power generators and eliminate obsolete capacity in iron, steel and paper production this year by 10 million tonnes, 6 million tons and 500,000 tons, respectively, said the NDRC earlier this month.

As a result, China's energy intensity witnessed a year-on-year drop of 2.89 percent in the first quarter, according to the NDRC.

For Beijing, despite the annual sandstorm season, the city saw 23 "blue sky" days in April, the best figure for that month since 2000, according to Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. On a "blue sky" day, air quality stays at or above level 2, indicating "fairly good" air.

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