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Local govts may ignore standards

By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-27 08:02

Financial crisis, a chance to be less reliant on fossile fuels

China is already among the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases though its per capita emission is far less than those in developed countries, said Du Xiangwan, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

He urged the government to take advantage of the financial crisis to make the economy less reliant on fossil fuels.

"The national carbon dioxide emissions level has reached 5.5 billion tons a year," said Du.

"As the country's economic growth slows down, we have the chance to transform its economic development pattern, to adjust its industrial structure, wash away environmentally-harmful productivity, boost energy savings and cut back emissions."

Du said China's rapid economic growth was based on excessive energy consumption and the nation's appetite for fuel doubled from 2000 to 2008, when it reached the equivalent of 2.6 billion tons of coal.

"This resulted in a large increase in pollutants, despite a drop in the total weight of emissions over the past two years," he said.

"More than 100 million people are not breathing clean air across the country," he said.

He said the global economic crisis had resulted in a reduced demand for energy, which provides an opportunity for the government to try out renewable energy projects.

Du said China can cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 700 million tons by 2010,1.2 billion tons by 2020 and 4 billion tons by 2050 if the adopts green energy technology.

 

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