Sino-US Study Shows Energy Saving Benefits Environment, Economy – Official

Text of report by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency) Asia-Pacific service

[Report by reporters Han Jie, Wu Zhi: "China-US Joint Study Indicates Energy Conservation, Emissions Reduction in Power Industry Will Promote 'Win-Win Result' for Environment, Economy"]

Beijing, 13 Dec (Xinhua) – Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said on the 13th at the sixth news briefing held during the third China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue: A study jointly conducted by China and the United States on energy conservation and emissions reduction policies for the power industry indicates that implementing energy conservation and emissions reduction in the power industry will promote a “win- win result” for the environment and economy.

The China-US Joint Economic Research is a cooperative project initiated under the framework of the first China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue held in December last year. Under this mechanism, last April the State Environmental Protection Administration and the US Environmental Protection Agency officially started research work on the “China-US Joint Economic Research – Economic Analysis of Energy Conservation and Emissions Reduction Policies for the Power Industry” with the objectives of summing up experiences and lessons from energy conservation and emissions reduction in the power industries of both countries, doing a cost-benefit analysis, and submitting relevant policy proposals to the governments of both countries.

Zhou Shengxian said: After a period of six months or so, the researchers from both countries completed all the research tasks, achieved the desired results, and submitted the results of the study to the third Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue.

Providing the information, he said: Four major conclusions were reached through the study by both sides. The results of a cost- benefit analysis of energy conservation and emissions reduction policies for the power industry under China’s 11th Five-Year Programme indicate:

1. The two policies of installing desulfurization facilities and “correspondingly shutting down or suspending the operations of some small thermal generating sets while constructing new, large power source projects” [shang da ya xiao] basically can ensure achievement of the Chinese power industry’s sulphur dioxide emissions reduction target.

2. After the power industry’s sulphur dioxide emissions reduction target is achieved, the decrease in sulphur dioxide concentration will be more than 10 per cent in most provinces and municipalities in China but can reach 30 per cent in some provinces and municipalities. Furthermore, this will have a fairly good synergic effect on reducing other pollutants such as particles.

3. As the ratio of the cost of desulfurization measures to the aggregate benefit they bring will be about 1:5, the economic benefit is remarkable. Furthermore, the economic benefit will even increase to some extent for a period ahead.

4. Desulfurization measures will have a relatively small negative impact on the GDP, possibly lowering the GDP in 2010 by 0.09 per cent. Nevertheless, the GDP in 2010 can be increased by 0.26 per cent for the reason that the measure of “correspondingly shutting down or suspending the operations of some small thermal generating sets while constructing new, large power source projects” has such effects as improving power generation efficiency and freeing up some of the land.

With regard to cooperative research work in the next step between both sides, Zhou Shengxian indicated: Given that we need to make full use of the US side’s comparative advantage in China’s environmental protection work, it is suggested that a pilot project on sulphur dioxide emissions monitoring and trading be carried out next year under the China-US Joint Economic Research and that we carry on from what has now been done in strengthening China’s capability in economic analysis of environmental policies.

Zhou Shengxian said: The Chinese and US sides will also continue strengthening cooperation in the fields of water, the atmosphere, hazardous wastes, and environmental law enforcement, which are also the focuses of China’s environmental protection work. In the future, we hope to make full use of the mechanisms of the Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue, the Sino-US Joint Committee for Cooperation on Environmental Protection, and the environmental working group of the Sino-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade to continuously broaden and deepen cooperation between both sides in the field of environmental protection.

Originally published by Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in Chinese 0455 13 Dec 07.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.