* SHANGHAI * 上海

Shanghai Areas will grow and take care of the air "pollution" problems at the same time

Shanghai to shut down 29 coal power plants by 2010 - en.sxcoal.com, April 14, 2007

The 300-foot, 400-ton turbine is one of 34 that will be installed at the Shanghai Donghai Bridge Offshore Wind Farm Project and is expected to be operational by May 2010 - solveclimate.com ,by Stacy Feldman - Apr 3rd, 2009

According to estimates by CNPC [China National Petroleum Corporation], the full operation of the second West-East pipeline [natural gas] will raise the ratio by one to two percentage points, while replacing 76.8 million tons of coal and reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide by 1.66 million tons and carbon dioxide by 150 million tons.

The first West-East pipeline, which pipes gas from the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang to Shanghai, transmits 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually.

By connecting Central Asia to China's economically prosperous Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, and linking natural gas fields in the Tarim, Junggar, Tuha and Erdos basins, the second West-East pipeline would improve China's energy consumption structure by increasing natural gas use and promoting international energy cooperation, said experts.

China's booming demand for natural gas has prompted fierce competition.

China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), China's second largest oil firm, said it would start construction of its Sichuan-to East-China Gas Project to transmit gas from the Puguang field in southwestern Sichuan Province to Shanghai at the end of this month.

The Sinopec project is estimated to have a total investment of 63.2 billion yuan (8.3 billion U.S. dollars). Gas supply is expected to commence by the end of 2008, said the company in its interim results.

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- news.xinhuanet.com, 2007-08-27


Workers Friday began pouring concrete to the foundation of the last of the two new generating units planned as an addition to the first phase of the Qinshan nuclear power plant on the northern coast of Hangzhou Bay, Zhejiang province - chinadaily.com.cn, 2009-07-18

alec74 said:

"with a few years delay"...that's what was written, and that's what it is (u also confirmed that in ur post)...the rest is ur usual "climbing on the mirrors" thing.
Percentages of emissions cut and anything else (though important on the whole) has nothing to with that simple and true statement u previously denied, and now directly confirmed (as it is simply true), but try nevertheless to indirectly deny...

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I was just pointing out the significance of the 'with a few year's delay', which I believe makes a rather big difference. Each emission standard allows about half as much pollutants as the previous one, and vehicle numbers have grown exponentially - do the maths. It means total annual emmisions have still been steadily increasing, and the more the delay in adopting new standards the faster the increase.

Also there's the unfortunte fact that quality of fuel in China is pretty low - which means the same engine will pollute more in China than countries with fuels of higher quality. Coupled with dubious maintenance of fleets you frequently see huge black clouds coming out of a vehicle that's actually on EU2 standards.

There's no denying that more stringent emission standards are being adopted, but that doesn't automatically translate to reduced total emissions. In fact all the other related factors suggest otherwise. That's not just my own 'axe-to-grind' opinion - it's widely acknowledged among transport and environmental experts.

maldini said:

Many of these so-called western cities have way too many vehicles and pollution, and therefore they waste too much energy. These western cities should learn from Shanghai instead. Lower percentage of car ownership is actually a good thing.
Therefore, your concept of "has to settle for a substantially lower percentage of car ownership" is stupid.

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Look, the current discussion is about total emission, not so much personal emission. Vehicle use and emission per person is undeniably lower in Shanghai than in Western cities, but total vehicle use and emission per square metre of land is a totally different kettle of fish. Unfortunately the amount of air doesn't increase as population density increases, so the notion of total emission is actually more relevant. So if we are to enjoy good air quality simply 'lower car ownership' won't do - it has to be a much, much, much lower percentage. Judging by the shear number of my extended family members and friends in China have cars and once they do they forget everything public transport, and this is reflected in the wider society, I'm not sure Shanghai is going down the right path.