Ryan Pyle Blog: China Rejects Polluting Projects

Hello.

According to the Chinese government, you always have to state that when you offer up government statistics because they can never truly be taken as fact, the government rejected USD 27.9 billion of project proposals because they would increase pollution levels.

Now, what can we truly make of this? Window dressing or serious mind shift? And, if it is true and given the already polluted state of the Chinese landscape, how absolutely terrible must these projects of been to be cancelled by a government bent on economic growth and job creation? I shudder to think.

China is already the worlds' largest emitter of greenhouse gases and is also perhaps the world's most aggressive pursuer of greener forms of energy. A strange, but true, contradiction. China has reduced energy use per unite of DGP by 16 percent at the end of 2009, from baseline levels in 2005; and while that is impressive no one really knows what that means and how it'll influence quality of life.

In my opinion China will become a world leader in renewables and they will continue to be world leaders in R&D, and an important testing ground for everything from LED Lights to Solar, Wind, Biofuel and carbon capture. With no congress standing in the way the central government in China has a free hand to pursue their agenda to clean the country up with a free hand; and it'll be interesting to see, especially in secondary cities, how this improves quality of life.

I can tell you that for the last 8 or 9 years Shanghai has improved, in both air quality and bluer skies, every year. Now, I'm no government spokesman, but I really believe that. I live here, day in and day out. If I thought I was risking my life and things were getting worse I most likely wouldn't base myself in China. But I think the opposite. City life, especially in Shanghai and Beijing, is improving. The rest of the country is lagging far behind, and it'll be a great test to see how the government can help pull up the rest of the country, their political power and legitimacy will depend on this fact. More big, nasty, polluting projects will be cancelled in the future; but let's hope it makes a real difference.

Copywrite: Bloomberg
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Bloomberg News, sent from my iPhone.
China Rejects $27.9 Billion of Polluting Projects

Jan. 25 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, rejected 190.48 billion yuan ($27.9 billion) of project proposals last year because of concern they will worsen pollution, the environment agency said.

As many as 49 projects weren’t approved in 2009 as they failed to meet government requirements, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on its Web site today.

China is bolstering efforts to reduce pollution and boost the use of cleaner forms of energy such as wind, solar and natural gas. The country plans to cut output of carbon dioxide gas per unit of gross domestic product by as much as 45 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels, the State Council, or cabinet, said in November.

“The environment ministry will increase the investigation into projects in 2010 and make timely releases of the environment quality of major rivers and cities,” the ministry said in a separate report.

China is on course to meet a 2010 target of cutting energy use per unit of GDP, said Xie Zhenhua, the country’s top climate negotiator, said on Jan. 9.

The country has reduced energy use per unit of GDP by 16 percent at the end of 2009 from the base level in 2005, Xie, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said then.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ying Wang in Beijing at ywang30@bloomberg.net

Find out more about Bloomberg for iPhone: http://m.bloomberg.com/iphone
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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: China's Steel Town

Hello,

I wanted to write and make you aware of some recent work I've completed. I recently visited Baotou city, home to Bao Steel - China's seventh largest steel producer, for several reasons. The first reason was to look at how China was, after the Olympics, back to it's old polluting ways. Upon my visit to Baotou it was business as usual, even though they had been hurt by the financial crisis the mill was still full steam ahead with China's stimulus package focused on infrastructure local steel mills have increased production year on year. Now with Chinese steel companies bargaining hard, perhaps too hard, for iron ore prices; it might be an interesting time to actually take a look at what one of these steel mills, and the town surrounding it actually look like.

LINK: Ryan Pyle Archive

Summary:
Baotou is an excellent example of being a one-industry town, and that industry is steel. Baotou is also notorious as a big polluter mostly from the large Bao Steel factory. With Baotou sitting directly west of Beijing much of Beijing's notorious smog and haze comes from cities such as Baotou. With the economic stimulus package that was just earmarked for infrastructure and housing you can bet China's environmental goals have been put on hold for the foreseeable future, my guess is that the residents of Baotou may not mind too much; after all social stability is key.

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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Ryan Pyle Blog: Job Opening in Linfen

Hello,

I recently read something in the media back in April that made me stop and think. The article made a specific reference to the two jobs of Mayor and Party Secretary for the city of Linfen, which have both been vacant for six months, in coal rich Shanxi province in Central China.

First a bit of background. Linfen is a particularly nasty place (which I have no pictures of!). It ranked #1 on CNN's most polluted cities in the world list in 2008. It's a coal, cement and pulp and paper kind of place. In one interview a television correspondent asked a woman, who was holding a young child, if she knew the sky's color is actually blue; she had no idea, she believe the sky's natural color was gray. She'd never been outside of Linfen.

While Linfen is particularly dirty it is also known for lapses in safety and environmental planning. The township has been the site of several massive accidents in the past few years from coal mine collapses, which kill miners, to massive reservoirs of toxic sludge breaking their dam and engulfing entire villages. For the last few years the job of mayor or party secretary in Linfen has been a game of musical chairs, no one seems to last more than a year before a major environmental "incident" causes several of the main leadership to resign or be fired.

Now the inner workings of the Communist Party is a black box to outsiders like myself. We have virtually no idea what is going on and the power politics involved. For years it was my assumption, and perhaps the assumption of much of the media that I was reading, that Party Secretaries of townships and counties were local, and heavily involved in business. To contrast that the provincial Party Secretaries are from different provinces and tend to rotate every 3-5 years.

So if local Party Secretaries can operate in area's they have grown up in, and have at their disposal vast powers and business connections why is it that the job of Party Secretary and Mayor for Linfen is still vacant, six month after the last environmental incident claimed the last duo? Perhaps the power of local Party Secretaries and Mayors are no match for the power politics being played by coal and cement producers throughout the province. My best guess is that coal mine owners and cement factory owners bypass local governments and townships and report straight to provincial Party Secretaries, who in turn for their loyalty are allowed to work freely throughout the province.

That would mean that a lot of local town and county officials are caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to introduce change and or safety standards, if that was the case, and completely responsible for anything that happens on their turf; for which they would have absolutely no control over. But surely the vacant posts in question would yield back handers and opportunities to exercise influence for financial gain; but with all that being frowned upon at the moment from Beijing, it's clear that some government posts are just completely unattractive. I never would have thought that.

Is anyone reading in to this situation differently? Anyone heard anything else on the topic?

Sorry this post has little to do with photography, but I tend to find these sorts of political plays in China incredibly interesting.

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Ryan Pyle
Photographer
ryan@ryanpyle.com
Website: www.ryanpyle.com
Archive: http://archive.ryanpyle.com
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