Counting the Varied Costs of China’s Dependence on Coal. The Natural Resources Defense Council has presented research that attempts to take on the Herculean task of quantifying the environmental, social and economic toll of China’s reliance on coal. The report, released Tuesday by the New York-based environmental organization, is part of its China Coal Consumption Cap Project, begun last October in conjunction with Chinese government research organizations, universities and industry groups to help China begin diminishing its use of coal by 2020. Researchers from Tsinghua and Peking universities, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other government-affiliated bodies worked together to develop concrete figures that, according to the study, show how a broad range of ecological problems and human suffering resulting from coal consumption can be discussed in terms of cold, hard cash. Yang Fuqiang, senior adviser on energy, environment and climate change at the council, said that the report was a response to China’s lack of clear quantitative data on the external costs of coal use. ‘‘In order to understand the true impact of coal, we absolutely must talk about all of the hidden costs to society behind it as an industry.’’ The most severe of the costs, air pollution, is readily apparent to the 70 percent of the country’s population found by the study to be living in regions where levels exceed World Health Organization recommendations. Coal and coal-related industrial processes account for 50 percent to 60 percent of the airborne pollutants known as PM 2.5 — or particles 2.5 micrometers or smaller — that make their way deep into the lungs, increasing the likelihood of lung cancer, stroke and other diseases. According to the report, approximately 670,000 people died because of PM 2.5 pollution generated by coal use in 2012. There appears to be little chance that China will ever be completely weaned off coal, despite a decrease in coal consumption for the first time in nearly a century over the first three quarters of this year. There have also been recent high-profile promises to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, including one by Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli at the United Nations climate change summit meeting in September. Yet coal, naturally abundant in the country, accounts for 65 percent of China’s primary energy consumption, the report said. China is the world’s largest consumer of the resource. The price of coal in China is now just over 500 renminbi, or a little more than $80, per ton, a seemingly inexpensive energy source. The study, which used data from 2012, when coal cost more than $100, asserts that for every ton, an additional $43 in social costs was imposed on the country. Pricing mechanisms do not reflect this external expenditure, the report said, because coal producers are required to pay an environmental tax of only $5 to $8 per ton. The study also found that it is consumers like factories and power plants rather than mining companies that are responsible for the majority of this social toll, with 64 percent of the total burden coming from the pollutants released during combustion as coal is transformed into electricity for industrial and residential use. The council and its Chinese partners are developing carbon tax proposals that would take into consideration these ‘‘true costs,’’ to adequately offset them. sinosphere.blogs.nytimes/2014/11/05/counting-the-varied-costs-of-a-dependence-on-coal/?ref=energy-environment
Posted on: Thu, 06 Nov 2014 14:51:45 +0000
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