2007年5月9日 重工业加剧中国污染
上周二公布的一项研究报告显示,中国各省市之间的激烈竞争,导致能源密集型重工业投资飙升,造成了中国污染状况的迅速恶化。 China's rapidly worsening pollution is being driven by a surge in investment in energy-intensive heavy industry caused by cut-throat competition among cities and provinces, according to a study released Tuesday. The study, by the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, says the huge investment in steel, aluminium, cement and other plant has begun to reverse almost three decades of gains in energy efficiency. "推动中国能源需求的并非空调和汽车,而是重工业,"此项研究的作者、荣中战略咨询(China Strategic Advisory)的荣大聂(Daniel Rosen)和特雷弗o豪泽(Trevor Houser)表示。"由消费主导的需求是中国未来面临的能源挑战。" "It is not air-conditioners and automobiles that are driving China's energy demand but rather heavy industry," say Daniel Rosen and Trevor Houser of China Strategic Advisory, the authors. "Consumption-led demand is China's future energy challenge." China's huge growth has made its economy a global issue because of rising exports of steel, in particular, and the impact on international markets for related commodities. Greenhouse gases are also under scrutiny; the International Energy Agency predicts China could surpass the US as early as this year as the largest emitter of CO2, a figure Beijing disputes. Chinese leaders have set tough new targets to reduce the use of energy per unit of economic output by 20 per cent and pollution by 10 per cent, between 2006 and 2010. But the rise of heavy industry, which the study says caught even Beijing by surprise, means China failed to meet the benchmarks in 2006 and will find it hard to do so by the end of the decade. China now accounts for almost half of the world's flat glass and cement production, more than a third of steel output and 28 per cent of aluminium. Heavy industry consumes 54 per cent of China's energy, up from 39 per cent five years ago. A structural bias towards heavy industry, which dominated in the centrally planned Maoist-era economy, means energy intensity has worsened even though Chinese steel plants have become more efficient. "A new steel plant, no matter how much more efficient than its peers, uses substantially more energy than a garment factory," the study says. The study blames the growth of heavy industry on cut-throat internal competition. "The rules of competition are set not just by Beijing but also by local interests, including state-owned heavy industrial enterprises," it says. "And regardless of who sets the rules, the reality of how they are implemented is almost entirely a local matter." |