stories_for_china
Disasters make 14 million people homeless each year.
About 14 million people are being made homeless on average each year as a result of sudden disasters such as floods and storms, new figures show.
Eight of the ten countries with the highest levels of displacement and housing loss are in South and Southeast Asia
By Adela Suliman
LONDON, Oct 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - About 14 million people are being made homeless on average each year as a result of sudden disasters such as floods and storms, new figures show.
The risk of displacement could rise as populations swell and the impacts of climate change become more severe, said a report issued on Friday by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and tropical cyclones are the main disasters forecast to uproot large numbers of people, with countries in Asia, home to 60 percent of the world's population, hit particularly hard, according to modelling by the agencies.
Eight of the ten countries with the highest levels of displacement and housing loss are in South and Southeast Asia.
They include India, where an average of 2.3 million people are forced to leave their homes annually, and China with 1.3 million people uprooted each year, found the report, released on the International Day for Disaster Reduction.
The numbers exclude those evacuated ahead of a threat, and people displaced by drought or rising seas.
Russia and the United States also feature as countries where disasters could cause large-scale homelessness, unless significant progress is made on managing disaster risk, the study said.
"The findings underline the challenge we have to reduce the numbers of people affected by disasters," said Robert Glasser, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative for disaster risk reduction.
"Apart from death or severe injury in a disaster event, there is no more crushing blow than the loss of the family home," he added in a statement.
The most devastating floods to hit South Asia in a decade killed more than 1,400 people this year, and focused attention on poor planning for disasters, as authorities struggled to assist millions of destitute survivors.
Refugees and people uprooted in their own countries are already at record-high numbers, said IDMC director Alexandra Bilak. The new model goes some way towards predicting the risk of disaster-related displacement, which is an "urgent, global priority", she noted.
It is also intended to help urban planners in hazard-prone towns and cities who must consider the safety and durability of built-up areas and the threats to millions living there. Justin Ginnetti, head of data and analysis at the IDMC, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation there was a strong correlation between the risk of being uprooted by a disaster and residing in a rapidly urbanising location.
With the poor often living on the outskirts of cities, on flood plains or along river banks, Ginnetti said better urban planning could make them less vulnerable.
He contrasted Japan and the Philippines, which have roughly the same number of people exposed to cyclones. Japan builds more robust housing and so faces far less displacement in a disaster than the Philippines, where homes are less able to withstand shocks, he said.
"We don't want people to think of disaster displacement as some kind of inevitable act of God - this is not (a) necessary outcome every time there's heavy rainfall," he said.
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Asia-Pacific faces more damaging disaster threat, UN warns.
Natural disasters could become more destructive in Asia-Pacific, where a person is already five times more likely to be affected than in other regions, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, urging countries to invest in resilience plans.
By Beh Lih Yi
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Natural disasters could become more destructive in Asia-Pacific, where a person is already five times more likely to be affected than in other regions, the United Nations warned on Tuesday, urging countries to invest in resilience plans.
Home to 60 percent of the world's population, Asia-Pacific is the planet's most disaster-prone region.
FACTBOX-Asia-Pacific: the world's most disaster-prone region
Last year, floods, storms and extreme temperatures killed 4,987 people - far fewer than the annual average since 1970 - and affected some 34.5 million, according to the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2017.
Poor and lower middle-income countries, which are typically least able to prepare for and respond to weather hazards, suffered about 15 times more deaths from disasters than richer Asian nations, said the report released by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).
Disasters can have "deeply disruptive effects on livelihoods" and further disadvantage already vulnerable people, many in rural areas, pushing more into poverty, it said.
In addition to the human costs, the ESCAP research indicated that between 2015 and 2030, 40 percent of global economic losses from disasters would occur in Asia-Pacific.
"It also shows that future natural disasters may have greater destructive potential," ESCAP said in a statement.
The commission said disaster risks exacerbated by climate change were likely to increase in the region.
They include more life-threatening heatwaves, worsening floods and droughts, more frequent and powerful tropical cyclones, and heavier monsoon rains in East Asia and India.
ESCAP head Shamshad Akhtar urged countries to fill gaps in their plans for dealing with disasters.
"The absence of an institutionalised insurance culture and adequate post-disaster financing threaten our extraordinary economic and developmental achievements," she said.
According to the report, the countries facing the greatest economic losses from disasters are the region's largest economies like Japan and China.
But its least-developed and small island nations could be hit hardest, losing between 2.5 and 4 percent of their gross domestic product annually.
ESCAP called for actions to mitigate disaster risk linked to climate change, including setting up a regional early warning system and investing in disaster risk education.
It said building disaster resilience into agricultural development plans was important, as studies showed most poor people in Asia-Pacific are farmers in rural areas.
"It is... critical for improving livelihoods and reducing poverty," the report said.
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China hastens the world toward an electric-car future.
The biggest automakers in the world are being forced to follow Beijing’s lead as China takes steps to dominate in electric vehicles and technology.
China Hastens the World Toward an Electric-Car Future
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By KEITH BRADSHEROCT. 9, 2017
A driver waiting for his electric car to be charged at a station in Beijing. Already the world’s largest maker and buyer of electric cars, China is forcing the rest of the auto industry toward a battery-powered future. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
SHENZHEN, China — There is a powerful reason that automakers worldwide are speeding up their efforts to develop electric vehicles — and that reason is China.
Propelled by vast amounts of government money and visions of dominating next-generation technologies, China has become the world’s biggest supporter of electric cars. That is forcing automakers from Detroit to Yokohama and Seoul to Stuttgart to pick up the pace of transformation or risk being left behind in the world’s largest car market.
Beijing has already called for one out of every five cars sold in China to run on alternative fuel by 2025. Last month, China issued new rules that would require the world’s carmakers to sell more alternative-energy cars here if they wanted to continue selling regular ones. A Chinese official recently said the country would eventually do away with the internal combustion engine in new cars.
“We are seeing ourselves at a crossroads in the development of the automobile industry in this country, with a global scale in mind,” said Jürgen Stackmann, Volkswagen’s top executive for VW brand sales and marketing, during a visit to Shanghai.
China has reshaped industries before — clothing, steel making, even lace — through a potent mix of government support and cheap labor. More recently it has transformed green-energy businesses like solar and wind power.
This, however, would be on a different scale.
If China succeeds — and there is no guarantee — Beijing’s policy makers will be front and center reimagining the global auto industry, a business that has helped define communities, industries and people’s aspirations for more than a century. It is a role that was almost inconceivable just a few decades ago, when China was more closely associated with a different type of green transportation: the black, classic Flying Pigeon bicycle.
China feels it has little choice in pressing forward. While it is true that electric vehicles fit neatly into China’s plan to become the world leader in sci-fi technology like artificial intelligence, the country also fears a dark future — one where its cities remain cloaked in smog and it is beholden to foreign countries to sell it the oil it needs.
Photo
Beijing’s Third Ring Road in a heavy haze in 2014. China is pushing ahead with electric cars, but nearly three-quarters of the country’s power comes from coal, which emits more climate-changing gases than oil. Credit Jason Lee/Reuters
Already, China is the world’s largest maker and seller of electric cars. Chinese buyers are on track to snap up almost 300,000 of them this year, three times the number expected to be sold in the United States and more than the rest of the world combined.
The country’s market heft is considerable. China buys more General Motors-branded cars than Americans do. Even for Tesla, the still-small American maker of luxury electric sedans, China has become the second-largest market, even though China’s taxes on imported cars are 10 times as high as those in the United States. Tesla officials have said they are considering opening a factory in China.
A week ago, G.M. and Ford unveiled plans to add a combined 33 electric models to their lineups. Global manufacturers like G.M. and Volkswagen are also moving much of their research, development and production of electric cars to China. China in turn is pressuring them to share that technology with their Chinese partners.
Behind the scenes, China is recruiting some of the world’s best electrical engineering talent, even in the United States. China is also home to many smaller companies that make the parts essential to assembling electric cars. All this comes just as electric cars are finally starting to become competitive with gasoline- or diesel-powered cars on performance and cost.
Electric cars are an increasingly common sight in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. For some drivers here, electric cars are all they know.
“I don’t plan to buy a gasoline car, since I heard they are going to be banned for sale,” said Xiong Jianghuai, a lawyer based in Shanghai, who has bought two made by Chery, a Chinese automaker. He said he was delighted that the operating cost was less than one-fifth of the cost of buying gasoline, even if the initial purchase price was a little higher.
“I think the future lies in electric cars,” Mr. Xiong said.
Many outside China — including some members of President Trump’s administration — say China is using unfair government support to create national champions that could eclipse their rivals abroad.
More Watts on the Road
Number of battery-electric cars sold or projected to sell, in thousands.
Note: 2017, 2018 and 2019 figures are forecasts.
Source: LMC Automotive
Chinese auto executives say their country is pursuing common-sense policies to develop cutting-edge industries.
“In China, the entrepreneurs in the industrial sector are very lucky, because we have the foundation” from the government, said Li Bin, the founder and chairman of the NIO Company, a Chinese electric car manufacturer. “These opportunities are rare or impossible in any other country in the world.”
China’s ability to dominate electric cars is not ensured. China’s auto manufacturing skills are considerable, but it has yet to create a single car model that has become popular abroad.
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Even in China, most car buyers still prefer Fords, Chevrolets and Volkswagens largely made by government-mandated joint ventures between global and Chinese companies. When it comes to electric cars, most Chinese models are inexpensive and boxy, unlike the sleek lines and looming falcon-wing doors of Tesla’s latest models.
Chinese officials have long called for electric cars to be practical, and not just luxuries.
“The central government has made a lot of strategies for the development of new energy vehicles,” said Song Qiuling, a deputy director at China’s Finance Ministry. “That is why we have seen the progress and development of new energy vehicles.”
Some players have already stumbled. Faraday Future, an electric car company based in the United States but owned by a Chinese company, scaled back after its parent hit hard financial times. China yanked electric-car subsidies away from a number of local companies after an investigation last year showed that many were overstating sales.
The environmental benefits may be tough to realize any time soon. Nearly three-quarters of China’s power comes from coal, which emits more climate-changing gases than oil. Even on electricity, China’s cars are still burning dirty.
Photo
Customers waiting last week in the showroom of a car dealership selling electric vehicles in Beijing. Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times
China is also favoring battery electric technology that it can call its own. Foreign automakers already control much of the advanced technology behind fuel-sipping alternatives such as plug-in hybrids, like the Toyota Prius, which runs on both gasoline power and an electric battery.
Still, electric cars make particular sense in China. China’s dense and crowded cities often mean shorter driving distances, while its extensive high-speed rail system reduces the need for long-distance road trips.
Han Tao discovered the limits of electric cars the hard way. A 35-year-old stock investor in Beijing, he said he ran out of charge in July while driving to Shenzhen, 1,300 miles away. His Chinese-made BYD E6 electric sedan needed a tow.
Still, he said, he and his wife prefer the E6 over the gasoline-powered Chevrolet Cruze they bought four years earlier.
“It doesn’t have the oily smell and the noise from the engine,” Mr. Han said. “It accelerates way faster than gasoline cars. It feels like you are on a high-speed train.”
China’s push for electric cars shows how its industrial ambitions can endure big political shifts. China named a former Audi engineer, Wan Gang, its minister of science and technology in 2007, and he has kept the position and maintained the push despite the emergence of a new slate of Chinese leaders.
Wen Jiabao, China’s second-most-powerful official as premier from 2002-12, was an avid supporter of electric cars who came from Tianjin, the center of China’s battery industry. Mr. Wen’s successor as premier, Li Keqiang, has also turned government backing for high-tech industries into his signature accomplishment, while President Xi Jinping has strongly endorsed the effort.
“The development of new energy vehicles,” said Xu Chaoqian, a top aide to Mr. Wan, “has received a lot of support from President Xi, Premier Li and others.”
Follow Keith Bradsher on Twitter, @KeithBradsher.
Ailin Tang in Shanghai and Adam Wu contributed research from Beijing.
A version of this article appears in print on October 10, 2017, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: China Hastens A Global Move To Electric Cars. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
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Gas trucks boom in China as government curbs diesel in war on smog.
Sales of large LNG trucks are expected to hit record levels in China this year as the government steps up an anti-pollution campaign that includes curbs on heavy-duty diesel vehicles.
A logo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is pictured on a LNG truck outside a heavy-duty truck shop in Yutian county, China's Hebei province September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee
YUTIAN, China (Reuters) - On a recent morning in Yutian, a dusty town bisected by the highway that connects Beijing to the sea, Su Meiquan strolled into a dealership packed with hulking trucks and prepared to drive off with a brand new rig.
After years of driving a diesel truck for a trucking company, he had decided to buy his own vehicle – a bright red rig fueled with liquefied natural gas, capable of hauling as much as 40 tonnes of loads like steel or slabs of marble.
Su hopes the LNG truck - less polluting and cheaper to operate than diesel ones - will be the cornerstone of his own business, plying the route to the western fringes of China.
“Everybody says gas is cleaner with nearly no emissions,” he said after signing a stack of paperwork in the dealer’s office. In front of him, photos of proud drivers posing in front of their own new LNG trucks had been taped to the wall.
Sales of large LNG trucks are expected to hit record levels in China this year as the government steps up an anti-pollution campaign that includes curbs on heavy-duty diesel vehicles.
LNG trucks account for about four percent of the more than six million heavy vehicles able to haul 40 to 49 tonnes of goods that are currently on China’s roads. The vast majority of the 43 billion tonnes of freight transported across China last year was by highway.
But demand for LNG trucks is soaring as companies and manufacturers shift to vehicles that run on the gas that Beijing sees as a key part of its war against smog.
Sales of LNG heavy trucks surged 540 percent to nearly 39,000 in the first seven months of the year, according to Cassie Liu, a truck analyst with the IHS Markit consultancy.
That was partly fueled by a ban this year on the use of diesel trucks to transport coal at northern ports in provinces like Hebei and Shandong, and in the city of Tianjin.
“We are seeing a blowout in LNG trucks this year, thanks to the government’s policy push,” said Mu Lei, marketing manager for China National Heavy Duty Truck Group [CNHTC.UL], known as Sinotruk, the country’s largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks.
The shift to gas trucks is helping fuel demand for LNG in China, as are other government measures aimed at clearing the air, especially in the north, which is shrouded in a hazardous coal-fueled smog for much of the winter.
One major project is piping gas to 1.4 million households across the north for heating this winter, shifting away from coal.
China, already the world’s No.3 LNG consumer, has seen imports jump 45 percent so far this year. [O/CHINA7]
Chinese companies like Jereh Group and ENN Energy Holding, which build LNG filling stations, and Zhangjiagang CIMC Sanctum Cryogenic Equipment Co., Ltd, which specialises in LNG tanks, are expected to benefit from the gas boom, analysts said.
OVERLOAD, PORTS
Government restrictions on cargo overloading last year, for safety reasons, has also driven truck sales as operators rushed to buy bigger trucks.
Pictures show customers with their new liquefied natural gas (LNG) trucks at a heavy-duty truck shop in Yutian county, China's Hebei province September 29, 2017. REUTERS/Jason Lee
Next month, Beijing will also impose restrictions on thousands of northern factories using diesel trucks, forcing many to use more rail and others to consider gas-powered lorries.
Sales of new heavy-duty trucks, including diesel and LNG vehicles, jumped 75 percent in the January-August period to 768,214, according to industry website www.chinatruck.org.
It did not break down the numbers, but companies say that diesel growth is being dwarfed by that of the LNG trucks.
Last week, Sinotruk netted new orders for 1,371 heavy-duty trucks, 900 of which run on LNG, at an event bringing together coal transport companies from seven northern Chinese cities, Mu said. In the first half of this year, Sinotruk sold 5,200 LNG trucks, up 650 percent year on year.
“Gas trucks are both more environmentally friendly and more economic,” said Lai Wei, general manager of Tianjin Shengteng Transport Company, a privately-run trucking company.
Lai is tripling his LNG fleet to more than 100 by the end of this year, adding 65 new trucks made by Shaanxi Heavy Duty Automobile Co. Ltd [WCPOWA.UL], the country’s largest LNG vehicle producer.
Slideshow (7 Images)
He is also cutting back his diesel fleet to 30 from 50 previously because of the new emissions rules in Tianjin that come into effect this month.
Only vehicles meeting “National Five” emissions standards, similar to Euro V standards for trucks and buses in Europe, will be allowed to operate at the port.
Lai said he was also concerned that there might be further restrictions on diesel trucks in a few years.
CLEANER, CHEAPER
China, the world’s top energy guzzler, wants gas, which emits half the carbon dioxide as that of burning coal, to supply 15 percent of energy demand by 2030, up from 6 percent currently.
That effort stalled in 2014 as an oil price slump lifted demand for diesel. But as oil prices have risen in the past 20 months, rebounding to above $50, LNG sales, especially from Australia and the United States, have soared.[O/CHINA7]
Diesel costs between 10-30 percent more than gas on average currently at Chinese gas stations, according to truck companies.
For Su, the new truck owner in Yutian, about 140 kilometers to the east of Beijing, price is a major reason for making the switch from diesel.
He plans to hire two drivers to shuttle the 3,500 kilometers between Yutian and Urumqi, in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, to carry steel products west and coal or other goods on the way back.
“It really suits our journeys as the longer the trip, the more you save on fuel on an LNG truck,” he said. He is paying 390,000 yuan for a Sinotruk rig, about 60,000 yuan more than a diesel truck would have cost.
“On a return trip, we can save 3,000 yuan in fuel,” he added. “That means we’ll be able to recoup within a year the extra cost on the vehicle.”
Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Philip McClellan
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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China diverts 10 billion cubic meters of water to arid north in massive project.
Water supplies in north have been challenged by droughts, a surging population, agriculture, and manufacturing growth.
China diverts 10 billion cubic metres of water to arid north in massive project
by Reuters
Wednesday, 4 October 2017 02:19 GMT
Water supplies in north have been challenged by droughts, a surging population, agriculture, and manufacturing growth
BEIJING, Oct 4 (Reuters) - China has transferred 10 billion cubic meters of fresh water from the country's south to its drought-prone north in the few years since a massive water diversion project came onstream, authorities said on Tuesday.
In recent decades, water supplies in north have been challenged by protracted droughts, a surging population, agriculture, and unprecedented manufacturing growth.
China aims to ultimately supply 44.8 billion cubic meters annually to the north via the ambitious water diversion project. That would be about seven percent of the volume of water consumed by the entire country in 2015.
The expensive engineering project, which involves transferring water from the south via three major routes, was first mooted as early as the 1950s.
Along the middle route, the water pumped from the Yangtze River has gone to Beijing, Tianjin and the provinces of Henan and Hebei, according to the South-to-North Water Diversion Office under the State Council, or Cabinet.
The middle route carries water through canals, water highways and pipelines from Danjiangkou reservoir in central Hubei Province. It came into operation in late 2014.
The project has supplied 2.7 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing, serving 11 million people.
Currently about 70 percent of Beijing's water supply comes from the project. Previously the city's water supply came mainly from underground water.
Tianjin received 2.2 billion cubic meters of water while Henan and Hebei got 3.5 billion cubic meters and 1.1 billion cubic meters, respectively.
China aims to keep national annual water consumption below 670 billion cubic metres through to 2020, as part of efforts to ease chronic regional shortages by cutting waste and boosting efficiency.
(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Michael Perry)
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China will meet 2020 carbon reduction target, Xie Zhenhua says.
China is on track to fulfill or possibly surpass its commitment of cutting its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020, the country’s chief negotiator at the Paris Agreement has said.
hina is on track to fulfil or possibly surpass its commitment of cutting its carbon intensity by 40 to 45 per cent from 2005 levels by 2020, the country’s chief negotiator at the Paris Agreement has said.
Xie Zhenhua said in Hong Kong on Tuesday that despite the United States’ planned withdrawal from the agreement, China’s commitment to fight climate change is unwavering.
China has already cut its carbon intensity – the amount of carbon emissions per unit of GDP growth – by 39 per cent this year while sustaining economic growth, said Xie, who is also former head of the State Environmental Protection Administration.
“There should be no problems meeting the 40 to 45 per cent target in 2020. (China) may even do better than that,” he said.
Xie was in Hong Kong to receive one of the three Lui Che Wo prizes for his efforts in tackling global warming. He will be donating the HK$20 million prize money to the Tsinghua University Education Foundation. He is the winner in the sustainability category.
Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump announced his decision to withdraw his government’s ratification of the international agreement to limit emissions of greenhouse gases. He said at the time that the agreement “is less about the climate and more about other nations gaining a financial advantage over the United States”.
Trump’s decision reversed a key pillar of former President Barack Obama’s effort to combat an increase in global temperatures, which scientists say has been hastened by the burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels.
The move also cedes global climate action leadership to China.
Xie said that the US’s withdrawal would not harm China’s commitment to fight climate change. China’s position on the agreement has been very clear, he said, as President Xi Jinping has already made clear that the agreement did not come easily and so should not give up on it easily.
The chief negotiator also said that the US’s withdrawal would not harm other countries in fulfilling their commitments, saying that many countries have already stated they would adhere to the agreement.
On his thoughts about receiving the prize, Xie said it is more than a personal encouragement.
“It is not only a great encouragement to me,” he said.
“But also the recognition of our country’s long-term efforts and achievement of coordinating of both domestic and international dimensions, transiting from tackling the challenge of climate change to promoting the historic opportunity to achieve sustainable development and pushing the transition towards green low-carbon development.”
Awards in the other two categories – positive energy and welfare betterment – went respectively to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and Landesa, a non-governmental organisation based in the US that has helped to secure land rights for 120 million poor rural families in 50 countries since 1967.
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China's northern cities face soot-free winter with gas revolution.
Yao Guanghui and his family are among millions of people across northern China preparing for their first winter to be heated by gas - part of a government effort to wean the nation off dirty coal and improve the nation’s notoriously bad air.
XIAOZHANGWAN, China (Reuters) - As freezing winds whip across northern China this winter, Yao Guanghui is happy he’ll have one less chore to do: feeding the coal furnace that has long heated his small house on the outskirts of Beijing.
Traipsing outside on freezing nights to haul coal for the two big burners in his kitchen was his least favorite household job.
But next month, the 60-year-old will turn on the heating with a flick of a switch on the gas-powered boiler that sits in a sooty alcove that once housed his coal furnaces.
“My face and nostrils would be covered with coal dust by the time I got into the kitchen,” he said on Thursday, recalling his efforts to carry coal into his two-room house during the long winter. “We hope this winter will be much cleaner and warmer.”
Yao and his family are among millions of people across northern China preparing for their first winter to be heated by gas - part of a government effort to wean the nation off dirty coal and improve the nation’s notoriously bad air.
The massive effort involves almost 4 million homes in 28 cities. The government is plowing tens of billions of yuan into the project to install equipment, build thousands of kilometers of pipes and subsidize the higher costs of gas.
(Graphic for China planning to connect more than 4 million homes in 28 cities with gas this winter, click reut.rs/2yRDVdt)
Beijing has been under increasing pressure to deal with chronic air pollution amid concerns about the damage it is causing to people’s health. Smog gets worse during the colder months when homes in the north of the country crank up heat that is overwhelmingly fired by coal.
The air quality index for the area around the village on Thursday morning was just 4, a low level anywhere in the world. But when smog shrouds the capital during the winter, the index often rockets into the hundreds to hazardous levels.
Air pollution caused by coal-fired winter heating has slashed life expectancy in the north by more than three years compared with the south, according to a recent study by the University of Chicago (EPIC).
Among other measures, China has pledged to impose tough industrial and traffic curbs this winter and is also in the process of shutting thousands of coal-fired industrial boilers.
(Graphic for China's changing energy mix targets more gas, less coal, click reut.rs/2yR8rUS)
For the global gas market, the potential impact of gasifying the world’s second-largest economy is enormous, with Russia and the United States poised to benefit from China’s growing need for foreign supplies.
Wood Mackenzie reckons the effort will add 10 billion cubic meters of gas demand this winter. That’s about 5 percent of China’s consumption last year or the equivalent of Vietnam’s total annual use. The project will also need heavy investment in infrastructure such as pipelines and storage tanks.
STAGGERING
The pace and scale of the project over the past six months has been staggering, even for a place like China, where high-rise tower blocks and shopping malls go up with blistering speed.
A Reuters analysis of data released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection shows that two-thirds of the cities under the program have surpassed the target set by the government to switch at least 50,000 homes to clean fuel by November.
That target would have meant 1.4 million homes, but two cities, Baoding and Langfang in Hebei, account for most of that together.
Beijing Gas, which is overseeing the plan in the capital, must lay over 3,000 kilometers of pipelines and build 400 gas stations. It has connected 300,000 residents so far.
(Graphic for China's plan to use more gas will require a substantial increase in gas-handling infrastructure, click reut.rs/2yjjhGg)
Slideshow (8 Images)
“Some of these projects are more complicated than we expected,” said an official from Beijing Gas who declined to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media. He said the project involved building pipelines that went under the Great Wall and crossed environmentally sensitive areas.
PILES OF BOILERS
On a recent visit to Yao’s village of Xiaozhangwan, a few kilometers from the outskirts of Beijing, old boilers were stacked along dusty narrow alleyways ready for scrapping.
Government engineers were rushing to install new radiators in 300 homes before the onset of winter.
In many houses, the radiators will replace systems that have been used for centuries in rural villages in northern China - burning coal to heat large beds where whole families gather during the winter.
Workmen were digging up the main street to lay the feeder pipeline that is connected to one of three pipelines that run for thousands of kilometers from Shaanxi province to China’s northeast.
(Graphic for China's energy mix since 2000, click reut.rs/2yRZUkF)
Some villagers are skeptical that gas will be as powerful and resilient as coal and have insulated the walls of their homes and sealed windows to make them more efficient.
As they embark into the unknown, many residents also worry about higher bills. Gas costs almost double that of coal.
The government will supply about 2,000 cubic meters of gas worth almost 5,000 yuan ($748.95) at a discount to current residential gas prices, but Yao is unsure if that would see him through a particularly cold winter.
“I don’t know if that would be enough for heating and cooking for the family,” said Yao. “We will need to pay extra cost if we use more than that.”
Reporting by Meng Meng and Josephine Mason; Editing by Philip McClellan
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