China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has learnt that senior Chinese legislators on Monday started their second deliberation on a draft amendment to the country’s Law on the Promotion of Clean Production.

The China Daily reported that at the three-day bimonthly session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), members are scheduled to review the newly submitted draft amendment, which has introduced a few key changes after several rounds of opinion gathering.

The new draft highlights a concise definition on the “excessive packaging of products” and a list of detailed conditions under which compulsory clean production checks should be imposed on enterprises.

Chinese legislators believe that the current law, which came into effect in 2003, needs to be revised to meet the requirements on energy conservation and emissions control in the country’s bid to build a greener and more sustainable economy.

The NPC Standing Committee’s review on the previous draft took place last October.

China Watch Blog has learnt that the average cost to heat your home this winter season, will increase by an average of 3% to 8%, depending on the type of fuel you use to heat your home, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Natural Gas users will see a 3% increase on average this winter, but if you look closer, you’ll see folks in the South can expect a 10% increase in their winter heating bills according to Ted Rookstool, President and CEO of Sunheat International.

“If you are one of the over 13 million homeowners in the South who depends on natural gas for heat, expect to pay more, even if you use less,” says Rookstool. The EIA projections include an expected decrease in the use of natural gas due only to expected warmer temperatures.

For people in the Northeast you can expect close to a 5% increase in your natural gas bill and the Midwest can expect a smaller 1% increase. “The reason the overall projections are not higher is because out West the cost of natural gas is projected to decrease slightly,” states Rookstool.

Heating Oil is primarily used in the Northeast. About 80% of all heating oil sales are in this area of the country. The EIA’s short term projects states, “Residential heating oil prices to average $3.71 per gallon during the winter season, 33¢ per gallon more than last winter, and the highest average winter price on record.”

According the EIA website, if you’re one of 7 million homeowners who will depend on heating oil this winter, get ready to pay at least $193 more for heat this season. “On average Sunheat owners save $500 per season off their overall heating costs,” said Rookstool.

Propane is used by only 5% of all households for heating or just over 5.5 million homes. These propane users will pay between 5% and 10% more. The Northeast can expect more than a 10% increase in heating costs or around $250. Homeowners in the Midwest will see a modest 5% increase but once again only if they use less propane. If their volume of propane use remains the same as last year, they can expect to pay an even higher price to heat their homes,

Rookstools says, “Electricity is the only heating fuel that is expected to remain neutral or come down in cost. With an average cost of 11¢ per kwh electricity is safe, clean and efficient.”

The Original SUNHEAT makes the best use of electricity by using it to power infrared heat tubes that produce safe, soft, comfortable heat for any area of your home. You can lower your overall heating costs with The Original SUNHEAT by using less of more costly heating fuels and more of cheaper more efficient electricity.”

China Watch Blog received this interesting, well thought out and well written article in the email called “The Green Thing”, and hopes the writer does not mind us sharing it with our readers as yours truly is also from the generation that used a typewriter to write stories, and had to bash our articles at the telex machine to send them to the publisher (as we did not have faxes in those days).

The Green Thing

In the line at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment.

Recycleable bags

The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

The clerk responded, “*That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment.”*

He was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house – not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.

In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.

Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water.

We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
*
But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?*

*Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person.*

*The Green Thing*

China Watch Blog has learnt that Mainland China will stay the course of sustainable, low-carbon and green development and will never repeat developed countries’ old path of high energy consumption and unlimited emissions, China’s climate chief negotiator says.

China still has a large population living in poverty and it is confronted with a lot of challenges, such as the reduction of poverty, improving living standards and responding to climate change, Xie Zhenhua, head of the Chinese delegation, said at an open plenary during the UN Climate Conference.

“However, such challenges also provide opportunities for countries like China to transform the pattern of its economic growth,” he was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The Chinese government last year announced its mitigation actions, aiming at reducing carbon dioxide emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

“Achieving these targets will require tremendous long-term efforts,” Xie said. “China will adopt comprehensive policies to slow down the speed of emission growth, and strive to reach emission peak as soon as possible.”

He also put forward several suggestions for the conference: maintaining the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Kyoto Protocol the basis for negotiations; continuing to work toward the objective of achieving common development; continuing to strength cooperation as a means to address climate change.

Watch out for this issue and keep an eye on how the money is going to be spent. China began selling 19.5 billion yuan ($2.87 billion) of three-year local government bonds Tuesday, the sixth sale of such bonds this year, Global Times reported.

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) is issuing the bonds on behalf of five provinces and municipalities — Hebei, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guizhou and Shaanxi. The bonds pay a fixed annual interest rate of 2.37 percent, MOF said in a statement on its website.

China Watch Blog has learnt that China is planning a major energy plan.  To promote the development of the emerging energy industries and meet the carbon emissions reduction targets of 2020, the National Energy Administration (NEA) has compiled a development plan for emerging energy industries from 2011 to 2020 that will require direct investments totaling 5 trillion yuan, according to the NEA on July 20.

Jiang Bing, director-general of the Policy Planning Department under the NEA, said that the plan has specified major policy measures for the development and utilization of nuclear, wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, unconventional natural gas and other new energies. The plan has also detailed the industrialized application of new clean coal, smart grid, distributed energy and alternative-fuel vehicle technologies.

According to initial calculations, the new plan will greatly ease China’s excessive reliance on coal in 2020 and cut sulfur dioxide emissions by about 7.8 million tons and carbon dioxide emissions by about 1.2 billion tons in a year. Furthermore, this will contribute 1.5 trillion yuan in added-value per year and create 15 million job opportunities.

The key energy structural adjustment tasks during the 12th Five-Year Plan period include taking effective measures to increase energy efficiency, enhancing the utilization levels of traditional clean energy and expanding the utilization scales of natural gas and other clean energies. It also includes accelerating the construction of hydropower and nuclear power facilities, according to a People’s Daily report.

China Watch Blog has spotted this China Daily News which quoted senior World Trade Organization (WTO) experts on Friday welcoming China’s improved offer to join the WTO government procurement agreement (GPA). They said it was a significant step that would improve the nation’s global image.

Criticizing the tactics adopted by countries like the United States to pressure China, the experts said the GPA member nations themselves are unable to ensure fair and equal treatment for foreign nations.

Deputy US trade representative Demetrios Marantis had earlier said in Washington that China has submitted a new offer to join the WTO agreement on government procurement. He said the revised offer includes significant improvements and was better than the earlier proposal submitted by China in 2007.

WTO experts from China have also welcomed the revised offer. Although details about the new offer are still unclear, “the revised offer indicates that China is more positive and flexible on the GPA issue”, said Tong Zhiguang, former vice-minister of commerce and chief WTO negotiator.

The Ministry of Commerce declined to elaborate on the new proposal and said it was still under negotiation.

“Given that China is one of the leading exporters and trading nations in the world, the relaxation of curbs on government procurement will not hurt the nation too much,” Tong said.

Marantis said the new proposal is a “solid step toward ensuring China’s huge government procurement market is open to US companies”. US officials estimate the size of the government procurement market in China at around $500 billion.

Australia has got its first female prime minister after the ruling party dumped Kevin Rudd and installed his deputy as leader, and the question is whether what are her views of supply chain management, as well as transport logistics.

New leader Julia Gillard will lead the government to general elections due within months, and eyes will be on her to find out what her views are towards the China market.

News agencies report say Gillard is unlikely to alter Australia’s key foreign policy positions such as its troop commitment to Afghanistan. If this is true, she will probably continue Rudd’s China policy and continue building on what her predecessor has done.

Beijing would like to delay tightening monetary policy until it gets a clearer read of the property market and the fallout from euro-area weakness, economists said.

China has kept rates on hold, preferring more targeted administrative measures to curb the property speculation and to curtail bank lending that have fanned inflation.

The measures appear to be working. Property prices slowed in May from April while banks issued 639.4 billion yuan in new loans in May, down from the previous month. New yuan lending in May was less than the 774 billion yuan extended in April.

Initial market jitters that China’s economy, now a prime engine of global recovery, could be hit hard by the European debt crisis eased after data released on Thursday showed its exports soared 48.5 percent year-on-year in May on strong foreign demand for Chinese products.

While Beijing was expected to keep rates and other tightening measures on hold for now, strong exports meant a revaluation of the yuan was likely in the coming months, analysts said.

But, any reform on yuan revaluation will be done in keeping with China’s timing, they said.

China Watch Blog has learnt that industrial profits in China rose 91.55% in the first four months of the year from the same period a year earlier, according to a wide sample of provinces, the statistics agency said.

The data covered industries operating in 24 of the country’s 31 provinces and accounting for 82% of nationwide industrial revenues.

The year-on-year profit increase was 11.1 percentage points lower than the pace in the first quarter for the same sample of provinces, the National Bureau of Statistics said on its website.