Australia debates value of electric vehicles while China pushes ahead

When Hong Dan, 26, bought her first car six months ago, the choice to go electric was simple.

Young Beijing resident Dan Hong charges her new electric vehicle at a public charging station.

First, in pollution-conscious Beijing, getting a licence plate for an electric car is easier than a petrol car.

Beijing's annual quota for conventional tail-pipe licence plates was more than halved this year, from 90,000 to 40,000, and the capital is among seven major Chinese cities to restrict conventional licence plates. Would-be drivers wait years in an annual lottery.

Those willing to get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle wait just a few months, with 60,000 plates on offer.

Read Kirsty Needham’s story from today’s Melbourne Age - “Australia debates value of electric vehicles while China pushes ahead.”

(The conversation, or the “debate” if you prefer to call it that, about electric cars has not even begun yet. If we are serious about the mitigation of climate change then privately owned cars, electric or otherwise, will disappear from our streets and road network - it is impossible to sustain the energy-rich infrastructure that supports the privately owned vehicle, The conversation we simply have to have will be about how best we structure, set up and operate and public transit system using electric vehicles which are recharged using solar power - Robert McLean)

Can China actually lead on climate change?

China is in the "driving seat" when it comes to "international co-operation" on climate, said President Xi Jinping at a major political meeting in Beijing ahead of the UN-led climate talks in Bonn last week, the first annual meeting of the negotiations since President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw from the agreement.

Shifting the Chinese economy away from fossil
fuels puts jobs in carbon-intensive sectors at risk.

Mr Trump's decision had left a power vacuum: the historic accord reached in 2014 between then president Barack Obama and Mr Xi, leading the world's two largest economies, which together account for about 40 per cent of global emissions, had underpinned the consensus reached by the international community in late 2015 in Paris. Could China alone fill that vacuum?

China certainly made its presence felt at the talks, but often in its traditional stance as defender of the developing countries, arguing that rich countries must shoulder the greater burden of decarbonisation, a position reportedly described by Greenpeace East Asia campaigner Li Shuo as "an inevitable result of international climate diplomacy in the post-US era”.

Read Sam Geall’s story on the ABC News - “Can China actually lead on climate change?”

Beijing closes last big coal-fired power station in push for clean energy

Beijing: The closure of Beijing's last big coal-fired power station, which had dominated the skyline of the city's outskirts for 18 years, has been welcomed by environmental groups, who hope China will maintain momentum on its ambitious clean energy targets.

Air pollution has long been a major issue
in Beijing and its surrounding provinces.

Beijing had promised in 2013 to have its four coal-fired power stations shut down by this year.

The Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant shut its coal-fired power generator on Saturday. The move was trumpeted in state media as making Beijing the first coal-free city for electricity and heating in China.

Beijing's mayor, Cai Qi, was quoted as saying: "Replacing coal with clean energy is not only to deal with air pollution but also a requirement of the company's transformation.”

Read The Sydney Morning Herald story by Kirsty Needham - “Beijing closes last big coal-fired power station in push for clean energy.”

Climate change 'a factor' in Yancheng killer tornado

‘Global climate change is also seen as a factor in increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events…..’

The death toll in eastern China skyrocketed to 98 after a powerful tornado and severe storms hit a densely populated area of farms and factories on Thursday.

 

The tornado hit near the city of Yancheng in Jiangsu province, about 500 miles south of Beijing. Some 800 people were also injured.
 

Scenes of destruction of the tornado in China -
claimed to be among the most ferocious ever.

Teacher Guo Haimei said the ferocious wind, blacked with dust and debris, seemed to descend out of nowhere onto her kindergarten and its 120 pupils.

"I was very scared. I had no idea what was happening," said Guo. "When I tried to close the door, my hand was injured by the wind pushing it back."

Guo and her mostly 6-year-old pupils were among the lucky ones. Although the school was heavily damaged, just seven students were injured, two of them seriously.

Read the Weather Channel story – “China tornado kills 98, injures 800.”

Clamp on China coal, steel and concrete as pollution laws enforced

Coal, steel and concrete production in China faces tighter restrictions in 2016, say experts, as central government in Beijing cracks down on heavy polluters.

New rules to combat air pollution came into effect from 1 January, while courts are likely to continue to use a revised Environmental Protection Law to enforce change.

And a government pledge to stop producing materials or commodities it has no market for is likely to hit heavy industry hard, said Yang Fuqiang, a senior advisor with the National Resources Defense Council in Beijing.

Read the Climate Home story - “Coal, steel sectors to suffer as China pollution drive accelerates.”

'Red alert' shuts Beijing down for a second time this year

The legacy of unbridled economic growth
- Beijing paralysed by smog.

China’s capital city issued a “red alert” for pollution on Friday, hard on the heels of its first-ever such warning earlier in December, as Beijing’s leadership vowed to crack down on often hazardous levels of smog.

Authorities in the Chinese capital warned the city would be shrouded by heavy pollution from Saturday until next Tuesday, prompting the highest-level warning that leads to emergency responses such as limiting car use and closing schools.

After decades of unbridled economic growth, China’s leadership has vowed to tackle heavy air, water and soil pollution, including the thick smog that often blankets major cities.

Read The Guardian story - “Beijing grinds to halt as second ever 'red alert' issued over severe smog.”

(It is rather difficult to say anything good about ‘unbridled economic growth” when its legacy is evidenced by the paralysing of Beijing twice this year, the latest being just this month, when life-threatening smog forced a “red alert” that led to a partial shut-down of the city

 - Robert McLean).