Every autumn, northern cities in
Today is
Like other residents in the capital, the Ning family are looking forward to the warmth. "Back in 2003, we were not so happy," said Ning Xingsheng, a computer technician who has lived in Haidian District for more than 20 years.
A community coal-fuelled boiler supplied the heat in the Nings' residential building three years ago and caused some problems. "It worked best in the morning but cooled down at night," Ning recalled. "The worst thing was its heavy pollution."
And it's the burning of coal that is one of the biggest pollution problems not only in
When autumn arrived, coal was piled in front of the boiler next to the Nings' apartment building.
"The strong winter wind always carried the soot everywhere and made our clothes and hair dirty," Ning said. "Our windows were often coated with the black dust, too."
The antiquated boiler was finally removed in 2003, and the Nings' building was connected to a central heating system fuelled by natural gas. "Now the indoor temperature is much higher than before, and it stays steady all day," Ning said. "More important, it's much cleaner."
The Nings' story reflects the change in
Even better, next year will witness a landmark achievement, as every coal boiler and furnace in the city proper of
To date, more than 16,000 small city boilers in
The same update has been made to all the 44,000 smaller coal-fuelled furnaces, too.
And next year, the last group of 1,300 boilers and furnaces will switch their coal power sources to natural gas or electricity, said Cheng Ying, a senior official with the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
With these renovations completed, the city will reduce an additional annual need for coal by 6 million tons about 12 percent of
The coal reduction will cut 20,000 tons of smog and dirt and 40,000 tons of sulphur dioxide (SO2) from
Although these figures account for only a small portion of the city's pollution as statistics from the bureau showed that in 2005, Beijing released 576,000 tons of smog and dirt and 196,000 tons of SO2 to the air they testify to officials' determination to curb the problem.
In addition,
In October, the Beijing Reform and Development Commission said it would apply biomass briquettes, made of paper and sawdust, as fuel for 14 pilot heating systems in four districts and
The burning of the briquettes, an alternative fuel, would mean less SO2 emitted from burning coal and will generate heat in more than 1.2 million square meters of residential space.
"By adjusting the fuel supply structure, we will try to control the rate of energy consumption," said Cheng, deputy director of the Air Environment Management Department. "More importantly, we need to increase the use of clean energy in the capital."
Industrial and household coal burning, car emissions and flying dust are
Scientists around the world continue to find evidence for the global warming theory and believe it was worsened by the use of fossil fuels, including oil, coal and gas.
Capping emissions may be too restrictive for
The Ministry of Construction recently issued suggestions for a new heating pricing system, charging consumers for the heating energy used rather than the accommodation area they occupied. New buildings will also be required to obtain equipment with heating measuring facilities.
"It sounds more like an energy-saving regulation, but it will surely help reduce emissions," a ministry spokesman said. "The two are closely linked."
Substantial cuts
From 1990 to 2005,
The country's attempts to control greenhouse gas are not limited to itself.
CDM is a project-based mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol that encourages developed countries to purchase CERs from companies in developing countries that don't need to reduce emissions by
During the Carbon Expo Asia,
By October 16, the CDM executive board (EB) approved 23 projects of
Liu Qiang, a senior official with the CDM office of the Gansu Science and Technology Bureau, said many companies in the province were bidding for CDM projects, which they consider a "win-win strategy."
"We started this business in 2002," Liu said. "To date we have six projects approved by the EB. And we are now developing 30-odd more projects, mostly focusing on wind energy, biomass energy and energy efficiency promotion," Liu said.
With five hydropower projects and one wind-power project authorized by the EB,
In August, the Chinese Government approved the establishment of the China CDM Fund, which will generate money from current CDM projects, each turning in 2 to 20 percent of its profits.
Lu, who works at the Chinese Office of Global Environmental Affairs, said the fund would be used to support studies about climate change and green infrastructure.
Lu, who is now at the world global warming conference in
But he assured