AKIPRESS.COM - The Chinese government on Tuesday shut down big chemical factories in western China for as long as four months to free up natural gas to heat homes and schools, The New York Times reports.
In Beijing, the city authorities have very publicly reversed a heavily promoted policy of ending municipal coal use. The city has turned a big coal-fired power plant in its southeastern suburbs back on — in the chilly air, it releases a towering, gray cloud of steam and pollution visible from tall buildings across much of the city.
“It is the most severe shortfall of natural gas since the commitment to build up gas demand,” said Daniel Yergin, the energy consultant and author, who is visiting Beijing this week.
The disruptions so far appear temporary. But they show how painful and expensive it will be for China to clean up its air and wean itself from dirty-burning coal. The fossil fuel helped propel the country’s economy to become the world’s second-largest, and efforts to break its coal addiction could have global, as well as national, consequences.
The Chinese government is trying to reduce air pollution by 15 percent this winter in much of northern China, where pollution tends to be the country’s worst, particularly during colder months when coal is widely burned for heat.
Through the autumn, government inspectors did not just order schools, businesses and homes to shut down coal-fired stoves and boilers and switch to natural gas. They made sure that their orders would not be defied, dismantling and removing large numbers of coal-fired devices, according to state-controlled media.
Winter has arrived early, however, and it has been especially cold this year, triggering unexpectedly high demand for heating. At the same time, natural gas has been in short supply, and in some cases construction has not been completed on the pipelines needed to deliver it.
The natural gas shortage has particularly hit the chemicals industry in China, with consequences for the wider world.