Politics of Power: China's Greenhouse Gases

In a shocking – though not unforeseen – development, China has recently surpassed the European Union in greenhouse gas emissions per capita. This means that on average, each person in China in 2013 produced 7.2 tons of carbon dioxide compared with 6.8 tons in Europe, 16.4 tons in the U.S. and 1.9 tons in India . Though the U.S still leads the world on a per capita emissions basis, China surpassed the U.S. in terms of overall carbon discharge seven years ago and still remains by far the largest producer. However, there seems to be a growing paradigm shift within Beijing. The politburo has realized that the environmental price China has paid for sustained growth has been too large.

The most visible and advertised environmental problem has been poor air quality. International and domestic news agencies have been reporting relentlessly on the sometimes apocalyptic conditions within Beijing, Handan and Jinan, to name a few of the most polluted cities. In 2013, only three of the 74 Chinese cities monitored by the central government met the national standard for “fine (healthy) air.” As is Beijing’s style, there has coalesced a top down plan dubbed in the western media – “China’s War on Pollution.”

Enemy combatant number one for the Chinese government is coal-fired power plants. This seems to be fantastic news as coal is the major source of China’s greenhouse gas emissions and is responsible for at least 67% of China’s seemingly insatiable appetite for energy. However, China does not have enough natural gas to meet its energy needs, its nuclear sector is also relatively small and clean technologies such as wind and solar are still immature and infinitesimal in relation to demand. In response, the Chinese government is set to begin a rapid buildup of coal to gas power plants.

CoalToGas — also known as synthetic natural gas — is created by synthesizing natural gas from the gasification of mined coal. The short term benefits from China’s perspective are obvious. In facilities located far from China’s population centers, Beijing can convert millions of tons a year of dirtier coal into cleaner-burning natural gas, ship this gas cross-country and power local gas plants. In most cases the smog reduction gains are enormous, with gas-fired plants emitting up to 99% fewer local or “criteria” pollutants than coal plants in situ. However, from coal-seam to power generation, synthetic natural gas emits seven times more greenhouse gas emissions than natural gas and the total carbon discharged is up to 82% greater than a regular coal-fired power plant.

Though it may appear to Beijing that shoring up its energy security is priority number one, this undertaking has the potential to become an environmental catastrophe. If China builds the nine approved SNG plants — over the estimated 40-year life — their carbon-dioxide emissions will hit 21 billion tons (China’s total CO2 emissions in 2011 was 7.7 billion tons). There are currently an additional thirty CTG plants up for approval in the coming years. China has clearly prioritized smog reduction over emission reduction targets and fears of global warming. This may be one of the most detrimental and transformative shifts in the energy and environmental world.