My Op-ed article Dark Days Ahead on the News Insight page of the South China Morning Post of 13 February, 2014.
The article argues that despite the government’s best intentions, China’s major cities face many more years of choking pollution, given the massive problems created by breakneck growth. However, polluting coal is likely to level off over the next two decades, making way for renewables, natural gas and nucear energy.
Download SCMP NEWS INSIGHT - Dark Days Ahead
China's continued reliance on coal for at least the next decade is supported by Wang Yue's article "China unlikely to reduce coal use in the next decade" in ChinaDialogue dated 10 February, 2014 here and a report from ChinaSignPost, a strategic consultancy, "King Coal Reigns: North America’s Shale Gas Boom Will Force China to Continue Relying on Coal" here
But if lack of smart grids is holding back China's renewable energy usage, green shoots are now evident. According to a Bloomberg report (19 February, 2014), China spent more on smart grids than the U.S. for the first time in 2013, with $4.3 billion invested, accounting for almost a third of the world’s total.
So blue skies may well gradually return to China's cities by 2030s.
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A feature report "War on Pollution" dated 12 March, 2014 Click here by China Water Risk Review, an environmental journal, shows how serious China is doing battle against an existential threat to the nation across a wide front, including measures on water, soil, heavy metal, mountain top, ocean, wastewater and agricutlural discharge as well as legal empowerment of enforcement by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
