Cuts in pollutants help reduction of carbon emissions: Chinese official

A reduction in the emission of some pollutants will lead to a decrease in the emission of carbon dioxide, and the reduction target for sulphur dioxide emissions in China's 11th five-year development plan, if achieved, will result in a reduction of 250 million tons in carbon dioxide emissions, China's Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Li Ganjie said on Monday.

Some pollutants and greenhouse gases, which mainly derived from the combustion of fossil fuel, are generated from the same source and their control measures are consistent to a certain degree, Li told reporters in Copenhagen, where negotiators from all over the world are working for agreement on a deal to combat global warming, which is caused by an excess of heat-trapping gases, most notably carbon dioxide.

Energy and industrial restructuring is a major method for coordinated efforts on pollution and greenhouse gas control, Li said.

Research data have shown that a reduction of one ton of sulphurdioxide will lead to a cut of 38 tons of carbon dioxide, he said. In the 11th five-year development period, China has set a goal to reduce sulphur dioxide emissions by 10 percent, which means a reduction of 6.7 million tons. That could lead to a cut of 250 million tons in carbon dioxide emissions, Li said.

In 2008, China's discharge volume of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulphur dioxide was down by 6.61 percent and 8.95 percent respectively from the previous year. In the first half of 2009, the discharge volume of the two pollutants posted a fall of 2.46 percent and 5.4 percent respectively from the same period of 2008.

That has "laid a solid foundation for achieving the pollution reduction targets set in the 11th five-year plan," he said.

China last month announced it would reduce the intensity of carbon emissions per unit of its GDP in 2020 by 40 to 45 percent against 2005 levels.

Source: Xinhua