China's coal-burning power plants should be equipped with sulphur scrubbers by 2010 to reduce emissions, a source from the country's top economic planner said

The move is expected to cut sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions by 4.9 million tons.

The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic policymaking organ and the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) yesterday jointly released the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10) for sulphur reduction of coal-fuelled power plants.

It is the country's biggest move so far to achieve emission-cutting targets.

By 2010, power generation units with a capacity of 137 million kilowatts, divided into 221 projects, will be installed with sulphur scrubbers.

With other energy-conserving measures, such as using low-sulphur coal or decommissioning old coal-burning equipment, the power plants are expected to release about 5 million tons of SO2 in 2010, down from 13 million tons in 2005.

Preferential policies will be offered to power plants adopting environmentally friendly processes.

For example, the electricity price from low sulphur emission plants will be 1.5 fen ($0.2 cent) per watt higher than the price paid to power generators without sulphur scrubbers.

In addition, market instruments, such as emission trading, will be introduced to encourage sulphur emission reductions. Last August, a document by the State Council said credits of 470,000 tons of SO2 would be allocated for a pilot emission-trading scheme.

"By fulfilling the plan, the country can be sure to cut the SO2 emission by 10 percent just through the efforts taken by power industry," said Zhang Jianyu, a long-term visiting scholar to Tsinghua University, who is engaged in environmental studies.

"However, the realization of the target is not equal to a 10 percent improvement of our environmental quality, because it just solves the pollution from high stacks. Other pollution sources close to the earth still remain there."

(China Daily 03/28/2007 page4)