国际能源署呼吁中国为碳排放标价China May Face Priced Carbon Emissions -IEA

国际能源署(International Energy Agency，简称IEA)周一提出警告说，中国必须净化其煤炭行业，否则中国自身乃至全世界都会面临环境方面的可怕后果。该署还列出了一系列减轻污染的措施，包括更严格地实施监管规则，引入更多外资，以及最终对碳排放实行明码标价。

IEA就中国的清洁煤炭技术发布新的报告，在情况简介会上，IEA执行总裁田中伸男(Nobuo Tanaka)说，如果不采取强有力的行动，二氧化碳排放量将以不可持续的方式增长。这份报告是与中国政府合作完成的，反映出中国政府日渐意识到当前能源趋势的危险。


Reuters
山西长治的煤炭工人正在工作IEA推荐的措施包括呼吁中国国内能源行业加大对外国投资开放的力度，并不断开发新技术，截留发电厂所排放的二氧化碳并将它们隔绝在地下或者别的地方。中国已经表示正将净化火电行业作为一个工作重点，并已实施大规模改革，比如关停成百上千家规模小、能效低的小电厂，以及制定国家能效标准。

但田中伸男提出，中国最终必须为其碳排放标价－－中国政府迄今一直强烈抵制这一举措，因为担心这可能阻碍经济增长。让排放者按自己的排放量付费，这可能成为针对这类排放设立国家限制的一部分。

田中伸男说，最终将形成一个对碳排放明码标价的市场。我看到中国正在就应当以多快的速度走上这个方向进行辩论。

加入联合国《京都议定书》的发达国家已经接受了这种对本国每年温室气体排放量的限制，要求想排放更多温室气体的行业购买所谓的碳排放额度。

虽然中国作为发展中国家尚无碳排放方面的国家限制，但它已经通过《京都议定书》获得了数十上百亿美元的投资，因为发达国家的公司可以在中国投资污染治理项目，从而换取可用于它们本国的碳排放额度。

《京都议定书》将于2012年到期，在就其后续框架进行谈判的过程中，参与谈判的各方认为，中国现在已经具备足够的财力和发展程度，理应受到排放限制。批评人士担心，如果不对中国的排放加以限制，世界其他地方的减排成果就可能被中国的排放量增长所抵消。新的气候框架协议谈判将于今年12月开始。

在过去的短短几年中，中国已经超过美国，成为全球最大的温室气体排放国。中国经济发展迅猛，令千百万人摆脱了贫困，但却严重依赖煤炭作为最重要的能源，由此也产生了碳排放第一大国这个令人遗憾的副产品。IEA说，中国排放的二氧化碳83%是烧煤产生的，其中绝大多数用于发电以及炼钢。总部设在巴黎的IEA统计，中国消耗的硬煤几乎占全球总量的一半。

田中伸男说，我们不能忽视如此规模的用煤量。
The International Energy Agency warned Monday that China must clean up its coal sector or face dire environmental consequences for itself and the world, and outlined a series of steps to mitigate pollution - including tougher enforcement of regulations, more foreign investment and an eventual price on carbon emissions.

'Without strong action, CO2 emissions could rise in an unsustainable way,' IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said at a briefing to launch a new report on clean coal technology in China. The report was completed in cooperation with the Chinese government, reflecting growing awareness in Beijing of the hazards of current energy trends.

The IEA's laundry list of recommendations included calls for greater openness in China's domestic energy sector to outside investment and a continued pursuit of new technologies that could potentially capture carbon emissions from power plants and sequester them in the ground or elsewhere. China has already said it is making cleaning up its coal-fired power sector a priority and has implemented sweeping reforms, such as shutting down hundreds of small and inefficient power plants and instituting national energy-efficiency standards.

But Mr. Tanaka also suggested that China will have to eventually put a price on the carbon that it emits - a move Beijing has so far vigorously resisted because it fears such a move could stymie economic growth. Making emitters pay for how much carbon they produce could be part of setting national limits on such emissions.

'Ultimately, a market in which emissions of carbon are priced will emerge,' Mr. Tanaka said. 'I see that a debate is taking place in China about how quickly China should move in that direction.'

Developed countries that participate in the United Nations' Kyoto Protocol on global warming have already accepted such national caps on annual greenhouse-gas emissions, requiring industries that want to pollute more to buy so-called carbon credits.

Although China as a developing country has no national limits on carbon emissions, its has earned billions of dollars in investment through the Kyoto plan because companies in developed countries can invest in pollution reduction schemes in China in exchange for credits which can be applied to their emissions back home.

But negotiators for a successor to the Kyoto framework, which is set to expire in 2012, argue that China is now rich enough and developed enough to have its own emissions capped. Otherwise, critics worry, any reductions abroad could be wiped out by China's growth. Negotiations on the new treaty will start in December.

In just the past few years, China has surpassed the U.S. to emerge as the world's leading source of global greenhouse gas emission. That status is the unfortunate by-product of roaring economic growth that has lifted millions out of poverty, but relied heavily on coal as the primary source of energy. Burning coal, mostly for generating electricity and also for making steel, accounts for 83% of China's carbon dioxide emissions, the IEA said. Almost half of the world's hard coal is consumed by China, according to the Paris-based organization.

'We cannot ignore coal use on such a scale,' Mr. Tanaka said.