MADELINE HEALEY
July 10, 2006
A STATE Government report has cleared the way for more wind farms to be built in the south-west.
The report has found wind farms are successful in preventing greenhouse gas emissions, saving more than 250,000 tonnes of emissions each year, the same amount emitted by 60,000 cars.
The report, prepared by McLennan Magasanik Associates for Sustainability Victoria, contradicts wind farm critics such as federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Peter McGauran.
While in the south-west recently Mr McGauran said wind farms were a ``complete fraud'' that generate ``next to no'' electricity.
But State Enivironment Minister Theo Theophanous said the report proved wind farms in Victoria had generated enough energy to power 90,000 homes for a year.
``This report shows critics of wind energy such as Mr McGauran are ill-informed,'' Mr Theophanous said.
The report found wind farms in Victoria produced 104 megawatts of energy a year.
Mr Theophanous said this reinforced the Bracks Government's policy to support further wind energy development in Victoria.
This could mean more wind farm projects for the south-west.
``This new report shows the greenhouse gas savings we can achieve as our wind energy industry grows in Victoria,'' Mr Theophanous said.
``When our wind energy capacity approaches 1000 megawatts we are going to see some really big greenhouse savings, putting us on the path to avoiding dangerous climate change.''
But Hawkesdale Macarthur Landscape Guardians president and neighbour to the proposed Macarthur Wind Farm, Roger Learmonth, was suspicious of the results and said he didn't believe they could have come from inland wind farms.
http://the.standard.net.au/articles/2006/07/10/1152383650080.html
Beijing builds energy-saving projects for 2008
Jul. 10, 2006 (China Knowledge) – Beijing has initiated a number of projects to increase the use of solar energy and recycled water for the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games, according to media reports.
Among the projects that are underway is a heating and cooling project for a 410,000-sq-m building that uses recycled water. This will be the largest project of its kind in China and is expected to save 6,000 tons of coal each year.
The country is also constructing a 6,000-sq-m solar system in cooperation with Italy. The new system will provide hot water for 16,000 athletes and is expected to save 2,000 tons of coal each year.
In an interview with Beijing media, Director of the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau Shi Hanmin said international cooperation is important in working towards a green Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.
http://www.chinaknowledge.com/news/news-detail.aspx?id=3610
Green Olympics underway
By YANG CHENG (China Business Weekly)
Updated: 2006-07-10 08:02
Beijing is gearing up efforts to build a green Olympic Games in 2008.
The host city has initiated a number of projects to ensure cleaner water and bluer skies for the 2008 Olympic Games, said an official with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) last Tuesday.
"The Olympic Games have positive and negative impacts on host cities," Yu Xiaoxuan, vice-director of the environment department of the committee admitted.
"But Beijing will spare no efforts to reduce the negative impacts to the lowest level, while striving to use the ample Olympic opportunities to improve the ecological environment of the city and raise the public's awareness of environmental protection," he said.
According to the official, a 6,000-square-metre solar power system, funded partly by Italy, is currently under construction. It will provide hot water for 16,000 athletes and save 2,000 tons of coal a year.
Other projects including a heating and cooling project for a 410,000-square-metre building that uses recycled water.
"It is the largest of its kind in China and is expected to save 6,000 tons of coal a year," Yu said.
At the Sino-Italian environmental co-operation and Beijing Green Olympic forum, Yu also said the Beijing Olympic Village will have a 500-kilowatt solar power station and use motor vehicles that have zero or little emissions.
Three hundred low-emission engines have already been installed in Beijing's buses.
In addition, BOCOG has worked out a number of such regulations and policies and carried out stringent measures to implement them.
"On top of the policies, every BOCOG staff member has been told to work through "greener" approaches to saving energy and water, as well as being asked to recycle resources voluntarily," he said.
With respect to the building projects for the sports gala, which could easily cause environment pollution and energy consumption, BOCOG requires all projects for the sports gala to reach the ISO 14001 standard, an international standard system for safety management and environmental protection, as well as to meet the requirements of many green technology and management policies.
"To conserve resources and enhance energy efficiency, we have cut out four building projects for new sports venues, instead, we will use four temporary stadiums and renovate an existing one in Beijing," Yu said.
Also listed in the regulations and policies, BOCOG requires designated hotels of the Games to abide by the highest standards of pollution prevention, resource and energy conservation and plant and animal usages.
A guideline document for the torch rally was drafted to avoid polluting the air in Beijing, he said.
"Fighting pollution from public transportation is a core task for Beijing, when millions of tourists worldwide flock to Beijing in 2008," said Shi Hanmin, director of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau.
To date, 300 new buses donated from Italy, with cutting-edge intelligent control systems to avoid congestion, have appeared on roads in Beijing.
Many other low-emission and clean-fuel cars imported from foreign countries such as Germany have been introduced to the city, according to Zhang Guoguang, president of Beijing Bus Group.
Zhang also said the transportation mobility management system has been upgraded in Beijing in a bid to prevent pollution during the Games and beyond.
Zhu Tong, an environment professor with the Peking University, told Environment China that the university is now teaming up with the bureau to launch a pilot project to enhance an air monitoring mechanism in Beijing.
He stressed that when people are questioning air quality in Beijing, they, especially foreigners, may not be aware that Beijing's air quality is not only decided by the city itself but also largely by its neighbouring areas.
"For example, air quality was very good for several days before July 3 but it turned bad on July 3. We then detected that the problems were coming directly from adjacent areas outside the city," he said. "Our new monitoring mechanism is expected to make a breakthrough in this regard, in a bid to prevent pollution, " he said.
Presently, many foreign research institutions such as the Atmosphere Pollution Institute of Italy, are active in collaborating with local authorities.
"Being a developing city in a developing country, Beijing is a mega-city with a permanent population of about 10 million and a mobile population of some 3 to 4 million people. We have taken resolute steps to improve the environment and we expect more international co-operation in the field," said Ji Lin, vice-mayor of Beijing.
"We hope to leave an 'environmental heritage' to the world after the Games," Yu added.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bw/2006-07/10/content_637194.htm
Beijing's Olympics going for gold
By KAREN STINGEMORE(China Daily)
With environmental protection a high-priority global issue and a pressing issue for China what better place for China to showcase its initiatives and innovations in sustainable development and environmental protection than the world's greatest sporting contest.
The Beijing 2008 Olympics couldn't have come at a better time for China.
Just when it is trying to find a balance between economic growth and environmental sustainability, it is set to host a worldwide event which will no doubt put its environmental protection progress under the microscope, giving the nation extra motivation to improve its environment.
In order to improve its environment and ensure minimal environmental impacts from the Olympic Games, it is imperative that China learns from the successes and failures of past Games.
Beijing Olympic organizers have had a keen look at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, which was dubbed as the world's first truly Green Games.
Some of Sydney's environmental initiatives included a former waste site being transformed into Sydney Olympic Park, now a top sporting, recreational, business and residential area; the Athletes Village being solar-powered; Sydney Olympic Park venues using recycled water for toilet flushing; Stadium Australia using collected rainwater to irrigate the pitch; objects such as bins and tables used at various Olympic venues being made from recycled materials and Sydney Olympic Park venues featuring low energy use designs that considerably reduce gas emissions.
The Australian Minister for Arts and Sport, Rod Kemp, said at a recent China-Australia media forum that China has been a keen student of previous Olympic Games and has already proved it has taken these lessons on board.
Beijing 2008 Olympic planners have committed to, among other things, the sustainable use of water resources; the construction of energy efficient buildings using environmentally friendly materials and environmental protection.
Olympic Venues in 2008 will have 20 per cent of their electricity powered by wind and Beijing's National Olympic Stadium will use solar power to supplement its usual power supply, with solar power also being used to power streetlights and heat the athlete's water in the Beijing Olympic Village.
Rain-harvesting technologies are being installed in Olympic Park and its vicinity, which is a timely move as Beijing continues to face severe water shortages.
There are also plans to build wastewater treatment plants as a solution to the city's wastewater disposal and drainage issues.
Recycling projects will be developed and a disposal centre for hazardous waste, two refuse incineration plants and two refuse processing plants are under construction. The disposal centre will burn, and recycle the waste, as well as use landfill sites for disposal.
The incineration plants will process the refuse by burning it and will subsequently produce energy and the refuse processing plants are trialing the viability of processing refuse to extract products such as methane gas.
It was a wise decision by Olympic planners to concentrate on environmentally friendly infrastructure for the Olympics, despite the high costs associated with such a move. This showed long-term vision that future generations will be grateful for.
In a further positive move, the Beijing Olympic's organizing committee has entered into an agreement with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which will see UNEP promoting the maintenance of a healthy environment in the lead up to and during the Olympic Games.
The environment is now the third dimension of the Olympics, next to sport and culture, which has given Beijing a fantastic opportunity to assess its environmental practices and really look to be leaders in the areas of environmental protection and innovation.
It would be rewarding for Beijing to see many of the environmental solutions and innovations that will feature in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games adopted by commercial organizations both domestically and globally, just as cutting-edge design features and technologies used in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games were adopted by overseas building developers.
More importantly, it would be encouraging to see some of the environmental initiatives showcased at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games adopted by Chinese society in everyday life. That really would be a performance worthy of a gold medal.
The author is a copy editor of China Daily
http://tsearch.chinadaily.com.cn/was40/search?channelid=38056
On an upward swing
By XIAO YANG(China Daily)
Sino-Italian environmental protection co-operation has been on the rise in recent years.
The 57 projects between the two countries are among China's top foreign co-operation projects on environmental protection, in terms of scale and participants, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
Since 2000, Italy has donated 162 million euros (US$205.74 million) to the projects in China. The funds were from the Italian Ministry for Environment and Territory and Italian businesses.
Chinese governments and some global organizations, financial and research institutions contributed other investments.
Donations from Italy to China rank as the second largest among G7 countries.
Zhou Shengxian, minister of SEPA, said the broad co-operation between the two countries is representative of the successful bilateral collaboration on the recent Sino-Italian Green Week.
Italy has given financial aid to foreign countries, and China is one of the countries to have received considerable donations.
The pilot projects launched between the two countries have become model environmental protection projects in China, said Huang Jianliang, researcher of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who is responsible for the Sino-Italian projects.
For example, in the South-North Water Diversion (East Line) Project, Italian experiences in pricing water pollution clean-up costs and curbing pollution in different regions have been adopted in China and the two countries have worked out new approaches to solve local problems, said Jia Yangwen, an expert of the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research.
The seed-sowing project by plane in the Alxa area in Inner Mongolia, with an aim to curb sand storms in Beijing, has also seen progress.
To date, the remedied desert areas have risen to 1,333.4 hectares. Plantation has grown by 12.8-50.4 per cent, and the content of organic substances in the area jumped from 0.07 to 0.23 per cent, according to SEPA.
One of the projects worth noting is the large-scale training programme involving 1,500 Chinese government officials, scholars and entrepreneurs, the largest Sino-foreign training programme in the history.
Apart from its donations, Italian experts said, the Italians are brewing a visionary strategy to showcase their cutting-edge environmental protection technologies to China, and are seeking a shortcut to the huge Chinese market.
Huang said the core reason Italian products are fit for the Chinese market is their price advantage.
"For example, some environmental protection products in other countries may be more advanced than those in Italy and the duration period may be as long as 50 years, far longer than the Italian ones. But the life span requirement of some related equipment for the products is only 20 years." The expert said
Huang said, "Their prices are 30 to 40 per cent higher than the Italian's prices."
The Italian side has gained satisfactory returns from China.
Beijing municipal government has decided to purchase some 3,000 environmentally-friendly buses, and among them, 1,000 will be powered by engines from Italy's Iveco Group.
http://tsearch.chinadaily.com.cn/was40/search?channelid=38056
Sharp turnaround
By HUAN JING(China Daily)
Ningbo municipal government has given several awards to Netherlands firm Akzo Nobel to honour its commitment to environmental protection in the city.
The awards for Akzo Nobel, a Fortune 500 firm, serving customers throughout the world with healthcare products and chemicals, include the Green Enterprise Award in 2005 and the Model Environmental Plant in 2004 in Ningbo, a port city in East China's Zhejiang Province.
"We have introduced advanced technology in employee safety and environmental protection to bring all facilities up to the company's high standards," said Leif Darner, member of the board of management of Akzo Nobel, who is responsible for the company's business in China.
It acquired a plant in Ningbo in 2000, when the plant was on the verge of closure because it failed to meet air emission and waste-water regulatory standards.
"The Health, Safety and Emission (HSE) Management System of Akzo Nobel, that aims to improve the work environment, emergency responses and the upgrade of personal protective equipment, has helped the plant make a sharp turnaround," Darner said.
Safety awareness was improved through continuous actions by management. "At every shift change, a 10-minute safety briefing is made to ensure safety practices are in place down to the very basics," he said.
As a result, the number of lost time injury (LTI) dropped from seven in 2000 to zero by 2003 and the plant has maintained those levels.
Akzo Nobel invested in a complete redesign of its total emission control system. It installed closed system processes that collect all vent gases, such as cumene and methanol, from all production units and tanks and send them to a new boiler for incineration.
It has also invested in a new methanol recycle tower to decrease methanol content in the wastewater.
"Within three years, cumene and methanol emissions were reduced by more than 98 per cent," Darner added.
The Akzo Nobel plant is an example of a plant along the seaside that poses a great threat to water making a U-turn by upgrading its technology.
Enhancing environmental protection including constantly improving technologies for sustainable development should be a high priority for plants around China's water areas, warned the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
Since December last year, SEPA has made three rounds of strict inspections on enterprises near water to deter the cover-up of environmental hazards.
The inspections resulted in some enterprises being called to close down their operations. Many blacklisted enterprises are now undergoing technology upgrades in a bid to pass inspection by related authorities after being ordered to shut down.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/bw/2006-07/10/content_637195.htm
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