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China's Environment Accidents Double on Growth Toll (Update1)
2010-07-28 05:11:00.81 GMT
(Updates with number of accidents in second paragraph.)
By Bloomberg News
July 28 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world's largest polluter,
said the number of environmental accidents rose 98 percent in
the first six months of the year, as demand for energy and
minerals lead to poisoned rivers and oil spills.
"Fast economic development is leading to increasing
conflicts with the capacity of the environment to absorb"
demands, the environmental protection ministry said in a faxed
statement in response to Bloomberg questions. There were about
102 accidents in the first half, compared with 171 for the whole
of last year, according to figures derived from the ministry's
data.
An acid leak at Zijin Mining Group Co.'s copper and gold
mine this month poisoned enough fish in the Ting River to feed
72,000 for a year, and Dalian's beaches and port were shuttered
by an oil spill at the nation's largest crude terminal. The
accidents underscore the toll from two decades of growth
averaging 10.1 percent that made China the world's third-largest
economy and biggest metal and energy consumer.
"Both incidents are not standalone issues, and they serve
as a reminder that if China doesn't address the environmental
issues when the economy is growing fast, it might become a
destabilizing factor in the society," Ma Jun, founder of the
Institute of Public Environmental Affairs, a researcher, said by
phone from Beijing. "The Chinese public is increasingly aware
and vocal about the heavy metal pollution brought on by
refineries and smelters."
The oil spill at Dalian, 10 times the amount in the last
incident in Shaanxi province in December, was the biggest in
Chinese waters according to Greenpeace. Zijin's leakage of waste
in Fujian province was the worst incident in the Chinese gold
industry in two years.
Air Quality
China overtook the U.S. as the world's biggest energy user
last year, according to the International Energy Agency on July
19, though the Chinese government has disputed the data. Air
quality deteriorated for the first time in five years in the
first six months, the nation's environment ministry said July 26.
"Local governments are trying to develop their economies
and the thinking is 'get rich first, worry about the pollution
later,'" Yang Ailun, head of the climate change unit for
Greenpeace, said in Beijing. "The central government is very
aware that the current economic model is unsustainable."
The ministry has started a nationwide investigation of
drinking water and mine tailing ponds this year, the statement
said.
High Violations
"China is in a state of development when there's a high
rate of violations," the environment ministry said. There were
at least 10 incidents a month in the first half, it said.
The nation also has the world's worst coal-mine safety
record, with an average of seven deaths each day in accidents
last year. The government is closing small unsafe mines to
reduce the incidents.
Before the accidents at Zijin and Dalian port, the
environmental ministry listed PetroChina Co.'s Songhua River
toxic spill in 2005, Sichuan Chemical Co.'s waste leaks into the
Tuojiang River and Shaoguan Smelting Plant's illegal discharge
of cadmium as among the worst cases in the past six years.
The government has been building a database on violations,
and has been identifying a "large number of culprits," the
environmental ministry said in the statement.
Small Penalties
Still, the penalties for companies may be "too small,"
said Tony Zheng, president of Shanghai Good Hope Equity
Investment Management Co. "The fines won't deal a fatal blow to
a big Chinese companies. It's unlike in the U.S."
Zijin said it may pay 5 million yuan ($737,500), or 0.2
percent of last year's net income, in compensation for fish
poisoned. PetroChina, the nation's largest oil producer, was
fined 1 million yuan, out of a net income of 133 billion yuan in
2005, for the accident that affected the drinking water of three
million people. That contrasts with the $20 billion that
President Barack Obama has demanded from BP Plc for the worst
oil spill in U.S. history.
New environmental rules may push up steelmakers' costs by
at least 10 percent, according to the China Metallurgical
Industry Planning and Research Institute, a government adviser.
The nation passed the U.S. to become the world's biggest
emitter of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels in 2006,
according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Almost 6 million
sources of emissions were identified in China's first pollution
census released this year.
For Related News and Information:
Top Stories: TOP<GO>
Metal Stories METT <GO>
--Helen Yuan, Feiwen Rong and Diao Ying, with assistance from
John Duce, Penny Peng and Miao Han. Editors: Tan Hwee Ann,
Andrew Hobbs.
To contact the Bloomberg News staff on this story:
Helen Yuan in Shanghai at +86-21-6104-7012 or
hyuan@bloomberg.net;
Feiwen Rong in Beijing at +86-10-6649-7563 or
frong2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Andrew Hobbs at +61-2-9777-8642 or
ahobbs4@bloomberg.net.
