{"id":98472,"date":"2010-09-20T14:14:33","date_gmt":"2010-09-20T21:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=98472"},"modified":"2010-09-20T14:26:40","modified_gmt":"2010-09-20T21:26:40","slug":"china-resorts-to-blackouts-in-pursuit-of-energy-efficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2010\/09\/china-resorts-to-blackouts-in-pursuit-of-energy-efficiency\/","title":{"rendered":"China Resorts to Blackouts in Pursuit of Energy Efficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"
Despite Thomas Friedman’s general optimism<\/a> about Beijing’s ability and willingness to reverse decades of environmental degradation, this article in the Guardian<\/strong><\/a> shows that, on the ground, there is still a long way to go:<\/p>\n \nAnping County, in Hebei Province, cut electricity to homes, factories and public buildings for 22 hours every three days in a radical move that has highlighted both the serious last-minute effort that China is making to achieve environmental goals and the immense long-term difficulty of shifting away from a dirty, wasteful model of economic growth.<\/p>\n There are less than four months left until the end of China’s current five-year plan, during which the economy is supposed to have become 20% more energy efficient. That target (which measures energy use relative to GDP growth) is crucial for a nation that wants to move up the economic value chain and prove to the world that it is making a significant contribution toward tackling greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n Progress towards this goal was initially good, with a 14.4% gain in efficiency until last year. But it was tilted off track in the first three months of 2010 by huge infrastructure spending \u2013 largely on energy-intensive steel and cement projects \u2013 aimed at warding off the worst effects of the global economic downturn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Despite Thomas Friedman’s general optimism about Beijing’s ability and willingness to reverse decades of environmental degradation, this article in the Guardian shows that, on the ground, there is still a long way to go: Anping County, in Hebei Province, cut electricity to homes, factories and public buildings for 22 hours every three days in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,132,6],"tags":[2836,13601,5784],"class_list":["post-98472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-environmental-crisis","category-sci-tech","tag-energy-conservation","tag-energy-use","tag-greenhouse-gas-emissions","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n