State of the Environment, China '97
Acid Rain
Pressure
Coal Combustion in China
China is a country with coal as its main energy source. The raw coal still accounts for 75 per cent of the total energy consumption, although various kinds of energy such as oil, natural gas, hydropower and nuclear power have been developed in recent decades. In the structure of coal consumption, the civil use of coal in China occupies a higher proportion than otherwise common in developed countries, amounting to about 30 or 40 times of those in Japan and US. Moreover, coal contains a high rate of sulphur and ashes.
Atmospheric pollution
Atmospheric pollution results mainly from coal-burning. Soot and sulphur dioxide were the major pollutants. In 1997, the total amount of sulphur dioxide emissions was 23.46 million tons, to which, industrial polluters contributed 18.52 million tons, accounting for 78.9% of the total SO2 emissions and domestic polluters contributed 4.94 million tons. With regard to the industrial emission of SO2 industrial enterprises at the county level and above contributed 13.63 million tons, accounting for 73.6% of total industrial emissions; the amount of SO2 emission by TVIE's was 4.89 million tons. The total amount of soot emission was 18.73 million tons, accounting for 83.6%; while domestic emission was 3.08 million tons. With regard to industrial soot emission, enterprises at and above county level were responsible for 6.85 million tons, accounting for 43.8% of the total; while TVIEs were responsible for 8.88 million tons. The total emission of industrial particles was 15.05 million tons, including 5.48 million tons of emission by enterprises at the county level and above ( account for 36.4% of the total emission of fine industrial dust), and Township and Villages Industrial Enterprises (TVIE)'s emitted 9.57 million tons.
Acid rain was very serious in central and southwestern China, with notable increases in the southwest. Some areas in the north such as Tumen and Qingdao regions also suffered serious acid rain problems.
 The Trends of SO2 Discharge |