China shutting down highly polluting power plants?

China is the world's largest polluter with large share of this pollution coming from dirty coal power plants that do not satisfy modern emission standards. China is well aware that its current economic growth can only be supported by coal but by the current looks of it, not at any price. The latest proof to this is order from China's government to shut down more than 2,000 highly polluting, unsafe or energy inefficient plants within the next two months. Power plants that will not comply to these order will face stiff penalties such as not being able to obtain loans, having sewage treatment licences revoked or being refused business licences.

China is putting maximum efforts to significantly increase energy efficiency in country, and it certainly looks like China's premier Wen Jiabao wasn't joking when few months ago said that he would use an "iron hand" to increase energy efficiency. Highly polluting power plants will heavily felt this hand.

According to the World Bank, the industry in China use 20% to 100% more energy per unit of output than their US, Japanese and other counterparts. Improving these numbers will not only mean more positive environmental impact but also better energy security.

Environmentalists are not the only ones supportive of this move but also many energy experts who believe that shutting down inefficient power plants can in the long run provide economic benefits too.

However, there are still many skeptics who believe that China will only temporary shut down these highly polluting plants and open them once demand starts picking up again.

How to reduce pollution from power plants?

If United States really want to repair damage done to our climate by excessive carbon dioxide emissions, then one of the best options to achieve this is to reduce pollution from fossil fuels fired power plants because these facilities are among biggest CO2 polluters in the world.

In order to cut pollution from fossil fuels fired power plants U.S. desperately needs new climate legislation, especially cap and trade legislation that Obama spoke so much about. By imposing limits on greenhouse gases and creating a market for carbon dioxide pollution rights, U.S. would no doubt do lot of positive things in fight against climate change.

Cap and trade legislation has many opponents who claim that with this legislation on energy prices will likely become much higher and also more volatile than they are today. But what will happen to our planet and our climate if we don't put a price tag on carbon emissions? Economic damage in form of higher energy bills still sounds to me like much better option compared to unpredictable climate on global level.

It is difficult to tell what is the currently most popular option in U.S. Congress, most Democrats support cap and trade program, while on the other hand most Republicans still feel that cap and trade legislation is not the right answer, and that this sort of legislation would do great damage to entire U.S. economy.

The last thing we need right now are long political debates about what is right and what is wrong to do. If we accept the scientific fact that climate change is indeed the worst environmental problem in the history of mankind which could have catastrophic consequences on our planet's health then there really shouldn't be difficult to decide what comes first, environment or economy.

Sadly, politicians still do not realize that we are running out of time to do something about it.