Accent on energy
Feng Jianhua

THE galloping double-digit growth in the last five years has more than ever cornered China into a massive energy search to feed its booming economy. In drafting its energy strategies, the Chinese Government has attached unprecedented importance to preventing wasteful economic growth that could affect the country’s long-term development. To prevent this from happening, the Chinese Government put forward in March 2006 a historic goal of reducing China’s energy consumption by 20 percent over the five years between 2006 and 2010.
As the world’s second largest energy consumer, China has a pretty low per-capita possession of energy resources, which is about 40 percent of the world average level. Moreover, China’s energy efficiency is only 33 percent, about the level of industrial countries 20 years ago. For example, in Beijing the heating per square meter of indoor space for one winter costs the energy equivalent to 22.4 kg of standard coal while it is only 9 kg in Germany. Many energy experts believe that enhancing energy efficiency has become an urgent task for the Chinese Government over the next few years.
Energy-efficient buildings
As a matter of fact, among China’s soaring energy consumption, an increasing proportion comes from the skyrocketing number of high-rise buildings. It has been calculated that the ratio of energy consumption used in construction against China’s total energy consumption has risen from 10 percent at the end of the 1970s to around 30 percent now. This proportion is expected to surpass 35 percent in the near future. If indirect energy consumption is included, construction makes up over 40 percent of total energy consumption. Gu Yunchang, deputy head of China Real Estate Association, said as the largest real estate developer in the world, China constructs a total of 1.6 billion to 2 billion square meters of buildings of all types every year, surpassing that of all industrial nations added together. Of all the new buildings, only 10 to 15 percent meet the national standard for energy-efficient buildings, while around 80 percent are serious energy wasters.
According to Vice Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing, China’s building energy consumption level is twice that of industrial countries. Statistics from the Ministry of Construction indicate that China has completed the construction of 1.06 billion square meters of energy-efficient buildings, which account for only 7 percent of all existing floor area. Construction experts estimate that if the current construction structure remains unchanged, China will have 70 billion square meters of energy-wasting floor area by 2020. In the case of China, development of technologies for energy-saving buildings should be a strategy of national energy safety.
One important reason that Chinese buildings are largely wasteful is that the developers of landmark buildings fanatically pursue exotic designs, new fashions and height while totally ignoring the running costs of their buildings. For example, in the last few years, installing glass-curtain walls has become a fashion among China’s architectural designers. Many property developers have required the installment of glass-curtain walls, unaware of the fact that heat radiates through the walls easily driving up energy consumption. Furthermore, the stagnant airflow in these buildings means air conditioning has to be used throughout the year, leading to further waste of energy. “Enhancing energy efficiency in buildings is not only the requirement to transform the growth model of the construction sector but also the requirement to guarantee energy security,” said Vice Minister of Construction Huang Wei.
Giving incentives to business
It has been a long time since the Chinese Government emphasized the importance of building energy efficiency for the first time. In 1986, the government promulgated the first regional standard on designing energy-saving buildings and required the northern part of China, which experiences extreme winter and summer temperatures, to promote energy-friendly construction technologies to the public. This policy was introduced 13 years after the first similar proposal in an industrial country in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. However, in the following decades, one major barrier to the promotion of energy efficient buildings was the business sector, which took a defensive stance against the government policy, as it had failed in providing incentives to encourage businesses to take energy-saving precautions.
“With the public still to be educated on the importance of energy efficiency of buildings, the popularization of energy-efficient buildings has seen unbalanced development between big cities and small ones. Lack of a functioning management system still affects the effective promotion of this cause,” Qiu said. 2005 is an important year for landmark energy efficiency events. Two national standards on building energy consumption, one on civil residences and the other on public buildings, came out that year. Also in 2005, the Chinese Government drafted a strategic goal of reducing new urban buildings’ unit energy consumption by half by 2010.
In the second half of 2007, a series of regulations on energy-saving architecture were launched. According to these regulations, developers or architects who ignore energy consumption standards will face fines or a ban on selling their property. Of all Chinese cities, Beijing has become a pioneer in adopting new building energy consumption regulations. Since July 2005, the Beijing Municipal Government has regulated that the purchasing contract between developers and homeowners must include energy-saving standards adopted in property and compensation clauses. Another regulation, enacted on September 1, 2005, states that construction companies must have their designs approved by government agencies when they apply for construction permits. Projects that fail to meet energy-saving design standards do not receive the construction permit. According to a new standard of energy saving in public buildings issued by Guangdong Provincial Government, starting from April 15 public buildings, including hotels and office towers, are forbidden from using large glass-curtain walls. Qiu said local governments should conduct regular checkups on the energy use of public buildings, including government office buildings, and those that fail to meet energy-saving standards should be publicized.
The last two years have also witnessed the launch of new programs offering incentives to companies that save energy. In September, the Chinese Government decided to allocate 7 billion yuan ($930 million) from central finances to support the technical upgrade of companies to raise energy efficiency. The government has listed 10 key projects to receive financing at the first stage, including upgrading coal-fired industrial boilers, technologies to raise petroleum efficiency and produce oil substitutes, energy-saving technologies in architecture and energy-saving lighting technologies. Subsidies from the government will be used as an impetus to encourage companies to upgrade in these areas. The government will entrust professional energy consumption organizations to audit company reports on energy saving and then decide whether they have been faithful to the claimed amount. In order to further activate companies, the government may prepay part of the subsidies for technical upgrade projects. After these projects are finished, the government will calculate the exact amount of financial reward based on the energy-saving effects.
Social investment
Enshi is a backward region in central Hubei Province. In the past, the primary and junior middle schools in rural areas of Enshi could not afford the energy to heat water. Some boarding schools in the region even raised pigs to subsidize their expenditure. Sponsored by a cooperative program with an international non-government organization, two primary schools in Enshi were able to build efficient energy systems in 2004. New lavatories were built, where human and pig excrement and garbage are turned into biogas. The biogas produced is piped into the kitchens to cook meals and heat water. These two schools now have a round-the-clock hot water supply. The residue from biogas production is used as manure for vegetable farms. The pilot projects have also equipped the two schools with solar-powered street lamps and clocks. Now such energy schemes have been implemented in 51 schools in Enshi.
China has been expanding the use of renewable clean energy, which has exhibited great market potential. Steve Papermaster, Co-chair of the Energy Committee of the U.S. President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, said at a seminar on international clean energy cooperation in Beijing that an increasing number of investors are interested in the market of clean energy-related industries, so money is no longer a problem for research and development.
In September, China’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, issued a long-term development plan for China’s renewable energies. According to this plan, China will steadily raise the ratio of clean and renewable energies in the overall energy portfolio. By 2020, the consumption of renewable energies in China will account for 15 percent of total energy consumption. By then, the total capacity of hydroelectric generators will reach 300 million kw, total capacity of wind power generators 30 million kw, annual bio-power production 30 million kw, annual usage of biogas 44.3 billion cubic meters, total capacity of solar power generators 1.8 million kw, annual production capacity of fuel ethanol 10 million tons and annual production capacity of bio-diesel 2 million tons. China’s sector of environment-friendly technologies has become a new favorite among international venture investors. In 2006, investment in clean energies increased by 147 percent over the previous year, from $170 million to $420 million. The figure for 2007 is estimated to surpass $600 million. British investment banking group Climate Change Capital has already started several investment programs on renewable energy projects in China.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review Articles Exchange Item)

Saving Karsevak L K Advani
A. Siddique

LIBERHAN Commission, set up in December 1992 to inquire into the demolition of the Babri Mosque, keeps reminding people of its existence for all the wrong reasons. The Commission headed by Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan was appointed by the then Congress Government’s Prime Minister Narasimha Rao within ten days of the destruction of sixteenth century Mosque at Ayodhya. Its mandate ; unveiling of the circumstances that led to the orgy of communal passions which climaxed with the shameful act of the demolition on 6 December 1992. The instructions for the Commission were to complete the inquiry “as soon as possible but not later than three months”, reflecting the need to cool the Muslim anger and to diffuse an ugly communal scenario threatening to spin out of control.
It is a measure of the sluggish churning of the wheels of jaundiced justice for the Muslim community in India that even after passage of fifteen years, 325 sittings, examination of over 100 witnesses and expenditure of Rs 7.17 crores, there is barely a chance that the perpetrators of the heinous crime will be brought to justice. In fact the latest developments indicate that the proceedings of the longest running commission of inquiry in India have ultimately boiled down to an effort to save L.K.Advani, the brain behind the Ramjanambhoomi Movement, who provided the motivation, an environment of intense communal polarization and the communal hatred and frenzy that led to the pulling down of the iconic structure. The efforts of the Liberhan Commission to falsify history wouldn’t have surfaced but for the spat between Justice Liberhan and the counsel attached to the Commission, Anupam Gupta, concerning Advani’s role and responsibility in precipitating the event. Justice Liberhan is of the view that Advani’s role in the demolition is “peripheral” while Gupta insists that the BJP leader’s involvement must be ascertained in greater detail.
The news of difference between the judge and the counsel have emerged among speculations that the Judge only intends indicting lesser figures like Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar while letting Advani off the hook by grossly underplaying the despicable role of a mover and a shaker played by him during the periods of communal violence preceding and following the event. The duo is also at loggerheads over the the crucial question whether the Commission in its final report should analyze the ideological and the historical aspects of the Advani led Ramjanambhoomi Movement that led to Babri’s destruction or turn a Nelson’s eye to the moorings of this watershed event marking the relegation of Indian Muslims’ status as second rate citizens in their own country.
Gupta was appointed Commission’s counsel in 1999 and his presence gave a much needed boost to the lethargic and inane proceedings of the Commission. It was only after his arrival that the Commission became assertive and took the decision to call top leaders of the Sangh Parivar like Advani, M.M.Joshi, Uma Bharti, Sudershan and Kalyan Singh besides Narasimha Rao for deposition before the Commission. Till his arrival the Commission had only examined journalists present at Ayodhya, some officials belonging to the Utter Pradesh administration and a few politicians. The nudge of objectivity raised hopes of the Muslims’ community who thought that with an assertive steering of the proceedings the Commission would cut through a tangle of disinformation that had been spun by the Sangh Parivar and identify the well known criminals. As it stands, with Gupta threatening to disassociate from the Commission,the expectations for a hard hitting , objective report may prove short lived.
With the 15 years long running Commission having received its 41st extension , to finally conclude its labyrinthine proceedings by 31 October, the efforts to absolve Advani of his shameful role in destruction of the Babri Mosque have gained momentum. It will be blatant distortion of history if it is not highlighted that he was the moving spirit behind the Ramjanambhoomi Movement that sought destruction of the Babri Mosque to clear way for the construction of Ram Temple at its site.It was Advani’s ‘inspired’ mobilization of the Hindu Right by launching this movement that transformed the fortunes of the BJP from just two seats in the Indian Parliament to 180 seats and provided it with a once inconceivable opportunity to lead a coalition Government at the Center in 1998.His Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya to stir communal passion left behind a trail of anti-Muslim riots killing 3000 Muslims and burning and looting of their properties in many states. On the fateful day he was prominently present on a platform along with the other saffron clan leaders surveying the scene and joining in the chorus of “Ek Dhakka Aur Do , Babri Masjid Tor Do ...”.



Paradox of being Benazir
Barkha Dutt

EVEN the most cold-hearted critic of Pakistan could not have remained unmoved by the bloodbath in Karachi. The angry red flames that set the streets ablaze, the lifeless bodies lying scattered about the dusty sidewalks like forgotten garbage, the screeching sirens, the desperate, overcrowded hospitals, the defeated pleas for help and the inevitable pandemonium. And then, Benazir Bhutto herself, barely unhurt and finally forced to face the new realities of the land that was once her home. To watch these images on late-night television was to be a mute witness to a country standing at a horrible, dangerous crossroads — a country fighting for life itself.
Ironically enough, the audacious assault on her was what everyone feared and expected — everyone, except Bhutto herself. I met her in Dubai just two days before she boarded the fateful flight back to Pakistan. Wasn’t she scared, I asked, by the gamble she was taking with her life? After all, the Taleban had threatened to send suicide bombers to greet her at the airport. She glared at me with characteristic defiance and, with a declamatory wave of the hand, said that suicide bombers were enemies of Islam; she was sure she would be safe. At that time, I thought it was just the natural rhetoric of political performance — a sort of practiced bravado. But looking back, and on deeper thought, I wonder — as have several commentators — whether she was perhaps genuinely out of sync with how deeply Pakistan had slid down the rabbit hole of fundamentalism in her absence. And did she not fully understand that by piggybacking a ride home with General Musharraf, she was in fact stepping straight into quicksand that could easily ensnare her and leave her gasping for breath? It was obvious that the very pact that had enabled her to return home had simultaneously endangered her future forever.
After all, by making a ‘deal’ (it’s a word she rejects) with the general, she had made enemies on both sides. She had disillusioned many within her own constituency — especially the enlightened middle-class — who accuse her of selling out to a dictator. At the same time, her vow to dismantle the “structure assembled by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies” made the military establishment she was negotiating with very nervous. They had allowed the genie out of the bottle, but now worried that it had acquired a life of its own. Their (unsuccessful) pleas for her to postpone her return were one sign of this lack of confidence.
And then there was the perception that the United States had mediated the talks between Bhutto and Musharraf, with Condoleezza Rice and Richard Boucher playing postmen. In a country seething with hatred for America, Bhutto is seen as secular, pro-west and a liberal. Throw in a degree from Oxford and she is The New York Times dream come true; and anathema for the religious orthodoxy back home. It hasn’t stopped her, though, from being candid about the changes she imagines for Pakistan. Her critics will point out that she has conveniently forgotten her own complicated history with the Taleban. But whether it’s pragmatic and self-serving re-invention or a genuine ideological shift, she seems keen to leave the past behind.

—Khaleej Times