Will Guangdong hit air-reduction targets? Governor not betting his life on it
Unlike other top officials, Governor Zhu Xiaodan has yet to show commitment to curbing smog
If there was a buzz phrase from the recently concluded provincial legislative season it would be "tackling smog". Some governors swore oaths they would hit clean air targets that run to 2017, no matter how difficult.
"I'll leave the post immediately if the target is missed by even one single tonne," said Zhang Qingwei , the governor of Hebei , on the sidelines of the provincial session last week.
Beijing Mayor Wang Anshun , meanwhile, told delegates a central leader had pushed him to swear he'd "bet his life" on meeting clean air targets.
In Guangdong, Governor Zhu Xiaodan said nothing beyond what was contained in the legislative work report - that the province would clean up the environment and improve air quality. If Zhu was overwhelmed with urgency, he hid it well.
Provincial planners say they don't have enough information to act. Zhong Liuju, the deputy director of Guangdong's environmental monitoring centre, said officials couldn't accurately list how much coal-fired energy plants, vehicles and factories contributed to the overall smog levels. Without that data, an effective plan is impossible, and any meaningful reductions Hong Kong makes risk being negated.
The province faces another challenge in seeking to boost economic growth without crippling its efforts to improve air quality. Guangdong already has one of the mainland's largest capacities of coal-fired power. But it is pushing ahead with plans to build large-scale thermal power plants in the province's east, west and north, as part of a 670-billion-yuan (HK$850 billion) stimulus effort.
This deeper embrace of fossil fuels runs counter to what rival industrial regions are doing - Beijing, Hebei, Shandong and Jiangsu have all pledged to reduce coal consumption.