Increased coal consumption brings invisible pollution

China's coal consumption rose from 1.445 billion tons of standard coal in 2004 to 3.24 billion tons of standard coal in 2010, which is three times that of the United States and six times that of India. It is the world's largest coal consumer.

According to available data, there are many unremovable ultra-fine particles that cannot be removed from coal combustion smoke, which is the main source of PM2.5 fine particles. The combustion of coal emits sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides to carry out complex atmospheric chemical reactions with other pollutants in the air to form secondary particles of sulfates and salts, which are converted from air pollutants to solid pollutants and become elevated in PM2.5. The main reason.

“The eastern region has become a heavily polluted area with PM2.5,” said Greenpeace’s report. The reason is also related to the rapid increase in coal consumption caused by economic growth. According to statistics, the emission per unit area of ​​the pollutants of the eastern part of the country*s*, nitrogen oxides, and soot is 3.3 times, 4.4 times, and 2.7 times the national average.

By comparing the coal-fired power consumption and the PM2.5 satellite maps of different provinces in China, we can see that the PM2.5 pollution is more serious in areas with higher coal-fired volumes.

Due to the long-distance transmission characteristics of PM2.5, PM2.5 pollution in cities is more likely to come from regional pollution diffusion. In contrast, PM10 with larger particles comes mainly from local pollution sources.

For example, although Beijing has implemented sixteen atmospheric management measures since 1998, there has been no qualitative improvement in air quality. The reason is that in addition to the air pollutants emitted from the pollution sources of local factories, transportation, and residents to the atmosphere, the air pollutants sent from the outside world will also affect the local air quality in Beijing. The atmospheric management of Beijing alone cannot solve the problem of regional pollution transmission.

Studies have shown that the source of air pollution aerosol particles in Beijing can be traced back to the larger areas of relatively heavy pollution such as Hebei, Shandong and Tianjin around the south of Beijing. The same problem also exists in economically developed regions such as the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.

According to this, Greenpeace calls for the immediate implementation of coal pollution control, while vigorously developing new energy, and getting rid of excessive dependence on coal as soon as possible. At the same time, all regions should jointly prevent joint control and jointly deal with air pollution. "A single city alone can't stand alone."