Greenpeace Says Three Chinese Firms Pollute More than All of the UK

The three largest power companies in China are said to emit more CO2 than all of Britain. This was a statement that was released by Greenpeace earlier this week. The report went on to show that, burning up 20 percent of China’s coal in 2008, the top ten companies emitted the equivalent of about 1.44 billion tonnes of CO2.

During 2008, the largest three companies, Guodian, Datang, and Huaneng together emitted more than the United Kingdom’s total emissions during the same time frame. Greenpeace went on to say that, if Chin’s power companies phased out inefficient coal fired plants under 100 megawatts by 2012, it would reduce coal consumption by 90 million tonnes. Thus, it would avoid 220 million tonnes of CO2 every single year.

The top ten companies provide about 60 percent of China’s total electricity needs, and according to Greenpeace, they all rely very heavily on coal. Greenpeace is now urging the companies to help move China away from coal and cut CO2 emissions by aggressively improving energy efficiency and developing renewable energy.

The Greenpeace climate campaign manager, Yang Ailum, said that the climate change is humankind’s most urgent environmental problem to deal with. Chin’s power companies are not only the key coal consumers, but they are also the major CO2 emitters. All of China is seeing the effects of this with extreme weather events, such as heat waves, typhoons, droughts, floods, and other things along these lines. He goes on to say that the power companies can and must help China prevent climate disaster.