China launches $925m clean energy fund
CHINA WATCH China plans to launch a 7bn yuan (about $925m) clean energy fund to sponsor energy saving projects, as the latest in an array of efforts to combat the growing volumes of pollution it produces.
The money will all be allocated by the end of this year, spent on projects that switch to energy-saving light bulbs and alterations to boilers, among other things. This from the Environmental News Network:
Beijing hopes to roll out 50 million efficient lightbulbs this year under the scheme, which will also pay for alterations to boilers, power generation with excess heat and development of oil substitutes, the China Daily reported.
The energy fund alone aims save 35 million tonnes of coal, China’s main source of energy but also of acid rain-causing sulphur dioxide and greenhouse gases. The money in the fund would all be allocated by the end of 2007, the paper added.
Another 2.5 billion yuan ($330.4 million) fund will pay for biogas units in China’s countryside, which create gas from human and animal waste, cutting use of coal or wood — a key concern in areas plagued by deforestation.
