China’s Policy of Carbon Sequestration: Great Barrier, Huge Potential

A coal plant in Datteln, Germany. Photo: eutrophication&hypoxia/Flickr

By Yan Gu, Climate and Society ’13

If there’s one tie that strongly connects the climate and society, I would say it must be the law. As global warming calling for the action of society, our international and domestic legal systems were elicited to respond to the multifaceted challenges presented to the world as a whole. In China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter and second largest economy, the global challenge has raised a rich diversity of issues regarding its social and economic development and environmental concerns. Observing this, I decided to inter for the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University this summer. As part of my internship, I’m writing a white paper on China’s carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) law and policy.

China’s unprecedented economic development in the past 30 years has depended heavily on the use of coal power, which emits large amounts of GHG pollutants into the atmosphere. The econo

mic value and abundant supply of coal mean that China’s development pattern will not change in the foreseeable future. On the other hand, China appears willing to put great effort into mitigating the intense GHG emissions that result from coal use, as well as playing an important role on the international political stage. As it seeks to reconcile rapid economic growth with a desire to combat climate change, China is emerging as a leader in the development of CCUS, a promising GHG mitigation technology that will slow down the global warming trend.

CCUS technology refers to a process “to separate carbon dioxide (CO₂) from industrial or other emission sources, to transport the captured CO₂ to specific sites to utilize or store, thus achieving long-term isolation of CO₂ from atmosphere.” According to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report, a GHG mitigation portfolio that incorporates CCUS technology could potentially reduce the cost of stabilizing CO₂ concentrations in the atmosphere by 30 percent. However, CCUS in China is still facing issues of high cost, high energy consumption and the long-term uncertainty.

CO2 Emissions From the Consumption of Coal of China and the World (1980-2010). (U.S. Energy Information Administration, International Energy Statistics)

The white paper examines a variety of existing policy and legal tools that address the potential application of this mitigation technology. Though lacking any laws specifically dedicated to climate change, China has raised climate change policy to the same level of importance as national development strategy. In this context, the government has attached great importance to CCUS, pursuing the technology with a sense of urgency and a firm belief in its feasibility. China’s key central government departments have embarked on a series of policy changes in order to support CCUS technology research and demonstration projects, creating a basis for advanced research and development and deployment in the future.

If CCUS is to gradually evolve to be an integrated part of electricity generation from coal power plants, several aspects of CCUS will need legal regulation including site selection, utilization of CO₂ and prevention of leakage. Some of China’s existing laws regarding environmental impacts and legal liabilities are pertinent to CCUS and may help guide CCUS deployment. But the body of environmental regulations in China has only a limited history of evolvement, and CCUS raises particular legal issues that these laws are not designed to address.  For example, the Law on prevention and control of atmospheric pollution has provisions that only regulate sulfur dioxide (SO2) from new or expanded thermal power plants, but does not include regulations on CO₂ emissions.

Besides domestic efforts, the Chinese government is also actively seeking CCUS development opportunities from international cooperation to facilitate capacity building, demonstration projects deployment and regulatory framework development. These include Sino-Japanese CCUS projects installed at two 600 MW coal-fired power plant in northeast China, and a Sino-Canadian Enhanced Coal bed Methane and geological storage research program.

China is among the very few developing countries that has a government seriously investing in efforts to promote CCUS technology. The application of this new technology is still in its early stages, but the potential for development is great considering the large number of existing coal plants where CCUS can be deployed in China.