...HAS COAL

Question: What will get them to make their new plants clean-coal capable?
Answer: Make the clean-coal technology available and cheaper than paying for carbon dioxide emissions.

Shanghai to shut down 29 coal powered plants by 2010
April 13, 2007 (AFP via Yahoo News)

WHO
Shanghai municipal leadership as represented by Vice Mayor Feng Guoqin

WHAT
The city will take steps to improve efficiency in coal-fired energy generation by shutting down 29 coal-fired power plants and replacing them with newer, more efficient ones. Nationally, the Chinese are building a new, coal-fired power plant approximately every three days to a week.

WHEN
The intention to close down the coal plants by 2010. The national government has announced plans to increase energy from renewable fuels 7.5%, to 16% of overall energy, by 2020, as well as increasing energy efficiency.

WHERE
The Chinese coastal city of Shanghai.

WHY
The coal plants being axed are serious polluters in a country becoming hamstrung by pollution as a byproduct of tremendous economic and industrial expansion. Small coal-fired plants using old technology will be shut down as new, more efficient ones come on line. The move will reduce coal consumption per kilowatt generated, but it will still be coal.

QUOTES
Vice Mayor Feng Guoqin: "These small coal-fired power plants, totalling 2.11 million kilowatts in installed capacity, are big energy guzzlers and serious polluters…"