Chinese industrial hub Shandong in push to target high-polluting projects

China's industrial hub of Shandong has introduced measures to implement carbon emission reduction alternatives for energy-intensive industries and projects causing high levels of pollution, the province's Department of Ecology and Environment said Nov. 29.

The measures will keep runaway development of high-emissions projects in check, a move in line with the country's ambitious decarbonization plans, according to a departmental document.

This policy will be applied to preliminary processing and newly-built processes with high pollution and high energy consumption, and targets 16 sectors including steel, ferry alloy and primary aluminum.

The new move brings the spotlight back on China's aluminum industry, which is already under pressure to reduce emissions as several primary aluminum smelters rely heavily on coal-fired power plants. Shandong is China's largest primary aluminum producer.

Carbon emission reduction alternatives mean emissions generated by proposed projects should be substituted through other means.

Alternative strategies indicated included reducing carbon emissions via shutdown or modification of products, backward elimination, trimming overcapacity and implementing energy-saving technical updates, according to the document.

Other alternative methods for curbing emissions can be through replacement of fossil energy with renewable energy and clean electricity, the document said.

These measures will be implemented in steel and acetic acid industry before the end of June 2022 and applied to the rest of the sectors after July 1, 2022.

China's aluminum industry has been facing production hurdles since May after power shortages forced smelters to cut back on output plans for the year.

Smelters are unlikely to bring idled capacity online by the end of 2021 amid a push to save energy and power supply restrictions, sources said. This also means planned new projects have been delayed.