China's Carbon Neutral Plan Has Northeast Flummoxed, One City Shuts Off All Street Lights

iFeng:　“一刀切”切痛北方重碳省 业内人士：要想完成指标，恐怕只有停产　（"One size fits all" painful to the industry insiders of the Northern Heavy Carbon Province: To complete the target, I am afraid that the only way to stop production）

At present, the oil market is on the rise, and all regions are producing at full capacity. But a coal-to-liquid company in the north was deserted, and the leaders and employees were sad, and even sent a letter to the head office-requesting to stop production .

"Three times a week, the development and reform, energy, statistics and other departments have repeatedly requested and repeatedly monitored that our total energy consumption in the first quarter of this year was reduced by 50,000 tons of standard coal year-on-year. However, in the first quarter of last year, affected by the epidemic, the company basically had no production. The consumption base is small, and it is difficult to complete the task of reducing consumption." Zhang Heng (a pseudonym), the general manager of the coal-to-liquid branch, said, "Some cadres bluntly said,'It is impossible to complete it, it can be stopped.'"

The experience of this company is not alone. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, some provinces and regions failed to complete the national energy consumption "dual control" indicator task, and some were interviewed and notified by the National Development and Reform Commission because of their low rankings. Since the second half of 2020, many provinces and autonomous regions have issued a series of policies to fully deploy the "14th Five-Year Plan" and "dual control" of energy consumption in 2021. Some have decomposed energy consumption "dual control" task indicators step by step from provinces to cities and counties, to enterprises, and the relevant departments and enterprises feel more pressure.

Compared with the suspension of production, the more serious is the withdrawal. Recently, 11 companies in an industrial park in the north were included in the withdrawal because the submerged arc furnace was below 25,000 kVA. "Some companies have not even violated any laws and regulations. They are forced to withdraw only in order to meet the requirements of "dual control" of energy consumption." The cadre in charge of related work in the industrial park said, "11 companies are facing withdrawing, and behind it is the employment problem of at least 1,000 people. The park and enterprises are in a difficult situation, and there is currently no compensation plan."

The tentacles of "dual control" also extend to daily life. In the past few days, Ms. Wang, who lives in a county in Northeast China, was afraid to go out at night because the local government requested that “all street lights in the county be turned off all day”, “building lighting, business and business plaque lighting, LED screens and street lights The light box is closed all day." Ms. Wang was very helpless: “It’s not safe to drive and walk. The night economy that has finally developed has also stopped. There are fewer people doing square dancing and exercising. It’s really bad.”

The reporter encountered the situation of elevator shutdown many times during the interview. A five-storey government building originally had 4 elevators in operation. In order to reduce consumption, all the elevators were shut down. Cadres and employees climbed the stairs all day, and had to endure the building's "centralized power outage for one hour" at noon. A cadre bluntly said: "The'dual control' of energy consumption is a good thing, but if even basic work and life are disturbed, problems will arise."

It's a long article, this is only a small bit of it. You can get the gist of the story though: officials don't know how to hit carbon targets and they're shutting down the economy in the face of what seem like impossible targets.