China's record breaking heatwave, which lasted more than two months,
has finally begun to ease. But the power shortages that came with
a searing temperatures have raised questions about the region's heavy
reliance on hydro power and China's ambitions to end its use of fossil
fuels. Special correspondent Patrick Fox reports from the city of
Chongqing.
Cool breeze returns to the city of Chongqing.
And so to have fishermen to the banks of the Yangtze River. Chongqing
native Diet is just one of the many that have come to soak up the
calmer conditions.
I told you Then Now that it's rained, and the temperature has come
down, I decided to come outside has been suffocating at home. Many
people here took cover indoors over the past two months, King was
one of the regions hardest hit by China's recent heatwave with mercury
levels, topping 40 degrees Celsius. That's 100 and four F every day
for two straight weeks.
The Syrian temperatures brought intense drought, killing crops
and causing wildfires that ripped through Chongqing's outlying mountainous
districts.
It also some dry stretches of the Yangtze and its offshoots.
Hard baked, cracked Earth was all that was left in some parts. Asia's
longest river is a water source for about 600 million people.
Its flow fuels much of China's extensive hydropower infrastructure,
including the world's largest energy plant, the Three Gorges Dam,
But the country's worst drought in 60 years recently caused a 50%
reduction in daily hydropower generation.
Ooh is a climate and energy activist for Greenpeace based in Beijing.
Introduce the bottle. I think what it's revealed as problems on two
fronts, the first around the different ways that electricity is generated
and a second on the usage. Southwestern China is particularly reliant
on hydropower. Sichuan Province, for instance, gets 80% of its energy
from it.
Scorching temperatures drove demand to run air conditioners. Piling
pressure on a system already started its natural power source. As
part of efforts to ration electricity usage. Major manufacturers
like Tesla and Toyota plants in southwestern China had to suspend
operations.
Authorities also restricted more operating hours in Chongqing, only
allowing them to open for five hours every day.
Was pretty inconvenient before if you went and got groceries and
had to carry large bags. It was quite hot. And if you were going
upstairs, you could take the escalator. But if you wanted to go down,
you had to walk, which was annoying. Sometimes a lot of elderly people
were worried about falling.
Still. Chongqing students, Jiang Zhou Yu says many people and businesses
are pitching in to try and help conserve even now, as the heatwave
has begun to ease.
She's come to study here at a fast food restaurant to avoid using
the at home.
The section she sat in, has lights switched off when it's less busy.
Recent, unpredictable weather is keeping people in Chongqing on alert.
Still not as it is normally right now, it should be wet season, but
the water levels are still quite low, so I'm still a bit worried.
Authorities aren't taking chances. Either. You can see there are
lots of efforts going into try and save energy into address this
power from so here on underground trains, air con temperatures are
being dulled higher and lights are being dimmed. So you can see here
that every other light is switched off right now, But these really
are just a stopgap.
Measures only helped alleviate the problem in the short term.
In the long term, southwestern China may need to rethink its reliance
on hydro power.
Extreme weather events have become a threat to this clean energy
resource. Ah, power cuts revealed the problems around coordinating
the use of different sources of power generation and the need for
more long term systematic planning and improvements in the entire
energy grid. This is more important than looking at any one energy
source alone.
But many environmentalists fear policymakers may resort to burning
more fossil fuels like coal to meet the country's energy demands
and reduce the risk of energy crunch is brought on by extreme conditions.
Thermal plants in southwest China fired on all cylinders to generate
as much power as possible in response to recent shortages.
Indeed, discussions needed around how to balance short and long term
problems. In addition to the construction of new energy projects.
I think energy regulators also need to look at how to adjust the
overall consumption of power because its consumption that would directly
impact carbon emissions if you make plans around peaking emissions
or other concrete development goals, based on
Assumption you'll have a much clearer direction.
Still unpredictable weather related events blamed on climate change
cost uncertainty over the country's energy infrastructure.
China has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2060. But it says emissions
won't peak till 2030 target many environmentalists think isn't aggressive
enough to meet its long term green goals.
Any shift in the balance back to relying more on coal could make
it even harder to achieve them.