Issues like the energy conservation and emissionsreduction, the seawater desalination, thegreen energy and the circulative economy arebecoming the most popular economic topics ofTianjin. Behind them are the difficult problemsconfronting the Chinese economy. On the onehand, the country must maintain double-digitstable economic growth; while on the otherhand, China has encountered the problem ofresource restraint. Since Tianjin is an extra largeand old industrial city of China, this conundrumturns out to be even more prominent for Tianjin.

During recent years, through transforming theeconomic growth pattern, Tianjin governmenthas been giving top priority to energy conservation,energy efficiency enhancement, emissioncontrol, pollution reduction, eliminating backwardproduction capacity, in order to crack thehard nut. And Tianjin has squeezed into the toplevel of new industrialization nationwide.

From 2003 to 2007, the gross value of industrialoutput of Tianjin has increased by 23.9 percentevery year. The industrial added value has grown18.6 percent on annual average, 6.1 percentagepoints higher than the national average. Theaccumulative total of energy consumption per10,000-yuan industrial-added value during thesame period decreased by 37.1 percent, andfor the yearly average it dropped 8.9 percent,which amounted to 1.23 tons of standard coalper 10,000 yuan of industrial value. This wasonly one second of the national average. What’smore, the volume of water consumption for every10,000-yuan industrial added value was only20 cubic meters, being 13 percent of the nationalaverage and ranked the least nationwide. There-use ratio of industrial waste water reached90.95 percent. The comprehensive usage ratioof industry solid waste soared to 98.4 percent,and that for the alkali dregs, the steel slag, thepulverized coal ash increased to 100 percent.Besides, the extent of seawater desalination andwaste water re-use has reached the advancedstandard of the nation.

According to the report of Tianjin Developmentand Reform Commission, starting from establishingand developing the coordinated mechanismof the circulative economy, Tianjin has setup the incentive mechanism, which can promotethe circulative economic development. The cityhas also expanded the campaign of saving theenergy and water, and enhancing the comprehensiveutilization of all categories of resources.Meanwhile, Tianjin has established a bunch ofcirculative economic experimental demonstrationprojects, campuses, enterprises and smallcities in the key industrial segments, built certaincirculative economic industrial chains, and createdthe social circulation system, which bindsvarious industries together.

The emission-reduction campaign is in fullswing. In July, 2008, Tianjin worked out the workprogram for reducing the chemical oxygendemand (COD). It was clear about the annualobjective, which regulates that the total CODemissions must decrease by 1,400 tons, with ayear-on-year drop of 1 percent.

In order to meet the above goals of energy conservationand emission reduction, Tianjin hasreleased a series of measures. Within this year,there will be 11 sewage treatment plants of cityor township level to be either newly built or expanded;16 projects concerning centralized sewageprocessing facilities will be either newly builtor expanded in industrial parks; 26 industrial projects need to be optimized; 24 projects need to bereshuffled and adjusted in terms of structure, 16of which have to be closed down within 2008. Asfor the water recycling projects, it will involve theconstruction of 5 sewage treatment plants.

At the same time, in order to smoothly achievethe goal of emission reduction in 2009, Tianjinproposed to expand the capacity of 14 wastewater treatment plants, such as the EasternSuburb Sewage Treatment Plant, the YingchengSewage Treatment Plant, the Lutai Sewage TreatmentPlant, so on and so forth. The constructionmust be completed in 2008.

These measures work. At the end of 2007, sixministries including the National Developmentand Reform Commission took Tianjin as the nationalcirculative economy demonstration city. In2007, energy consumption for 10,000-yuan GDPof the whole city dropped to 1.016 tons of standardcoal. For two consecutive years, the droppingmargin of per unit GDP energy consumptionhas ranked the second across the whole nation.The energy consumption per 10,000 yuan addedvalue for scale industrial segments has droppedto 1.23 tons of standard coal, which is listedthe third across the country. Emissions of sulphurdioxide and the chemical oxygen demanddropped by 4.03 percent and 4 percent respectively.The consumption of water for every 10,000yuan GDP dropped to 47 cubic meters, amongwhich the water consumption for every 10,000yuan industrial added value dropped to 16.15cubic meters. The comprehensive usage ratioof industry solid waste soared to 98 percent, orabove. The processing ratio of the city life trashdetoxification increased to 85.5 percent, leadingother cities nationwide.