Beijing (AsiaNews/AFP) - China is relying on coal-fired power plants to meet severe electricity shortages, but such heavy polluters are damaging the environment and harming its people and its neighbours.

To meet the rapidly growing economy's huge demands, the country is building more coal-fired power plants, which are cheaper and quicker to build than other types such as natural gas, nuclear or hydroelectric ones. Coal-fired plants emit large amounts of sulphur dioxide and other pollutants, causing acid rain and leading to respiratory illnesses.

"Pollution is now very serious. Pollution levels in 2003 were a lot higher than 2002," said Wang Jian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration's atmospheric division. From 2000 to 2002, air pollutant emissions actually decreased due to government efforts to control pollution, but last year pollution levels increased by about 12 per cent from 2002, according to government statistics.

Last year, electricity capacity increased by more than 15 per cent, generated mainly by coal-fired power plants, which still produce 75 per cent of China's power.

Mr Wang said there was little other choice for China. "Electricity is now in serious shortage. It's impossible not to build more coal-fired power plants. China's main resource is coal, so it is inevitable that most power plants are coal-fired power plants," he said.

Governmental studies on the impact of air pollution on health have been conducted but cannot be publicised, Mr Wang said, saying the studies were not yet thorough or scientific.

The World Bank, however, estimates 400,000 people in China die each year from air pollution-related illnesses, mainly lung and heart diseases.

China has not denied that it is producing pollution, but it has been slow to act. China still does not take environmental problems seriously, and considers economic development as more important than environmental protection.

The Chinese government has ordered the plants to adopt pollution control measures, such as by installing emissions cleaning equipment, but requirements are not strictly enforced, experts said.

"There's a pollution levy, but it's cheaper for factories to pay the levy than to clean up the pollution," said Mr Millison, an environment and energy specialist for the Asian Development Bank. 

Mr Wang said the government recognised that energy waste was a big problem. For the same amount of economic output, in fact, China is consuming 57 per cent more energy than Indonesia, three times more than South Korea and more than eight times more than Japan

Neighbouring countries, especially South Korea and Japan, as well as Hong Kong are also suffering. International experts estimate as much as 40 per cent of the air pollution in Japan and South Korea originates from China, said Mr Millison. "South Koreans are increasingly concerned. In Spring, everybody is coughing, even healthy people," said Boo Kyung-Jin, an expert at the Korean Energy Economics Institute. 

Korean and Japanese experts, meanwhile, are trying to collect hard evidence of imported pollution to present to China, in the hope that it will finally persuade Beijing to take action.

There is also growing evidence that the pollution has reached North America, and the US will likely eventually join in applying pressure.