Maersk, which makes about 850 port calls annually to Hong Kong, said the voluntary switch from cheap, polluting bunker fuel to the cleaner fuel, which costs about $250 more per ton than bunker fuel, would cost the company an extra $1 million per year.
The U.S. shale boom helped push U.S. carbon emissions to an 18-year low last year, but also shifted cheap, polluting coal into Europe where it is used in power stations.
He also said he would spend $2 billion over 10 years for "clean coal" technologies, aimed at exploiting the country's huge supplies of cheap but polluting supplies of coal.
Instead, the regulatory system on the mainland has focused on keeping electricity rates as low as possible, with little regard for the pressure this puts on power companies to choose cheap but highly polluting coal-fired power plants.
When a not-so-careful writer tries to gussy up his prose with an upmarket word that he mistakenly thinks is a synonym of a common one, like simplistic for simple or fulsome for full, his readers are likely to conclude the worst: that he has paid little attention to what he has read, is affecting an air of sophistication on the cheap, and is polluting a common resource.
The stock market might rise because companies find it easier and cheaper to pollute, fire workers, and avoid paying taxes though all of those might be disastrous for the rest of the country.
"And then they see the price tag, or the installment deadlines don't line up, and they decide to move into cheaper and more polluting systems because the necessary frills, like casino machines or dancing fountains, outweigh their nuts-and-bolts utility.
Second, by setting a global cap, the new IMO commitment removes any risk that other Asian ports might compete with Chinese ports by continuing to allow the cheaper, but highly polluting high-sulfur fuel.
There is one aspect that firmly unites developing countries: to change their development paths towards low-carbon, resilient economies, for example by leapfrogging from cheaper but highly polluting sources of energy to cleaner and renewable ones, they have been consistent in their requirement for financial assistance -- including technology transfer -- from the developed world.
More likely, carbon markets would remain separate, denying firms a single price signal.In Europe itself cheaper carbon makes heavily polluting coal more attractive than cleaner gas.
Instead of turning out cheap products, less-polluting factories will increasingly be pushing out high-quality electronics and auto supply parts and the like.
