Gas subsidies for the government are shrinking in China's North, causing villagers to shiver.
He Wenxiang, a 72-year old farmer, sits on his bed, wearing several layers, including a fur-collared black jacket and a hat. He removes the thermometer from the wall, which reads "about 14 degrees Celsius" (57 degrees Fahrenheit). Despite temperatures outside of minus one C (30 F), he only runs his gas heater?occasionally in order to?warm the radiator in his room.
He said, "Life isn’t easy." If it got any colder, you wouldn't be able to take it.
He is just one of many people in his village, located in the province of Hebei, south of Beijing in China, who are choosing to barely heat their houses because of rising gas prices. Cash-strapped government officials have cut back on subsidies intended to encourage a switch to cleaner energy. In another village, a woman only identified as Song is standing in the sun selling used electronics in an alleyway. She claimed that her family spends 8,000 yuan (1,148 dollars) per winter to heat the home. According to figures from 2024, this is more than a third of the average rural salary of Hebei, which is 22,022 Yuan.
Her family only turns on the heat when her children come home.
Rural China is forced to make difficult decisions about basic necessities like heating because of a combination of local governments that are impoverished, energy market reforms, and a stagnant economy.
CLEANER, BUT COSTLY Since 2017, Beijing has been promoting a shift away from traditional coal-fired heating and towards natural gas or other cleaner heating methods in order to reduce some of the worst air pollution around the world.
As demand outpaced gas supply, infrastructure costs soared, and natural gas prices, which were already higher than coal, skyrocketed. The government's market-based reforms of gas pricing for 2023, intended to boost regional gas distributors' profits, have contributed to price increases. He said that local governments originally?paid consumers subsidies, but they were cancelled about a year ago. Hebei Province has not officially announced the cuts. Hebei province's economy, which is based on agriculture and heavy industries, has been facing increased budget pressures. Public expenditures will reach 139.5% in 2024, the highest level in 10 years.
The Hebei Province Communications Office did not respond immediately to a fax that requested a comment.
The government is aware that many people are unhappy with the cost of heating.
On January 4, the state-run news agency Xinhua published a video commentary about the trade-offs associated with the transition from coal to gas in rural heating. The agency said that "people's true sense of 'gain' should be used as a measure of a policy.
The Economic Observer, an independent newspaper published in early January, also ran a story on the affordability of heating in Hebei. The company website does not have it.
Blue skies at a price The coal-to gas switching programme has improved air quality in Hebei Province, which is practically surrounding Beijing. Days of "airpocalypse", as they are called, have become rarer.
Analysts from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air stated that reductions in coal combustion at residential and industrial locations, and emission reductions by heavy industries have reduced pollution of particulate matter less than 2.5 microns, which can lodge into the lungs and enter bloodstream, by about 30% in and around Beijing between 2020-2025.
Li, 70-year-old woman with only her surname revealed, may not be able to see the benefits of solar energy. Her husband and she spend a half of their annual 8,000 yuan income to heat the brick house in a village close to Baoding. They usually warm only?the bedroom. The temperature is set at 13 C. According to the World Health Organization, a safe indoor air temperature for adults should be 18 C (64 F) or higher. He Wenxiang, who was smoking outside with a friend at the time, said that he had previously been able to heat his home for a whole winter using coal for only 500 yuan.
He said, "I am in favor of environmental protection but I cannot afford to burn gas at this price."
(source: Reuters)
