China meets pollution targets ahead of UN Environment Council meeting

Shenyang: The UN Environment Council is scheduled to meet on October 16 and 17 to report on how many countries have achieved their goals on the pollution control front. So China has imposed unprecedented power cuts across the country to show that it is serious about preventing the environment from being polluted.

Increased international pressure on President Xi Jinping is said to have forced him to take such a step as most of China's provinces have failed to meet their pollution targets.

Due to the unprecedented occurrence of this power cut imposed in China, people had breakfast on the basis of smartphone lights. The shopkeepers had turned on their shop's generators. Power cuts were imposed in some areas in China to alleviate power shortages and meet official conservation targets.

Newspaper reports claim that the power cuts are due to companies being reluctant to meet rising demand due to high coal prices. While economists say the motive behind it is political. Officials are under pressure to meet the target set for cutting energy consumption.

Lee Yufeng, a restaurant owner in the densely populated northeastern city of Shenyang, used an electric bicycle battery to make noodles after seeing a 7:30 a.m. power cut notice.

He said restaurant customers also dined on smartphone lights. Factories in China's busiest manufacturing province were asked to suspend their production for a week. This is likely to disrupt the global supply of smartphones and other goods. In urban areas, there was a routine blackout. That led to a flurry of requests on social media for the government to end the problem.

China's power consumption has almost doubled, while the ruling Communist Party wants to reduce energy consumption. The power cut comes as world leaders are due to hold a UN Environment Video Conference on October 12 and 13 in the southwestern city of Cumming. This shows how much pressure President Xi Jinping's government is under to reduce pollution and achieve energy efficiency goals.