Eighty percent of the 50 plants would be in northwest China, in the provinces or regions of Xinjiang, western Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and Gansu. All these areas suffer from severe water shortages. The Greenpeace report said that besides the surge in carbon dioxide emissions, the plants would also worsen water scarcity, water pollution and air pollution. 

One of the two operational plants is in Inner Mongolia, where the city of Hohhot has reached an agreement with Beijing Enterprises Group to provide Beijing with four billion cubic meters of synthetic natural gas per year. The gas from the coal gasification plant there, operated by the China Datang Corporation, would equal half of Beijing’s current annual gas demand. 

synthetic natural gas：SNG 合成天然ガス

The Greenpeace report cited research from Tsinghua University showing that this agreement would reduce coal use by 8.94 million tons per year in Beijing, but increase it by 12 million tons in Inner Mongolia. 

There would also be a net growth of 3.77 million tons per year in carbon dioxide emissions and an increase of 24 million tons in water consumption, it said. 

On Tuesday, the National Energy Administration of China announced that it would place limits on proposed coal-to-gas projects, banning those that would produce less than two billion cubic meters of gas per year and coal-to-oil projects producing less than one million tons of oil per year. The energy administration developed the limits “after new technology sparked an investment spree regardless of environmental and economic realities,” Xinhua, the state news agency, reported. 

investment spree：投資の浮かれ騒ぎ

Ma Wen, a Greenpeace researcher on coal-to-gas projects, said in a written statement, “The new N.E.A. directive shows that China’s energy authority is clearly concerned that its big plan for coal-to-gas plants in western China, seen as a solution for eastern China’s air pollution problem, could go wrong. 

directive：指示

“But the document stops short at merely stressing the necessity of closely monitoring the projects’ development,” he said. “It doesn’t seem that Beijing is fully aware that western China, including Xinjiang and western Inner Mongolia, don’t have the environmental or water capacity to accommodate its coal-to-gas initiative, or that by 2030 the projects in total could produce almost 1.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year.”

stops short at：思いとどまる

これはエコノミストだ。

Greece’s bail-out
Still tightly monitored
International creditors remain sceptical about Greece’s ability to reform without close supervision
Jul 26th 2014 | ATHENS | From the print edition

ギリシャへの緊急援助
未だに厳しく監視されている
国際債権団はギリシャが改革できるかどうかに関して懐疑的であり、緻密な管理が必要だと思っている。



TOURISTS dived for cover beneath restaurant tables as shooting broke out in Monastiraki, a crowded neighbourhood in Athens, on July 16th. Greek anti-terrorist police had trailed Nikos Maziotis, one of the country’s most wanted fugitives, to a shop selling camping equipment. As he fled, Mr Maziotis opened fire with a handgun. He was arrested after being shot in the shoulder by a police officer. 

dive for：飛びつく
neighbourhood：地区
trail：追跡する
fugitive：逃亡者

Appearing before an investigating judge, Mr Maziotis said his job was “being a revolutionary”. He is accused of belonging to Revolutionary Struggle, a leftist extremist group that claimed responsibility for staging a rocket attack against the American embassy in Athens in 2007 and for several car-bomb explosions. The most recent, outside the IMF office in Athens in April, came at a time when Greece took another step towards recovery, issuing its first sovereign bond since 2010. 

日曜日。今日はこれまで。昨日は海野塾があって、木元は風邪をまだひいていたが、懇親会を行った。栃倉、孫、佐々部がきた。私は食べ過ぎて、２kgも太ってしまった。３日間かけて、痩せなければならない。今日は午後には英語がある。日本語の資料がたくさんたまっているが、英語と違って、斜めに読める。ではまた明日。