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英語(yǔ)二級(jí)筆譯試題
英語(yǔ)筆譯二級(jí)考試是人事部全國(guó)翻譯資格證考試,二級(jí)證書的認(rèn)可度很大,含金量高。下面是小編分享的英語(yǔ)筆譯二級(jí)真題,希望能幫到大家!
2012年5月英語(yǔ)筆譯二級(jí)真題
1. 閱讀第一篇選自《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》,原文標(biāo)題為:Few Biologists but Many Evangelicals Sign Anti-Evolution Petition
節(jié)選部分內(nèi)容如下:
In the recent skirmishes over evolution, advocates who have pushed to dilute its teaching have regularly pointed to a petition signed by 514 scientists and engineers.
The petition, they say, is proof that scientific doubt over evolution persists. But random interviews with 20 people who signed the petition and a review of the public statements of more than a dozen others suggest that many are evangelical Christians, whose doubts about evolution grew out of their religious beliefs. And even the petition's sponsor, the Discovery Institute in Seattle, says that only a quarter of the signers are biologists, whose field is most directly concerned with evolution. The other signers include 76 chemists, 75 engineers, 63 physicists and 24 professors of medicine.
The petition was started in 2001 by the institute, which champions intelligent design as an alternative theory to evolution and supports a "teach the controversy" approach, like the one scuttled by the state Board of Education in Ohio last week.
Institute officials said that 41 people added their names to the petition after a federal judge ruled in December against the Dover, Pa., school district's attempt to present intelligent design as an alternative to evolution.
"Early on, the critics said there was nobody who disbelieved Darwin's theory except for rubes in the woods," said Bruce Chapman, president of the institute. "How many does it take to be a noticeable minority — 10, 50, 100, 500?"
Mr. Chapman said the petition showed "there is a minority of scientists who disagree with Darwin's theory, and it is not just a handful."
The petition makes no mention of intelligent design, the proposition that life is so complex that it is best explained as the design of an intelligent being. Rather, it states: "We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged."
A Web site with the full list of those who signed the petition was made available yesterday by the institute at . The signers all claim doctorates in science or engineering. The list includes a few nationally prominent scientists like James M. Tour, a professor of chemistry at Rice University; Rosalind W. Picard, director of the affective computing research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Philip S. Skell, an emeritus professor of chemistry at Penn State who is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
It also includes many with more modest positions, like Thomas H. Marshall, director of public works in Delaware, Ohio, who has a doctorate in environmental ecology. The Discovery Institute says 128 signers hold degrees in the biological sciences and 26 in biochemistry. That leaves more than 350 nonbiologists, including Dr. Tour, Dr. Picard and Dr. Skell.Of the 128 biologists who signed, few conduct research that would directly address the question of what shaped the history of life.
Of the signers who are evangelical Christians, most defend their doubts on scientific grounds but also say that evolution runs against their religious beliefs.
Several said that their doubts began when they increased their involvement with Christian churches.
Some said they read the Bible literally and doubt not only evolution but also findings of geology and cosmology that show the universe and the earth to be billions of years old.
Scott R. Fulton, a professor of mathematics and computer science at Clarkson University in Potsdam, N.Y., who signed the petition, said that the argument for intelligent design was "very interesting and promising."
He said he thought his religious belief was "not particularly relevant" in how he judged intelligent design. "It probably influences in the sense in that it makes me very interested in the questions," he said. "When I see scientific evidence that points to God, I find that encouraging."
Roger J. Lien, a professor of poultry science at Auburn, said he received a copy of the petition from Christian friends.
"I stuck my name on it," he said. "Basically, it states what I believe."
Dr. Lien said that he grew up in California in a family that was not deeply religious and that he accepted evolution through much of his scientific career. He said he became a Christian about a decade ago, six years after he joined the Auburn faculty.
"The world is broken, and we humans and our science can't fix it," Dr. Lien said. "I was brought to Jesus Christ and God and creationism and believing in the Bible."
He also said he thought that evolution was "inconsistent with what the Bible says."
Another signer is Dr. Gregory J. Brewer, a professor of cell biology at the Southern Illinois University medical school. Like other skeptics, he readily accepts what he calls "microevolution," the ability of species to adapt to changing conditions in their environment. But he holds to the opinion that science has not convincingly shown that one species can evolve into another.
"I think there's a lot of problems with evolutionary dogma," said Dr. Brewer, who also does not accept the scientific consensus that the universe is billions of years old. "Scientifically, I think there are other possibilities, one of which would be intelligent design. Based on faith, I do believe in the creation account."
Dr. Tour, who developed the "nano-car" — a single molecule in the shape of a car, with four rolling wheels — said he remained open-minded about evolution.
"I respect that work," said Dr. Tour, who describes himself as a Messianic Jew, one who also believes in Christ as the Messiah.
But he said his experience in chemistry and nanotechnology had showed him how hard it was to maneuver atoms and molecules. He found it hard to believe, he said, that nature was able to produce the machinery of cells through random processes. The explanations offered by evolution, he said, are incomplete.
"I can't make the jumps, the leaps they make in the explanations," Dr. Tour said. "Will I or other scientists likely be able to makes those jumps in the future? Maybe."
Opposing petitions have sprung up. The National Center for Science Education, which has battled efforts to dilute the teaching of evolution, has sponsored a pro-evolution petition signed by 700 scientists named Steve, in honor of Stephen Jay Gould, the Harvard paleontologist who died in 2002.
The petition affirms that evolution is "a vital, well-supported, unifying principle of the biological sciences."
Mr. Chapman of that institute said the opposing petitions were beside the point. "We never claimed we're in a fight for numbers," he said.
Discovery officials said that they did not ask the religious beliefs of the signers and that such beliefs were not relevant. John G. West, a senior fellow at Discovery, said it was "stunning hypocrisy" to ask signers about their religion "while treating the religious beliefs of the proponents of Darwin as irrelevant."
2. 閱讀第三篇選自《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》,原文標(biāo)題為:Richard Prince Lawsuit Focuses on Limits of Appropriation
節(jié)選部分內(nèi)容如下:
In March a federal district court judge in Manhattan ruled that Mr. Prince — whose career was built on appropriating imagery created by others — broke the law by taking photographs from a book about Rastafarians and using them without permission to create the collages and a series of paintings based on them, which quickly sold for serious money even by today’s gilded art-world standards: almost $2.5 million for one of the works. (“Wow — yeah,” Mr. Prince said when a lawyer asked him under oath in the district court case if that figure was correct.)
The decision, by Judge Deborah A. Batts, set off alarm bells throughout Chelsea and in museums across America that show contemporary art. At the heart of the case, which Mr. Prince is now appealing, is the principle called fair use, a kind of door in the bulwark of copyright protections. It gives artists (or anyone for that matter) the ability to use someone else’s material for certain purposes, especially if the result transforms the thing used — or as Judge Pierre N. Leval described it in an influential 1990 law review article, if the new thing “adds value to the original” so that society as a whole is culturally enriched by it. In the most famous test of the principle, the Supreme Court in 1994 found a possibility of fair use by the group 2 Live Crew in its sampling of parts of Roy Orbison’s “Oh Pretty Woman” for the sake of one form of added value, parody.
In the Prince case the notoriously slippery standard for transformation was defined so narrowly that artists and museums warned it would leave the fair-use door barely open, threatening the robust tradition of appropriation that goes back at least to Picasso and underpins much of the art of the last half-century. Several museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan, rallied to the cause, filing papers supporting Mr. Prince and calling the decision a blow to “the strong public interest in the free flow of creative expression.” Scholars and lawyers on the other side of the debate hailed it instead as a welcome corrective in an art world too long in thrall to the Pictures Generation — artists like Mr. Prince who used appropriation beginning in the 1970s to burrow beneath the surface of media culture.
But if the case has had any effect so far, it has been to drag into the public arena a fundamental truth hovering somewhere just outside the legal debate: that today’s flow of creative expression, riding a tide of billions of instantly accessible digital images and clips, is rapidly becoming so free and recycling so reflexive that it is hard to imagine it being slowed, much less stanched, whatever happens in court. It is a phenomenon that makes Mr. Prince’s artful thefts — those collages in the law firm’s office — look almost Victorian by comparison, and makes the copyright battle and its attendant fears feel as if they are playing out in another era as well, perhaps not Victorian but certainly pre-Internet.
In many ways the art world is a latecomer to the kinds of copyright tensions that have already played out in fields like music and movies, where extensive systems of policing, permission and licensing have evolved. But art lawyers say that legal challenges are now coming at a faster pace, perhaps in part because the art market has become a much bigger business and because of the extent of the borrowing ethos.
an art world too long in thrall to the Pictures Generation — artists like Mr. Prince who used appropriation beginning in the 1970s to burrow beneath the surface of media culture.
But if the case has had any effect so far, it has been to drag into the public arena a fundamental truth hovering somewhere just outside the legal debate: that today’s flow of creative expression, riding a tide of billions of instantly accessible digital images and clips, is rapidly becoming so free and recycling so reflexive that it is hard to imagine it being slowed, much less stanched, whatever happens in court. It is a phenomenon that makes Mr. Prince’s artful thefts — those collages in the law firm’s office — look almost Victorian by comparison, and makes the copyright battle and its attendant fears feel as if they are playing out in another era as well, perhaps not Victorian but certainly pre-Internet.
In many ways the art world is a latecomer to the kinds of copyright tensions that have already played out in fields like music and movies, where extensive systems of policing, permission and licensing have evolved. But art lawyers say that legal challenges are now coming at a faster pace, perhaps in part because the art market has become a much bigger business and because of the extent of the borrowing ethos.
2012年5月英語(yǔ)筆譯二級(jí)筆譯實(shí)務(wù)真題
Passage 1
原文標(biāo)題為:Translation as Literary Ambassador
The runaway success of ’s “Millennium” trilogy suggests that when it comes to contemporary literature in translation, Americans are at least willing to read Scandinavian detective fiction. But for work from other regions, in other genres, winning the interest of big publishing houses and readers in the United States remains a steep uphill struggle.
Among foreign cultural institutes and publishers, the traditional American aversion to literature in translation is known as “the 3 percent problem.” But now, hoping to increase their minuscule share of the American book market — about 3 percent — foreign governments and foundations, especially those on the margins of Europe, are taking matters into their own hands and plunging into the publishing fray in the United States.
Increasingly, that campaign is no longer limited to widely spoken languages like French and German. From Romania to Catalonia to Iceland, cultural institutes and agencies are subsidizing publication of books in English, underwriting the training of translators, encouraging their writers to tour in the United States, submitting to American marketing and promotional techniques they may have previously shunned and exploiting existing niches in the publishing industry.
“We have established this as a strategic objective, a long-term commitment to break through the American market,” said Corina Suteu, who leads the New York branch of the European Union National Institutes for Culture and directs the . “For nations in Europe, be they small or large, literature will always be one of the keys of their cultural existence, and we recognize that this is the only way we are going to be able to make that literature present in the United States.”
For instance, the Dalkey Archive Press, a small publishing house in Champaign, Ill., that for more than 25 years has specialized in translated works, this year began a Slovenian Literature Series, underwritten by official groups in Slovenia, once part of Yugoslavia. The series’s first book, “Necropolis,” by Boris Pahor, is a powerful World War II concentration-camp memoir that has been compared to the best of Elie Wiesel and Primo Levi, and has been followed by Andrej Blatnik’s “You Do Understand,” a rather absurdist but still touching collection of sketches and parables about love and intimacy.
Dalkey has also begun or is about to begin similar series in Hebrew and Catalan, and with Switzerland and Mexico, the last of which will consist of four books yearly for six years. In each case a financing agency in the host country is subsidizing publication and participating in promotion and marketing in the United States, an effort that can easily require $10,000 or more a book.
Passage 2
原文標(biāo)題為:Argentina Hopes for a Big Payoff in Its Shale Oil Field Discovery
Just east of Argentina’s Andean foothills, an field called the Vaca Muerta — “dead cow” in English — has finally come to life.
In May, the Argentine oil company YPF announced that it had found 150 million barrels of oil in the Patagonian field, and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner rushed onto national television to praise the discovery as something that could give new impetus to the country’s long-stagnant economy.
“The importance of this discovery goes well beyond the volume,” said Sebastián Eskenazi, YPF’s chief executive, as he announced the find. “The important thing is it is something new: new energy, a new future, new expectations.”
Although there are significant hurdles, geologists say that the Vaca Muerta is a harbinger of a possible major expansion of global petroleum supplies over the next two decades as the industry uses advanced techniques to extract oil from shale and other tightly packed rocks.
Oil experts caution that geologists have only just begun to study shale fields in much of the world, and thus can only guess at their potential. Little seismic work has been completed, and core samples need to be retrieved from thousands of feet below the surface to judge how much oil or gas can be retrieved.
Skeptics also say that even if oil is found in many of these fields, some may not be recoverable using current technology.
Argentina certainly has high hopes for shale oil from the southern Patagonian province of Neuquén. The 150 million barrels of recoverable shale oil found in the Vaca Muerta represents an increase of 8 percent in Argentina’s reserves, and the find was the biggest discovery of oil in the country since the late 1980s.
Oil experts say the Vaca Muerta is probably just a start for Argentina, long a middle-ranked oil producer. Mr. Lynch noted that YPF had explored only 100 square miles out of 5,000 square miles in the whole shale deposit, and other oil companies working in the area had not announced any discoveries yet.
So far, nearly all of the oil exploration in the shale fields in Argentina and elsewhere has been pursued with traditional vertical wells. Plans are just beginning for horizontal drilling.
Some experts caution that the fast advance of oil production from shale in the United States is no guarantee of similar successes abroad, at least not in the near future.
漢譯英
第一篇節(jié)選自《胡xx在金磚國(guó)家的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人第三次會(huì)晤時(shí)的講話》(2011年4月15日) 原文:
和平穩(wěn)定是發(fā)展的前提和基礎(chǔ)。上個(gè)世紀(jì),人類經(jīng)歷了兩次世界大戰(zhàn),生靈涂炭,經(jīng)濟(jì)社會(huì)發(fā)展遭受嚴(yán)重挫折。第二次世界大戰(zhàn)結(jié)束以來(lái),世界經(jīng)濟(jì)能夠快速增長(zhǎng),主要得益于相對(duì)和平穩(wěn)定的國(guó)際環(huán)境。
我們應(yīng)該恪守聯(lián)合國(guó)憲法和章程宗旨和原則,充分發(fā)揮聯(lián)合國(guó)及其安理會(huì)在維護(hù)和平、締造和平、建設(shè)和平方面的核心作用。堅(jiān)持通過(guò)對(duì)話和協(xié)商,以和平方式解決國(guó)際爭(zhēng)端。
我們應(yīng)該堅(jiān)持國(guó)家不論大小、強(qiáng)弱、貧富都是國(guó)際社會(huì)平等一員,以民主、包容、合作、共贏的精神實(shí)現(xiàn)共同安全,做到一國(guó)內(nèi)部的事情一國(guó)自主辦、大家共同的事情大家商量辦,堅(jiān)定不移奉行多邊主義和國(guó)際合作,推進(jìn)國(guó)際關(guān)系民主化。
我們應(yīng)該營(yíng)造支持各國(guó)根據(jù)本國(guó)國(guó)情實(shí)現(xiàn)和平、穩(wěn)定、繁榮的國(guó)際環(huán)境。應(yīng)該本著求同存異的原則,尊重各國(guó)主權(quán)和選擇發(fā)展道路和發(fā)展模式的權(quán)利,尊重文明多樣性,在交流互鑒、取長(zhǎng)補(bǔ)短中相得益彰、共同進(jìn)步。
參考譯文:
Peace and stability form the prerequisite and foundation for development. The two world wars in the last century caused mankind untold sufferings and world economic and social development severe setbacks. It is mainly due to the relatively peaceful and stable international environment that the world economy has been able to grow at a fast pace in the post-war era. The World Bank statistics show that none of the countries persistently under violent conflict has achieved the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To maintain world peace and stability so that the people can live a happy and prosperous life is the primary responsibility for governments and leaders of all countries.
We should abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and bring into full play the central role of the United Nations and its Security Council in peace keeping, peace making and peace building. We should seek peaceful settlement of international disputes through dialogue and consultation.
All countries, big or small, strong or weak, rich or poor, are equal members of the international community. We should work for common security in a spirit of democracy, inclusiveness, cooperation and win-win progress. Internal affairs of a country should be handled independently by the country itself and international affairs should be managed collectively through consultation by all. We should be committed to multilateralism and international cooperation, and promote democracy in international relations.
We should foster an international environment that supports efforts of countries to achieve peace, stability and prosperity in the light of their national circumstances. We should respect the sovereignty of all countries and their right to choose their development paths and models in keeping with the principle of seeking common ground while shelving differences. And we should respect the diversity of civilizations and pursue common progress through mutual learning and drawing on each other's strength.
第二篇:
http://www.360docs.net/doc/info-a04efb91a32d7375a5178013.html /2009news/guonei/huanbao/2011-11/17/content_406281.htm 中國(guó)將逐步告別白熾燈時(shí)代
中國(guó)準(zhǔn)備徹底淘汰有著130年使用歷史的普通照明用白熾燈。11月1日國(guó)家發(fā)展改革委、商務(wù)部、海關(guān)總署、國(guó)家工商總局、國(guó)家質(zhì)檢總局聯(lián)合印發(fā)《關(guān)于逐步禁止進(jìn)口和銷售普通照明白熾燈的公告》(以下簡(jiǎn)稱《公告》),決定從2012年10月1日起,按功率大小分階段逐步禁止進(jìn)口和銷售普通照明白熾燈。
1882年中國(guó)第一盞電燈在上海點(diǎn)亮,這使得中國(guó)逐漸告別了油燈和蠟燭照明的歷史(這句話為第二篇的第一句話),當(dāng)時(shí)使用的電燈就是白熾燈,這一用就是130年,中國(guó)也成為白熾燈的生產(chǎn)和消費(fèi)大國(guó),2010年中國(guó)白熾燈產(chǎn)量和銷量分別為38.5億只和10.7億只。
目前中國(guó)準(zhǔn)備將白熾燈淘汰,在全國(guó)普及節(jié)能燈。國(guó)家發(fā)改委資源節(jié)約和環(huán)境保護(hù)司副司長(zhǎng)謝極介紹,淘汰白熾燈是為了節(jié)能減排。中國(guó)節(jié)能燈市場(chǎng)已經(jīng)逐步形成,用節(jié)能燈替換白熾燈后中國(guó)將實(shí)現(xiàn)年節(jié)電480億千瓦時(shí)、年減少二氧化碳排放4800萬(wàn)噸。
謝極說(shuō),今年是中國(guó)“十二五”規(guī)劃開(kāi)局之年,聯(lián)合國(guó)氣候變化德班會(huì)議開(kāi)幕在即,中國(guó)發(fā)布逐步淘汰白熾燈的公告,再次表明政府深入開(kāi)展綠色照明工程、大力推進(jìn)節(jié)能減排、積極應(yīng)對(duì)全球氣候變化的堅(jiān)強(qiáng)決心和采取的積極行動(dòng)。
分五階段進(jìn)行
根據(jù)《公告》,中國(guó)逐步淘汰白熾燈分為五個(gè)階段:2011年11月1日至2012年9月30日為過(guò)渡期;2012年10月1日起禁止進(jìn)口和銷售100瓦及以上普通照明白熾燈;2014年10月1日起禁止進(jìn)口和銷售60瓦及以上普通照明白熾燈;2015年10月1日至2016年9月30日為中期評(píng)估期;2016年10月1日起禁止進(jìn)口和銷售15瓦及以上普通照明白熾燈,或視中期評(píng)估結(jié)果進(jìn)行調(diào)整。
謝極說(shuō),目前一些白熾燈生產(chǎn)企業(yè)已經(jīng)著手轉(zhuǎn)型工作,淘汰白熾燈的相關(guān)工作將穩(wěn)步推進(jìn)。發(fā)改委資料顯示,2010年中國(guó)年產(chǎn)白熾燈1億只以上的大型企業(yè)有10家,產(chǎn)量占全行業(yè)總產(chǎn)量的70%以上。
早在1996年,中國(guó)就啟動(dòng)實(shí)施了“綠色照明工程”,并與聯(lián)合國(guó)開(kāi)發(fā)計(jì)劃署、全球環(huán)境基金開(kāi)展了三期綠色照明國(guó)際合作項(xiàng)目。
《公告》說(shuō),中國(guó)綠色照明工程的實(shí)施,推動(dòng)了照明電器行業(yè)結(jié)構(gòu)的優(yōu)化升級(jí)和產(chǎn)品質(zhì)量的整體提升,節(jié)能燈和白熾燈的產(chǎn)量比由1996年的1:34上升至2010年的1:1。中國(guó)節(jié)能燈生產(chǎn)企業(yè)不斷擴(kuò)大,2010年中國(guó)節(jié)能燈總產(chǎn)量約42.6億只,約占全球總產(chǎn)量的80%,其中年產(chǎn)量5000萬(wàn)只以上規(guī)模企業(yè)約20家,占全行業(yè)總產(chǎn)量的82.2%。
謝極說(shuō),經(jīng)過(guò)多年努力,中國(guó)節(jié)能燈產(chǎn)品質(zhì)量水平日益提高,一些企業(yè)產(chǎn)品質(zhì)量和工藝水平已達(dá)到世界領(lǐng)先水平。此外,半導(dǎo)體照明等新興高效照明技術(shù)發(fā)展迅速!案咝д彰鳟a(chǎn)品及技術(shù)的日益成熟為逐步淘汰白熾燈提供了重要保障!敝x說(shuō)。
國(guó)家電光源監(jiān)督檢驗(yàn)中心主任華樹(shù)明介紹,合格的節(jié)能燈使用壽命在6000小時(shí)以上,是白熾燈的六倍。一只13瓦的節(jié)能燈光效相當(dāng)于60瓦的白熾燈,使用6000小時(shí)電費(fèi)比使用白熾燈要少128元。用節(jié)能燈替代白熾燈可節(jié)電60%至80%。
節(jié)能燈因節(jié)約電也得到了老百姓的認(rèn)可。發(fā)改委的數(shù)據(jù)顯示,中國(guó)節(jié)能燈的全球市場(chǎng)占有率由1996年的20%提高到2010年的85%。截止目前,全國(guó)已經(jīng)累計(jì)推廣節(jié)能燈5億只以上。
“居民照明節(jié)電意識(shí)普遍增強(qiáng),淘汰低效照明產(chǎn)品、選用高效照明產(chǎn)品已逐漸成為社會(huì)共識(shí)!敝x極說(shuō)。
(漢英第二篇參考答案建議http://www.360docs.net/doc/info-a04efb91a32d7375a5178013.html /?p=17131 http://www.360docs.net/doc/info-a04efb91a32d7375a5178013.html /business/txt/2011-11/21/content_407037.htm ) 或
Goodbye Incandescents
China looks to energy-efficient bulbs as it gears up to heighten energy efficiency
After 130 years of using incandescent lamps, China is determined to abandon the energy-guzzling bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient ones.
On November 1, the Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and five other government departments jointly released a joint circular, vowing to gradually halt imports and sales of the traditional incandescent lamps.
Those lamps are widely used for both household and commercial lighting. Electricity is used to heat up the thin wire filament inside the bulb until it glows and produces light. Unfortunately, while incandescent bulbs are effective at illuminating even the darkest of spaces, they are not energy efficient. Much of the electricity is used to make heat, and light is only a by-product.
In 1882, China’s first incandescent lamp was used in Shanghai, providing a more reliable alternative to oil lamps and candles. In the past 130 years, China has become the world’s largest producer and consumer of incandescent bulbs. In 2010, the country’s output of such bulbs stood at 3.85 billion, with sales hitting 1.07 billion yuan ($168.47 million).
As China embarks on a greener path of development, it is aiming to phase out these less efficient bulbs.
“This move is part of the government’s vigorous efforts to push forward energy conservation and emission reduction,” said Xie Ji, Deputy Director of Resource Conservation and Environment Protection under the NDRC.
The effort to replace incandescent lamps with energy-efficient ones nationwide will help save 48 billion kwh of electricity and reduce 48 million tons of carbon dioxide emission annually, said Xie.
“This year marks the beginning of the 12th Five-year Plan (2011-15), which is focused on economic rebalancing. Meanwhile, the United Nations Climate Change Conference is about to convene in Durban, South Africa,” said Xie. “Against this background, China is taking swift action to propel green lighting and implementing effective measures in response to climate change.”
Xie said some manufacturers of incandescent lamps in the country have been transforming their businesses and reducing production. NDRC data showed that in 2010 there were 10 enterprises nationwide with annual output of more than 100 million incandescent lamps, accounting for at least 70 percent of the industry’s total output of such lamps.
China has been firmly committed to improving energy efficiency. In 1996, the Chinese Government launched a green lighting program, promoting wider use of energy-efficient lamps with heavy subsidies. Moreover, the country has joined hands with the United Nations Development Program and Global Environmental Facility to initiate a project aimed at lifting the quality and competitiveness of China’s energy-efficient lighting products.
The circular said those projects have significantly helped China’s lighting industry move up the value chain and improve product quality. In 1996, China’s output of energy-efficient lamps was barely 3 percent of that of incandescent bulbs, but the ratio jumped to 1:1 in 2010. Last year, the country’s output of energy-efficient lamps amounted to 4.26 billion, accounting for 80 percent of the world’s total. There were around 20 manufacturers with annual output surpassing 50 million, making up 82.2 percent of the industry’s overall output.
“Meanwhile, techniques of Chinese manufacturers have advanced to the world-leading level,” added Xie. “In addition, semi-conductor lighting technologies are also maturing quickly.”
Hua Shuming, Director of the National Lighting Test Center, said the service life of a qualified energy-efficient lamp is more than 6,000 hours, six times that of an incandescent bulb.
A 13-watt energy-efficient lamp can produce illumination comparable to that of a 60-watt incandescent lamp, and it is able to reduce electricity consumption by 60-80 percent.
Energy-efficient lighting products are being recognized by global consumers. Data from the NDRC showed that Chinese energy-efficient lamps controlled 85 percent of global markets, up from only 20 percent in 1996.
LED in full swing
China is sparing no effort to propel wider use of energy-efficient lamps, especially light-emitting diode (LED) lighting products. LEDs present many advantages over incandescent lights including lower energy consumption, longer lifetimes, smaller size and faster switching.
“But LEDs are less competitive due to higher prices, so it will still take some time before they are fully accepted by consumers,” said Xie.
He added that the NDRC and the Ministry of Finance (MOF) are mulling subsidies to accelerate the promotion of LEDs.
China’s LED industry is already taking shape. In October 2009, the NDRC announced a series of measures to support the emerging sector, including government purchases and favorable import tariffs. Many local governments also followed suit, handing out generous policy incentives. The past two years have witnessed the start of nearly 100 large LED projects across the nation, with total investments exceeding 30 billion yuan ($4.72 billion).
Xie expected the output value of China’s LED industry to double in the next five years. The sector is an important part of the energy conservation and environment protection industry, one of the seven major strategic emerging industries supported by the government.
Looming concerns
A recent research report from the Guoyuan Securities Co. Ltd. said China’s LED industry is getting into full swing, and LEDs are widely used in cell phones and liquid crystal television. But they are yet to be widely accepted as a general lighting source, it said.
“The biggest problem is high costs—its manufacturing cost is 50-60 times that of incandescent lamps,” said the report.
“Without government subsidies, it would be difficult to promote LEDs as general lighting, but elimination of incandescent lamps has provided a powerful catalyst for the promotion of LEDs,” it added.
In 2008, the NDRC and MOF launched a lighting program and distributed more than 400 million energy-efficient lamps to consumers. But the program encountered many problems, hindering further promotion of those lamps.
Energy-efficient lamps contain mercury, a neurotoxin that can pose a serious threat to environmental health. The amount is tiny—China, as well as the European Union, allows each fluorescent lamp to contain no more than 5 milligrams of mercury—but that is enough to cause acute environmental damage and has sparked worries over the disposal of those lamps.
Fluorescent lamps use electricity to stimulate mercury vapor. The mercury atoms produce short-wave ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor to fluoresce, producing visible light.
Some people suggested manufacturers recycle the lamps, but that was less feasible given the high costs.
“Indeed, it is difficult to establish a nationwide recycling system in such a big country,” said Xie. “What we are doing is further improving technologies to decrease the mercury content of such lamps.”
Moreover, the high prices of energy-efficient lamps are also impeding the consumer acceptance.
In China, an LED lamp costs nearly 100 yuan ($15.75), compared with less than 10 yuan ($1.57) for an incandescent bulb. That is also why most Chinese LED manufacturers have focused on exports, instead of the home market.
Chinese LED firms still have a long way to go to sharpen their competitive edge. Chinese companies are good at assembly production, but one cause for concern is a lack of core chip technologies. U.S. and Japanese companies have dominated chip technologies, leaving Chinese firms in a weak position to compete.
Worse still, domestically made LED lamps suffer from the problem of a short battery life. As a result, it would be critical for domestic enterprises to strengthen efficiency and extend the service life of batteries so as to make their LED products more market competitive.
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