Editor's Note: This post comes to us courtesy of Tan Copsey of China Dialogue as part of our series on China that we will be running throughout the 2008 Olympics.
Despite gloomy pre-games predictions, in Beijing face-masks are yet to join lycra and running shoes as an athletes accessory of choice. Thanks to the gargantuan efforts of the Chinese government, who have closed factories and stopped cars, the Beijing Olympics proceed, though the air may not be entirely fresh. Olympic glitz and glamour still can't conceal the nasty underside of the Chinese economic miracle, an unprecedented environmental crisis which continues to unfold beyond the athletes' village.
China is now the world's largest carbon-dioxide emitter and faces a host of other severe environmental challenges, including threats to bio-diversity, water contamination and scarcity, desertification and air-pollution. In another Olympic diary, today we look at attempts to deal with the crisis.
The Chinese government needs to continue to increase economic growth and living standards; failing to do so would decrease both the legitimacy of the government and the larger political system. But an unintended side-effect of economic growth has been an increase in public anger over environmental destruction. According to officials, there were 51,000 pollution-triggered "public disturbances" in 2005. The size of the figure is put into perspective when you consider that to be classified as such, a minimum 100 people needed to be involved. Many also believe these figures to be understated.
The environmental crisis must therefore be tackled or instability will spread. As a result, achieving greener growth is now, out of necessity, a national priority. However an attempt to introduce Green GDP, an index of economic growth that also accounts for environmental problems, was massively unsuccessful. Official statistics were too bad to be released to the public and a World Bank report into the exercise was fairly damning. Part of the problem for the central government is that they have very little control over what goes on at a local level, where economic growth remains the only real goal and means of evaluating performance.
So what of solutions? The Olympics has provided an example of the tremendous power occasionally wielded by the central government and temporarily reducing Beijing air-pollution should be regarded a success. The government has also recently introduced new policy and laws which should have some positive environmental impacts. As of May the 1st this year, China now has a Ministry for Environmental Protection, an upgrade on the old State Environmental Protection Administration. New laws have also been passed to allow public access to environmental information and serious plans to promote energy efficiency and combat climate change have been released. As always though, there is a disconnect between central planning and local enforcement and economic growth remains an over-arching priority.
Interestingly there are some within the government who see things differently. Pan Yue, a Vice-Minister at the newly formed Ministry for Environmental Protection, has argued for the construction of a Socialist Ecological Civilisation in China. Such a Chinese state would also oppose an international economic order where 'the rich consume and the poor suffer the pollution.'
In a previous post I highlighted how environmental civil society is now thriving in China. Even in this one-party state, it is possible that the drivers for change may come from outside government. Ultimately it may be China's manufacturing industry, one of the main drivers behind near-ecological collapse, that holds the key. It is well known that the country has an unrivalled capacity to produce consumable goods. But less well know is that a nascent renewable energy industry is thriving - China is already one of the world's largest producers of photovoltaics. If that same dynamism could be harnessed to lead a green-tech revolution, then perhaps China could work its way out of catastrophe and help the rest of the world in the process. Though I can't help but think that this is an odd way of dealing with a problem that stems from over-consumption. Perhaps Pan Yue and ecological socialism provide better answers?
Further Reading:
- China Olympics Diary: 1/3 of Chinese Emissions Attributable to Western Consumption
- China takes a lead on renewable energy
- The Most Polluted City on the Planet - Linfen, China
- China Olympics Diaries: Environmental Organizations in China - a Ray of Hope Visible Through the Smog
- China Plans to Pick Up Trash on Mt Everest
