China tackles environmental issues, in typically authoritarian style
BY ELISE LIU AND FELIX ZHANG

For the past decade, governments and green activists alike have condemned China for its poor environmental record. Yet now, after years of bureaucratic inertia, local corruption, and shortsighted development initiatives, Beijing is greening at a rapid pace. Although many of China’s most notable initiatives stem from a desire to impress at the 2008 Games, the greening of Beijing marks a genuine change in the outlook of the Communist Party’s top leadership. Global warming continues to drift under China’s radar. But energy conservation and sustainable development issues are set to become Beijing’s priorities in the twenty-first century.

Status Quo Must Go
By most standards, China is the most polluted country in the world. According to its Environmental Protection Agency, seventy-five percent of the urban population is breathing unsafe air on a daily basis, and particulate levels in Beijing, Guangzhou and other Chinese cities reach up to seven times the World Health Organization’s air-quality standard, and twice China’s own, less-stringent limits. Acid rain affects nearly a quarter of its arable land, and the Pearl River Delta is now so contaminated by chemical waste that a dead zone stretches several miles from the river’s mouth out to sea. Worst of all, rapid desertification is claiming 1,900 square miles every year. It has already affected an estimated 400 million people and sparked an internal refugee crisis.

An Olympic Campaign
In recent months, preparing for the 2008 Olympics has been the Chinese government’s top priority. Following embarrassing reports suggesting that athletes would have difficulty breathing at the games, the Communist Party took drastic measures to relocate factories and eliminate coal-fire power plants within city limits. As the games approach, the government plans to suspend the use of automobiles, enforce a “holiday” to move city residents out of town, and seed nearby clouds to promote rain in the final days.

These steps have been described as “green-washing”; they seem simultaneously heavy-handed and inadequate. Environmental activists view the moves as a band-aid solution to a serious problem. As Minxin Pei, director of the China program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told the HPR, “The kind of measures the government has taken regarding the Olympics are more related to the appearance of Beijing as a nice, livable city.”

Beijing has seized the opportunity to publicize its conservation and energy efficiency goals in a grassroots orientated campaign. Xiaoxuan Yu, director of the Environment Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee told the HPR that the games will be a celebration of environmentalism, from “fuel-cell buses transporting athletes” to “an education center inside the Olympic venue to raise public awareness on innovative approaches to water conservation.”

The foremost public campaign currently in action is the China Environmental Awareness Program, a nationwide environmental awareness campaign featuring the 2008 Beijing Olympic mascots and Chinese celebrities. Launched jointly by the Chinese government and the United Nations Development Program, CEAP aims to “raise awareness and convert environmental knowledge into a change in behavior, attitude and practice,” Khalid Malik, UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative in China, told the HPR.

Growing Pains
Whatever its motivations, it is clear that the Chinese government is taking energy policy very seriously. The Communist Party’s current five-year plan requires a reduction in energy intensity by twenty percent by 2010. In 2006-2007, the first evaluations under those standards discovered, to the Party’s embarrassment, that many provinces had missed their targets so badly they had actually regressed. Those benchmarks, described to the HPR as “struggle targets” by Dr. Joshua Sinton, director of the China program at the International Energy Agency, have since been readjusted to meet the 2010 goal. Additionally, China has adopted fuel-economy standards that will push average car mileage to nearly 40 miles a gallon over the next five years, much higher than in the United States. It has also promised to reduce water pollution by 10 percent by 2020 and increase industrial solid-waste recycling by 60 percent. Such lofty environmental programs do not always succeed, however. The recent “Green GDP” initiative, which rated local Party members on the environmental impact of their local policies, was quietly dropped when recalculated GDP averaged a modest two or three percent. Many provinces posted no Green GDP growth at all.

Despite the detrimental environmental effects of China’s rapid development, there is still reason to be optimistic. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, between 1980 and 2000, China’s GDP grew nine percent annually, while its energy consumption grew only 3.9 percent, representing a two-thirds reduction in the energy intensity of its manufacturing-dependent economy. Even so, China’s growing energy demands continue to overwhelm gains in efficiency. Eventually, China will likely need to replace its power plants, which are outdated, cheaply built, and half as efficient as those in the United States.

Changing From Within
After so many years of dragging its feet, why is China finally showing interest in environmental policy? Looking beyond its preparations for the Olympics, the Communist Party has come to notice its citizens’ growing discontent over environmental issues. According to the Shanghai Daily, over 400,000 complaints involving the environment, ranging from angry petitions to full blown riots, were logged with the government last year. In reaction to this trend, the Chinese government is seeking growth strategies that both reduce pollution and increase energy independence.

The greatest enduring impediments to a greener China may be the shortcomings of the State Environmental Protection Agency. Beijing’s historic apathy toward environmental issues is reflected in the lack of an extensive enforcement structure. Sinton explained, “If you add up all the people directly involved in administering the energy program in China, provincially and nationally, you have a few hundred people... well-meaning, well-intentioned people, but they have too much on their plates.” Environmental damage tends to be done by citizens and businesses, not the government; thus, local politics based on “guanxi,” or patronage, has led to lax enforcement of emission and efficiency standards. Worst of all, SEPA must compete with dozens of other equally-ranked agencies to make its objectives national priorities.

On that last measure, at least, there is hope for change. Shenxian Zhou, the chair of SEPA, “has been present at cabinet meetings for some time,” said Sinton. He believes it is “quite likely” that ministry status will be cemented at the next Party Congress this year, and that a new Ministry of Environment would have far more bureaucratic, political, and executive authority. With a significant reduction in bureaucratic red tape, China can hope for more efficient and effective environmental policy.¨ ]]>http://hprsite.squarespace.com/green-by-fiat-112007/rss-comments-entry-1373367.xml