Debate over China's economic responsibilities for climate change mitigation
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This article documents the debate over China's economic responsibilities for
climate change mitigation Climate change mitigation is action to limit climate change by reducing Greenhouse gas emissions, emissions of greenhouse gases or Carbon sink, removing those gases from the atmosphere. The recent rise in global average temperature is mostly caus ...
and mitigation of
climate change in China Climate change is having major effects on the Chinese economy, society and the environment. China is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, through an energy infrastructure heavily focused on coal. Other industries, such as a burgeoning constr ...
. There has been an ongoing debate over China's climate responsibilities, both internationally and within the
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Since 2006, when China surpassed
the US The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
as the country with the highest emissions rate for the main atmospheric gas in
global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
,
carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...
(CO2), this topic has received increasing worldwide attention.


The pros and cons

The experts who argue (as detailed below) that China should be spending more of its resources on
mitigation Mitigation is the reduction of something harmful or the reduction of its harmful effects. It may refer to measures taken to reduce the harmful effects of hazards that remain ''in potentia'', or to manage harmful incidents that have already occur ...
point out China's total
emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: **Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...
, the criticisms it has received from other developing nations and from its citizens, the toll of
pollution Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into the natural environment that cause adverse change. Pollution can take the form of any substance (solid, liquid, or gas) or energy (such as radioactivity, heat, sound, or light). Pollutants, the ...
on China's
gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a money, monetary Measurement in economics, measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjec ...
(GDP), the lack of regulations strong enough to have an effect, the cumbersome delegation of responsibility for pollution problems, and China's refusal to commit to an emissions cap. Experts who argue (as detailed below) that China should not be spending more assert that China is doing the most possible with its limited resources. To support this argument, they cite its low
per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...
emissions, the world-class scale of some of its mitigation efforts, its success at keeping emissions growth significantly less than GDP growth, the significant chunk of China's emissions that are created by multinational businesses in China, the opposition from its own provincial and local officials to carrying out the environmental regulations, the short time-length of China's CO2 emissions compared to the 200-year history of the industrialized nations' emissions, and the hypocrisy of criticizing China for attempting to catch up with the West through the same CO2-emitting practices with which the West developed.


The 'pros': China should be spending ''more'' of its resources


Highest total emissions

In 2006, China's (including Taiwan) CO2
emissions Emission may refer to: Chemical products * Emission of air pollutants, notably: **Flue gas, gas exiting to the atmosphere via a flue ** Exhaust gas, flue gas generated by fuel combustion ** Emission of greenhouse gases, which absorb and emit rad ...
surpassed those of the US by 8%, according to the
Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency ( nl, Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving - abbr. ''PBL'') is a Dutch research institute that advises the Dutch government on environmental policy and regional planning issues. The research fields includ ...
. Compared to the previous year, China's total emissions increased by 9% (to 6.2 billion tons of CO2), while emissions in the US decreased by 1.4% (to 5.8 billion), compared to the previous year.
Environmental issues in the People's Republic of China Environmental issues in China had risen in tandem with the country's rapid industrialisation, as well as lax environmental oversight especially during the early 2000s. China was ranked 120th out of the 180 countries on the 2020 Environmental ...
China's increasing rate of emissions is heading toward a 50-100% increase ''above'' the current world total for CO2 emissions, by 20 years from now. Scientists warn that if China continues to increase its
GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is often ...
at a rate of at least 7% per year, it will by then be emitting as much CO2 per year as the whole world emitted in 2007 -- 8 gigatons per year.


Other developing nations are critical

Small island nations see China as among the developed countries in terms of China's responsibility to reduce emissions. This stems from the fact that smaller island nations, and not China, are most immediately at risk from the effects of
global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. They are aware as well that it is the world's poorest nations that will suffer most in the long run.


Internal dissent in China

There is pressure on the Chinese government from within China as well. "Citizen complaints about the environment, expressed on official
hotline A hotline is a point-to-point communications link in which a call is automatically directed to the preselected destination without any additional action by the user when the end instrument goes off-hook. An example would be a phone that automat ...
s and in letters to local officials, were increasing at a rate of 30% a year in 2006," and were projected to top 450,000 in 2007. Since presenting their first joint statement on the Kyoto Protocol in Bali in December 2007, Chinese non-governmental organizations (NGOs), in cooperation with international NGOs, have been assuming a more prominent role in efforts to mitigate climate change within China. NGO activity in China, however, remains restricted by tight government controls.


The toll on GDP

A federal
financial audit A financial audit is conducted to provide an opinion whether "financial statements" (the information is verified to the extent of reasonable assurance granted) are stated in accordance with specified criteria. Normally, the criteria are internat ...
ing project—the '
Green GDP The green gross domestic product (green GDP or GGDP) is an index of economic growth with the environmental consequences of that growth factored into a country's conventional GDP. Green GDP monetizes the loss of biodiversity, and accounts for costs ...
' -- has focused on the economic losses incurred by pollution. The project began in 2004 to incorporate the externalities of previously unaccounted-for environmental costs, but soon produced results that were much worse than anticipated. The program was quietly tabled in 2007.


The fines for violating CO2-mitigating regulations are too low

Firms facing the choice of either paying a given fine for their effluence into community streams, or spending ten times as much on
waste treatment Waste treatment refers to the activities required to ensure that waste has the least practicable impact on the environment. In many countries various forms of waste treatment are required by law. Solid waste treatment The treatment of solid wastes ...
, usually opt to pay the fine and continue polluting. Provincial officials themselves complain that the fines are too low to enable them to enforce federal environmental regulations.


Poor delegation of authority

The problem of ineffectual fines is compounded by the cumbersome delegation of authority over -related issues. For instance, while water pollution as a ''problem'' is the responsibility of SEPA (China's equivalent of the
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
), the water itself, in its specific functions or locations, comes under the control of three other separate ministries: Ministry of Construction (deals with
sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...
), Ministry of Land and Resources (controls
groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
), and
Ministry of Water Resources Ministry of water resources may refer to: * Ministry of Water Resources (Bangladesh) * Ministry of Water Resources (India) * Ministry of Water Resources (Iraq) * Minister of Water Resources (Nigeria) * Ministry of Water Resources (Pakistan) * Minis ...
(manages water in general). Indeed, the environmental damage in China is already costing its economy about 10% of its GDP, and is costing that in spite of the millions in
venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...
invested in China by foreign firms for
mitigation Mitigation is the reduction of something harmful or the reduction of its harmful effects. It may refer to measures taken to reduce the harmful effects of hazards that remain ''in potentia'', or to manage harmful incidents that have already occur ...
projects under the
Clean Development Mechanism The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a United Nations-run carbon offset scheme allowing countries to fund greenhouse gas emissions-reducing projects in other countries and claim the saved emissions as part of their own efforts to meet internati ...
.


The 'cons': China should ''not'' be spending more of its resources


The large scale of current mitigation

As of 2008, China's per capita emissions of were still one-quarter of that of the US. Though China continues to build emissions-intensive
coal-fired power plants Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when dea ...
, its "rate of development of
renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...
is even faster". There is great interest in
solar power in China China is the largest market in the world for both photovoltaics and solar thermal energy. China's photovoltaic industry began by making panels for satellites, and transitioned to the manufacture of domestic panels in the late 1990s. After subst ...
. The world's market share of China's
photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...
units manufacturers grew from approximately 1% in 2003 to 18% in 2007, with one of the largest Chinese manufacturers of these devices being the Chinese solar company
Suntech Suntech Power Holdings Co., Ltd. () is a Chinese producer of solar panels, with of annual production capacity by the end of 2011. It is headquartered in Wuxi, Jiangsu. Shunfeng International Clean Energy Limited, a HKSE listed renewable energy inv ...
. Although the overwhelming majority of the photovoltaic units are exported, plans are under to increase the installed capacity to at least 1,800 MW by 2020. Some officials expect the plans to be significantly over-fulfilled, with the installed capacity reaching possibly as much as 10,000 megawatts by 2020. Due to the growing demand for photovoltaic electricity, more companies (Aleo Solar, Global Solar, Anwell, CMC Magnetics, etc.) have entered into the photovoltaic market, which is expected to lower the cost of PV cells.
Solar water heating Solar water heating (SWH) is heating water by sunlight, using a solar thermal collector. A variety of configurations are available at varying cost to provide solutions in different climates and latitudes. SWHs are widely used for residential an ...
is already used extensively throughout the country. China also has embarked upon a 9 million acre (36,000 km2) reforestation project—the
Green Wall of China The Great Green Wall, officially known as the Three-North Shelter Forest Program (), also known as the Three-North Shelterbelt Program, is a series of human-planted windbreaking forest strips (shelterbelts) in China, designed to hold back the des ...
—that may become the largest ecological project in history; it is projected to be finished by 2050 at a cost of $8 billion. China has five major
eco-cities An eco-city or ecocity is "a human settlement modeled on the self-sustaining resilient structure and function of natural ecosystems", as defined bEcocity Builders(a non-profit organization started by Richard Register who first coined the term). Simp ...
in construction or completed. The capital city has, as well, car regulations more stringent than those in the US.


Keeping emissions growth at less than GDP growth

Considering that energy consumption in most developed countries has usually grown faster than GDP during the early stages of
industrialization Industrialisation ( alternatively spelled industrialization) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial society. This involves an extensive re-organisation of an econo ...
, it is to China's credit that while its GDP has grown by 9.5% per year over the last 27 years, its emissions have increased by only about 5.4% per year, meaning that its
carbon intensity An emission intensity (also carbon intensity or C.I.) is the emission rate of a given pollutant relative to the intensity of a specific activity, or an industrial production process; for example grams of carbon dioxide released per megajoule ...
(its carbon emissions per unit of GDP) has decreased during that time, though it remains the among the highest of any of the developed or developing nations.


Emissions contributed by multinationals in China

Chinese officials claim that they are doing a great deal that is often not visible, especially for a country as large, populous, and (rurally) undeveloped as it is. But working against that, and equally non-visible, is the role of multinational ventures in China in contributing to its emissions. It has been estimated that as of 2004, almost a quarter (23%) of China's emissions were coming from Chinese-made products destined for the West, providing an interesting perspective on China's large
trade surplus The balance of trade, commercial balance, or net exports (sometimes symbolized as NX), is the difference between the monetary value of a nation's exports and imports over a certain time period. Sometimes a distinction is made between a balance ...
. Another study shown that around 1/3 emissions from China in 2005 are due to exports. Over half of those emissions driven by demand from the West are from transnationals taking advantage of China's developmental policies favouring heavy manufacturing over regions with more developed environmental laws and enforcement. This includes many of the
Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...
-suppliers and other foreign-owned factories that stock department store shelves, particularly in the US,. China points out that it is being punished for having become "the place where the US effectively outsources much of its pollution," and has buttressed its call for joint international responsibility for at least part of China's emissions, by making public, in Jan 2008, Multinationals committed 130 violations of Chinese environmental law.


Opposition from provincial and local officials

However, officials in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
cite violations by China's own companies as well—in this case, to illustrate the enormity of the task in front of them in getting compliance for environmental regulations which they see as very progressive. Regional and local officials have been taken to task for this. For example, in 2006, Premier
Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao (born 15 September 1942) is a retired Chinese politician who served as the Premier of the State Council from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy ...
issued a warning to local officials to shut down some of the plants in the most energy-intensive industries, designating at least six industries for slow-down. The following year, those same industries posted a 20.6% ''increase'' in output. In 2006 as well, the federal government began banning logging in some locations in order to expand its protection of forests, and at the same time restricted the size of cities and golf courses in order to increase land use efficiency. Yet many of the local officials responsible for carrying out the new regulations essentially ignored them. Why, one might ask, is a strong central government such as China's not able to control maverick local and regional officials? The problem may have something to do with the fact that China's top environmental agency—the State Environmental Protection Agency ( SEPA) has barely 1% the number of employees as the
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
, while attempting to enforce regulations over a similarly sized but much more populated land mass than the US. Another reason for lack of compliance is apparently because local governments now have a chunk of funding for which they are not beholden to the central government, and are motivated to protect those funding sources which pollute, but pollute profitably. As a result, SEPA's attempt to use local banks as a means of discouraging companies from carbon-intensive practices has followed a troubled path. Many local governments that have officially implemented the 'Green Credit' policy of loaning only to companies with green practices continue also to protect polluting firms that are profitable, and the banks in some provinces have yet to apply the policy at all.


China is following the example of developed nations

Given all the above, it is perhaps not surprising that China's leadership turns to the US and international bodies to press for funding and understanding in its struggle to reduce emissions—since "developing countries need room to develop"—and protest that China cannot tackle global warming to the West's satisfaction with its huge population. They worry as well that China would end up suffering a slowdown in economic growth that would result in "massive unemployment and social unrest". To the Chinese, it appears ironic at best that China is being criticized for following the practice of 'pollute first, clean up later' that the Western nations themselves followed during their early stages of
capital accumulation Capital accumulation is the dynamic that motivates the pursuit of profit, involving the investment of money or any financial asset with the goal of increasing the initial monetary value of said asset as a financial return whether in the form o ...
.


China is collaborating with developed nations

According to the
Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was foun ...
, the United States signed an agreement with Chinese leaders to form the U.S-China Clean Energy Forum, a private-sector process to accelerate cooperation between the two countries. Through this agreement, China is joining forces with the United States to find ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions. As per the Seattle Post Intelligencer, China already has "combined market clout to help reduce the cost premium to adopt clean technologies." A developed country like the United States would help China fund projects.


China's short history of emissions versus the industrialized nations' long history

Chinese officials argue that China has been contributing to global warming for only 30 years, while the developed countries have been doing so for 200 years. And since pollution-flagrant early stages of industrialization may have contributed to what China sees as a lack of balance of power, particularly between the US and China, many Chinese officials see global warming mitigation as creating an economic burden that slows its economy and further exacerbates the unequal balance of power. Chinese officials point out that the highest ''per capita'' emissions have long been and still are in the developed countries, not in China, and that about 77% of the greenhouse gas emissions prior to 2000 were created by the already developed nations. They implied that it is the developed nations who should shoulder a comparable portion of the global cost for reversing the world's emissions, consistent with the
polluter pays principle In environmental law, the polluter pays principle is enacted to make the party responsible for producing pollution responsible for paying for the damage done to the natural environment. It is regarded as a regional custom because of the strong supp ...
. China's climate envoy Xie Zhenhua has emphasized China’s stance that rich countries have a greater responsibility regarding climate change than China, though China has been the world’s largest carbon emitter since 2006.Li, Jane.
“China’s Xie Zhenhua is the most important person attending COP26”
Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
(27 Oct 2021) via
Yahoo Finance Yahoo! Finance is a media property that is part of the Yahoo! network. It provides financial news, data and commentary including stock quotes, press releases, financial reports, and original content. It also offers some online tools for person ...
.
His speech at the 2010 climate conference in South Africa conveyed this Chinese position:


The lack of a cap on emissions is shared by many

Finally, the provision by which China signed the
Kyoto Protocol The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty which extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part ...
without committing to a cap was the same provision given to all
developing nation A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...
signers.


See also

*
Attribution of recent climate change Efforts to scientifically ascertain and attribute mechanisms responsible for recent global warming and related climate changes on Earth have found that the main driver is elevated levels of greenhouse gases produced by human activities, with n ...
*
Belt and Road Initiative International Green Development Coalition The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, or B&R), formerly known as One Belt One Road ( zh, link=no, 一带一路) or OBOR for short, is a global infrastructure development strategy adopted by the Chinese government in 2013 to invest in nearly 150 ...
*
Climate change in China Climate change is having major effects on the Chinese economy, society and the environment. China is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide, through an energy infrastructure heavily focused on coal. Other industries, such as a burgeoning constr ...
* Dongtan, a Chinese
eco-city An eco-city or ecocity is "a human settlement modeled on the self-sustaining resilient structure and function of natural ecosystems", as defined bEcocity Builders(a non-profit organization started by Richard Register who first coined the term). Simp ...
*
Energy policy of China Ensuring adequate energy supply to sustain economic growth has been a core concern of the Chinese government since 1949. The country is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and coal in China is a major cause of global warming. How ...
* Green growth in China *
List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions This is a list of sovereign states and territories by carbon dioxide emissions due to certain forms of human activity, based on thEDGAR databasecreated by European Commission and Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency released in 2018 ...


References


Works cited

*


External links


China Takes a New Interest in Energy Efficiency
by Keith Bradsher of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' June 15, 2011
A Green Solution, or the Dark Side to Cleaner Coal?
by Keith Bradsher of ''The New York Times'' June 14, 2011
Can China Go Green? No other country is investing so heavily in clean energy. But no other country burns as much coal to fuel its economy
Bill McKibben William Ernest McKibben (born December 8, 1960)"Bill Ernest McKibben." ''Environmental Encyclopedia''. Edited by Deirdre S. Blanchfield. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. Retrieved via ''Biography in Context'' database, December 31, 2017. is a ...
June 2011
National Geographic (magazine) ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

China plots course for green growth amid a boom built on dirty industry; National economic blueprint set to tackle pollution and waste, and invest in renewable energy
4.February.2011
China Pushes Clean-Energy Agenda Ahead of Summit
November 22, 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Debate Over China's Economic Responsibilities For Climate Change Mitigation Climate change in China Climate change policy Environmental issues in China Climate change assessment and attribution Controversies in China Climate change controversies