China¡¯s size, population and economic influence mean that its actions towards the environment have effects that extend far beyond its borders. These include, amidst a large number of serious issues, climate change, desertification, loss of biodiversity and air pollution.
Efforts are being made to reduce the highly destructive impacts of these on China¡¯s own population, economy and wildlife, and if these efforts prove to be in any way significantly successful, most, if not all of the rest of the world, will benefit also.
Having recently overtaken the USA as the world¡¯s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and having, according to many, been one of the key countries instrumental in making sure that no binding agreement was made at the Copenhagen summit, China¡¯s actions on climate change are being watched with interest.
The key problem is that there is not enough electricity for the country¡¯s rapid economic growth, together with dependence on fossil fuels (in particular coal) with pressure to step these up. There are certainly some positive things happening, although not by any means enough.
Plans for greatly increased investment in renewable energy are going ahead. Apparently the plan is for 20% of the country¡¯s energy needs to be met with wind and solar power by 2020, the government spending around 600 billion dollars each year until then.
The fact that there is profit to be made and that fossil fuels will run out eventually whether or not the use of them is reduced are certainly factors and perhaps should allow for a certain cautious optimism.
However the reluctance to commit to any binding agreement and refusing to be influenced by international pressure does mean that announcements and plans from China are very likely to change.
Emissions from fossil fuels of course have effects other than climate change and urgent in China is the amount of air pollution these can cause. Hundreds of thousands of people die early there each year from air pollution related diseases.
Some cities are cleaner than others but China does have the majority of the most polluted ones on the planet. Various pollution reduction measures have been attempted, some (such as no car days) with limited success. Millions of tons of sulphur dioxide emissions, mainly caused by the burning of coal, also produce acid rain, with the inevitable effects on farmers and natural habitats.
About one third of the country is affected, some experiencing no rainfall that is not acid. The impact on agriculture and food production is extremely serious. As this has been recognised efforts are ongoing to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide, with reductions that although relatively small, do have an impact. If stepped up the worst results may be alleviated.
Another issue highly publicised nationally is that of desertification, and this is critical, although possibly not quite as critical as the Chinese government indicates. The Gobi desert overall is expanding rapidly but especially where it extends into the north west of China.
This is caused by a combination of factors, in particular overgrazing, deforestation and water consumption. Plans to deal with this include the aforementioned large scale tree planting initiative. There have also been fairly draconian efforts to stop over-farming ¨C which have not been welcomed by farmers who understandably have no desire to lose their income.
There is a balance between protecting the environment and looking after local people, and so far the efforts to stop serious environment problems have not addressed this in any great depth.
While the immediate reforestation programs by China have been mainly to slow down desertification, they can also negate to some extent the climate impacts of greenhouse emissions and have a conservation role by providing extended, if new, habitats.
Forests are one of a range of habitats within China. This variety combined with China¡¯s sheer size means it, rather unsurprisingly, has a substantial proportion of the world¡¯s biodiversity (around 10% of known species). Generally conservation lives at the bottom of the environmental priority list.
China is far from unique in this regard as many countries regard this as not being of great importance with a few emotionally engaging exceptions. (Obviously in China¡¯s case pandas are more or less the number one emotionally engaging exception.)
However in the last few years conservation has been taken more seriously, with fairly substantial spending on for example wetlands.
Whether to be optimistic or pessimistic about what will happen in China over the next few years is debatable. Things are improving and although as with most countries policy decisions, it eventually boils down to economics, a fact that the environmental problems discussed here (and many others) do indeed have very detrimental economic effects may be enough to push China to further efforts.
Popular dissatisfaction and international pressure can also only be ignored to a certain extent. In other words and to finish with a clich¨¦, watch this space.(Edited by EnergyChinaFroum.com. For more information, please email to: info@energychinaforum.com)
(Helium,Feb 7,2010)
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