Reference:

U.S Government, Department of State, U.S. Embassy Beijing (March 1998). The Fading of Chinese Environmental Secrecy: A Report from U.S.Embassy March 1998.

Retrieved 6/20/2000, Web site: http://www.usembassy-china.cn/english/sandt/chplca.htm

II. China's Long RangeEvironmental Policy:"Pollute Now Clean-up Later"

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Goals

2010: Slow and Finally Stopthe Degradation

• Can more degradation be allowed?

• Air -- severe urban problems

• Water -- running short

• Land -- erosion threatens food supply

• Biota -- reports of counties without birds (see Vaclav Smil, 1993)

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Deforestation in Szechuan

Flooding on the Yangtze River

Water Quality Concerns

Below Grade 5 water isn’t useable even by industry

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2020: Reverse Deterioration

• Remove the worst Problems

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2030: “Achieve virtuous cycle of steady improvement”

• Harmonious relationship betweeneconomic and environmental development

• Sustainable Development

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2030: "Achieve virtuous cycle of steady improvement"

Harmonious relationshipbetween economic andenvironmental development

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So Where do things currently stand???

• Mixed signals appearing• Since 2000 much talk of speeding up the

reversal of deterioration, however…

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China fails to meet nearly half of environmental goals Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:46 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - China failed to meet nearly half of its environmental goals from 2000 to 2005 largely due to economic growth remaining a higher priority for policy makers, state media said.

Among 20 environmental goals set for the five-year period, eight were not achieved, the State Environmental Protection Administration said according to the China Daily.

High consumption of energy and power was mainly to blame, said Zou Shoumin, deputy head of the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning under the administration.

The plan for the five-year period stipulated that discharges of sulphur dioxide should be cut by 10 percent, but compared with discharge levels in 2000, levels of the pollutant had actually increased by 27 percent by 2005.

Other goals, such as reducing the discharge of carbon dioxide and industrial solid waste, or increasing the capabilities of wastewater treatment, were also not fully realized.

"After 2002, China witnessed rapid development after the Asian financial crisis of 1997," Zou said.

China's most abundant energy resource, coal, helped fuel the economic boom, with predictable consequences for the environment.

His academy had expected that in 2005, China's energy consumption would not exceed 1.5 billion tonnes of standard coal, but the country actually ended up using 2.2 billion tonnes that year, the paper said.

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More Positive Note

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China Makes a Commitment to Achieving Social HarmonyJoseph Kahn. New York Times. (Late Edition (East

Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Oct 12, 2006. pg. A.14

• Central Committee formally adopted President Hu Jintao's proposal to ''build a harmonious socialist society,'' …most decisive shifts in the party's thinking since Deng Xiaoping accelerated the push for high growth rates in the early 1990's.

• Hand-in-hand with the ''harmonious society'' drive, Mr. Hu and Zeng Qinghong, the vice president and the leader of the party's secretariat, have undertaken the most sustained crackdown on official corruption since the party first embraced market-oriented economic measures nearly three decades ago.

• ''For most of the past 15 years, the leadership has put G.D.P. growth above everything else,'' said Mao Shoulong, a public policy expert at People's University. ''Now, they want to make G.D.P. one of a series of social priorities that will determine whether or not you get promoted.''

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China Makes a Commitment to Achieving Social HarmonyJoseph Kahn. New York Times. (Late Edition (East

Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Oct 12, 2006. pg. A.14

• ''For most of the past 15 years, the leadership has put G.D.P. growth above everything else,'' said Mao Shoulong, a public policy expert at People's University. ''Now, they want to make G.D.P. one of a series of social priorities that will determine whether or not you get promoted.'‘

• China needs much higher growth rates than most developed countries to absorb tens of millions of surplus workers, and even the plans for addressing environmental woes and creating a sounder welfare system assume surging tax revenues to pay for them.

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But should we point the finger?

Bush Administration Greenhouse gas reduction policy was:

• I have put our nation on a path to slow, stop, and eventually reverse the growth of our greenhouse gas emissions. In 2002, I announced our first step: to reduce America's greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent through 2012. I'm pleased to say that we remain on track to meet this goal even as our economy has grown 17 percent. Bush Apr. 16, 2008

• (translation decrease the rate of increase by 18%)

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• When I took office seven years ago, we faced a problem. A number of nations around the world were preparing to implement the flawed approach of Kyoto Protocol. In 1997, the United States Senate took a look at the Kyoto approach and passed a resolution opposing this approach by a 95 to nothing vote.

• The Kyoto Protocol would have required the United States to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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• We've shown that we can slow emissions growth. Today, I'm announcing a new national goal: to stop the growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.

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Sound Familiar?

• To be effective, this approach will -- this approach will require commitments by all major economies to slow, stop, and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gas emissions. To be economically sustainable, this approach must foster the economic growth necessary to pay for investments in new technology and to raise living standards.

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Comparing China & USAScorecard    

China 2010 Slow the Deterioration

USA 2012 Slow the growth rate of Greenhouse gases in US

     

China 2020 Reverse the Deterioration

USA 2025 Stop the Growth of Greenhouse gases in US

     

China 2030 Create Steady Improvement

USA ??? Long term global goal of reduction

Full text of Bush speech: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/president_bushs_speech_on_clim.html Review of Chinese speech: http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/sandt/chplca.htm