Chazal Aurélie Université Blaise Pascal (Clermont Ferrand)

Environmental protection

in China

The environment has been neglected for a long time as the country concentrated its effort on its economic growth, relying on heavy industries, adopting the «polluting first, clean after» policy. The problem is that there is a lot to clean now that China has become a powerful country. But people getting richer are not immediately concerned with the environment protection as much as improving their living conditions. China consume more and more energy but is investing more and more in renewable energy setting an example to the World. In 2002, China agreed to the Kyoto Protocol, promising to reduce its greenhouse gaz emissions by 40% by 2050. This approval shows China’s desire to cooperate with other countries for the environmental protection. China pays more and more attention to the issue of climate change and is willing to inject important sums of money into environmental protection. It is actually a necessity for the country as they consume more energy and pollute more than every other country. Moreover chinese people have always seek to like in harmony with their environment and the construction of eco-cities like Tianjin’s one prove that respect of the nature is still one of chinese people priority.

I) Government institution and official regulationsII) Protection of the Ecological Environment and BiodiversityIII) Eco-citiesIV) Renewable energyV) Electric vehicles

I) Government institution and official regulations

THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

The Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China the official chinese institution in charge of protecting China's air, water, and land from pollution and contamination. It is administrated by Zhou Shengxian.

It was established in 1998 but environmental protection appeared long before that amoung chinese government. In 1972, Chinese representatives attended the First United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Sweden. The next year, 1973, saw the establishment of the Environmental Protection Leadership Group. As soon as 1983, environmental protection was established as a state policy. In 1998, China went through a disastrous year of serious flooding, and the Chinese government upgraded the Leading Group to a ministry-level agency, which then became the State Environmental Protection Administration.

REGULATIONS

After the opening China had been more concerned about developing its economy than saving the planet. But environment protection takes up more and more space in the five years plans recently issued and has become one of chinese government priority. We can see the authorities concerned to protect the environment with different policies adopted in the past few years.

The ban of free plastic bags (2008) :As in many others countries in the world, it is now impossible to find free plastic bags in chinese supermarket. Ultra-thin plastic bags is the main source of white pollution as they usually decompose only after 200 years and sometimes never. The goal of the government is to limit the use of those bags. Large supermarket such as Wal-mart had been trying to replace plastic bags with eco-friendly cotton bags since 2007 but people were not ready to pay when they could have free plastic bags. Wal-mart hopes that the ban of free plastic bags will encourage people to turn to more eco-friendly substitutes.

Encouraging FDI for environment friendly industriesIt is well know that China attract lots of foreign investors and the country is know trying to encourage investments for greener industries. There is still a lot to be done as for energy efficiency of chinese industry and to reach the objective to cut CO2 rejects by 40% by 2050 China will need important amounts of money. FDI is therefore needed if China really wants to improve its carbon footprint. Since 2010, the environmentally-unsound industries even receive restricted funding. Energy efficient projet are on the contrary subject to a preferential treatment especially if investing in the less developped part of China such as the Center and Western part of the country.

Environmental tax policyThe introduction of a comprehensive environmental tax policy has been under discussion for years in China. There is still no proper environment tax in China but a range of taxes aiming to promote the environmental protection. The creation of an official environment tax will be a real step forward to control and limit the use of natural resources and energies. The introduction of this tax in addition to the existing resource taxes will hopefully encourage heavy industries to be more energy efficient in order to save money. The government does not hope for changes right away but it will certainly have an effect on the long run as environment-friendly industries will enjoy tax reductions and therefore make profit easily.

I chose a few examples of environment-friendly policies issued by the government but there are many others. A lot more policies are expected in the coming years as the lack of natural ressources is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.

II) Protection of the Ecological Environment and Biodiversity

The protection of the ecological environment is one of the priority for chinese government and a lot of work needs to be done after years of destroying it. Lots of species are disappearing, the water is so polluted it is not drinkable and deforestation has ruined hectares of land.

AFFORESTATION

Since the 1950s the Chinese government has made lots of efforts in afforestation, protection and management of forest resources. Since the reform and opening up the afforestation efforts have been quickened, and the growth of forests has begun to exceed consumption. For this area China has become a role-model for many other countries and is actually one of the rare countries where there are more trees planted than cut.

The Great Green Wall

It is the name of a tree-planting program which began in 1978 and was designed to fight against climate change and desertification. It is supposed to stop the Gobi desert from going south and possibly reach Beijing. The artificial forest is expected to stretch 400 million hectares and cover 42 percent of China’s landmass by 2050.

The Grassland LawPromulgated in 1985 the Grassland Law goal’s is to control activities such as unauthorized reclamation, excessive digging and overgrazing which are forbidden. Control over grassland deterioration and desertification has been strengthened in order to protect the natural forests.

MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

China has lots of laws and regulations to protect its sea territory which is not easy since most of the industries are situated on the East Coast. Offshore construction are also being monitored to prevent marine pollution and «red tide».

CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY

China being a large country with many different climates, it is one of the richest environment in terms of biodiversity. Currently, there are 612 national-level rare and endangered species of flora and fauna listed as key protection species, including 258 species of wild animals and 354 species of plants. To ensure an effective protection of those species China decided to create natural reserves all over the country but also zoological and botanical gardens. But it is not an easy job to save those endangered species and as for the afforestation the government still has to invest lot of time and money into the biodiversity protection.

The conservation of the Giant PandaThe Giant Panda is one of the symbols of China but it is also one of the most endangered species. China has done a lot to preserve them, creating natural reserve as the Wolong Natural Reserve in the Sichuan province. But also in artificial breeding environment as the natural habitat of the Giant Panda has been broken up. The total population is now around 1000 animals and is hopefully going to increase thanks to the large protection campaign launched in China.

III) Eco-cities

China appears to be a pioneer country in the field of entirely environment-friendly cities. Many projects received awards for their originality. Those eco-cities are supposed to set an example for all the cities of tomorrow. The ones being constructed in China are test- cities and the technologies used will then be applied to other chinese big cities if they are proved effective.

THE DONGTAN PROJECT

The eco-city of Dongtan construction is planned for the island of Chongming off Shanghai. A self-sufficient energy system was designed, implanting zero-energy buildings, and generating energy using solar panels, wind turbines and bio-fuels. The conception of the city began in 2005 but has currently been delayed. The project was to house people from the country side in an environment-friendly place. 80% of the city wastes were intended to be recycled and reused to generate more energy and possibly supply part of the city of Shanghai. Unfortunately, the project is not moving forward and lots of doubts are raised concerning its ability to be completed.

THE SINO-SINGAPORE TIANJIN ECO-CITY

This project is for now the most likely to be completed and the most advanced too. Both China and Singapore attach great importance to this project as environmental concerns have become more and more important for both countries. It is not only a way to save energy at the scale of one city but it also will teach people how to respect the environment as the project is widely promoted. The Tianjin eco-city will not only be environment friendly but also an harmonious living environment for people. The site selection is not random as the project is placed in a water-lacking area with salty land, scarce vegetation, unfavorable natural conditions and fragile ecology. The project therefore proves that environmental protection can be applied everywhere, even in the less favorable areas. But the Nanjin eco-city location also allows it to benefit from the big surrounding cities support.

The main goal of this eco-city is to create a place where men can live in harmony with the environment. This idea perfectly fits chinese culture and the development of such a city in China is not a coincidence. The project appear like a glimmer of hope that men can live in good conditions

and respect the environment.

IV) Renewable energy

China has recently become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines and solar panels surpassing all Western countries. Renewable energy industries are increasing rapidly, adding jobs and money to China’s economy. But we have to keep in mind that China is also one of the countries that consume the more energy, the rapid increase in renewable energy is more a future necessity however China’s supremacy upon that market show the fast ability

of the country to adapt. In order to promote the use of renewable energies the government also grant consumers generous subsidies to install their own solar panels or water heaters as the demand for domestic energy is increasing drastically. China is also intending to control the use of non-renewable energy by charging extra taxes to users. The final goal of China is to become self sufficient and even sell renewable energy to the rest of the World. The biggest project so far is the Three Gorges Dam hydropower station which is supposed to provide a large part of the population with hydropower energy. But this project also encounters social problems as many people had to be relocated for its construction.

V) Electric vehicules

Electric bicycles and scootersChina is leading the electric bicycles and scooters economy. The number of bicycles in China is one of the biggest in the world and the large bicycle lanes along the streets are a good example of the huge number of bicycles owned by chinese people. The developing of e-bikes is not due to random factors. Indeed chinese government made developing them an official technology goal in 1991 and licensing fees were drastically raised on gas-powered scooters. But the quick development of e-bikes is not without its issues. More and more interrogations are raised about the road safety in China as more accidents occur every day. Indeed, e-bikes are completely silent which make them hard to spot, especially at night.

The increasing number of carsThe other problem is that, as chinese people are getting reacher they are beginning to buy more comfortable means of transportation such as cars. And as in western countries, the richer they get, the bigger the car they buy will be. The electric car market is not as developed in China as the electric bike market and the authorities are wondering if chines people will be disposed to buy environment-friendly cars as they get richer.

A problem also lies in the manufacturing of the electric batteries as they use big amounts of lead. Indeed, lead poisoning is one of the most common pediatric health problems in China. A 2006 review of existing data suggested that one-third of Chinese children suffer from elevated blood lead levels.

China is without a doubt paying much attention to environmental protection nowadays but the country still has to patch up all the damage caused by its quick economic growth after the opening. It is also still to be proven that the manufacturing of new renewable energy is not polluting and endangering the Earth more than the energies used before. Most of all, people mentality have to change as it is proven that most of the pollution is due to individual behaviors. China being one of the most populated country, it has to pay particular attention to individual consumption which is growing as people standard of living is increasing. However China still is a reference in terms of eco-friendly projects such as eco-cities. Moreover, China has more and more money to invest in research and development of new energies that can afterwards be used all over the world. China still is the biggest polluting country in the World but the engagements taken to decrease its carbon footprint announce a greener future.

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