Greens warn of growth toll
Benjamin Morgan
March 7, 2005
The country's explosive economic growth of recent years has come at such a heavy cost to the environment and its citizens' health that the authorities can no longer afford to ignore the consequences, some analysts say.
With most of its land and water resources largely ruined and air quality that puts six mainland cities among the world's top 10 most polluted, experts warn that the country requires urgent action if it wants to limit the damage.
``The question is can China learn from Western society's mistakes,'' said Ma Lie, a senior consultant at environmental consultancy ERW Shanghai.
At its current pace, the country faces a clean-up bill that experts at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences estimate at US$450 billion (HK$3.51 trillion) - equal to an astounding 15 percent of today's economy.
To put it another way, last year's economic expansion of 9.5 percent would be cut by two percentage points if the cost of the country's growth on its environment and natural resources was included.
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) vice director Pan Yue said that more than 15 million citizens annually suffer respiratory problems, while another two million die from cancer.
Health costs are hard to calculate but they probably come into the billions of dollars, experts say.
In one district of Beijing, where producer Capital Steel is based, the death rate from lung cancer is on average 30 percent higher than in other parts of the capital, Yue said in a 21st Century Journal editorial.
With such daunting problems expected to only get worse, the central leadership is beginning to listen to conservationist warnings about the environment's woeful state and the need for sustainable growth models.
``[Environmental] work has been intensified, measures are getting tougher and the government is getting serious about environmental protection,'' said Huo Daishan, founder of the Huai River Guard, a nongovernment organization set up to prevent further contamination of the Yellow River.
In one example of this new found commitment, the parliament last week passed its first renewable energy law which requires power grid operators to purchase resources from registered renewable energy producers.
Because the country currently relies on polluting coal for about 75 percent of its energy needs, the aim is to build up nonfossil energy sources such as wind, solar and thermal power.
The hope is that these sources will account for 10 percent of the total installed electricity capacity by 2010.
However, the law, which has been applauded by Greenpeace and takes effect next January, needs more teeth, said Gan Liu, WWF energy and climate change program director in China. ``As it stands currently it is only a framework,'' said Gan. ``The law is not specific enough.''
At the same time, the country wants to ensure that its economy continues to grow and like other developing countries, competing interests are at stake. All too often government decisions to cancel or suspend projects are quickly overturned, such as when SEPA ordered a halt to 30 massive construction projects in January for failing to file environmental impact statements.
``Now it seems likely most of those projects will resume construction,'' said ERW Shanghai's Ma.
Although all developing economies face this issue, in China political and historical reasons make the implementation of Beijing's laws or decrees particularly tough.
For one, Beijing has to try and change the mentality of provincial officials, who, vying for promotion, are eager to show off their management prowess by presiding over strong economic growth on their watch.
``It's not wrong that local authorities want to develop the economy but they should realize that there will be irreconcilable contradictions if they do things blindly,'' said Guo Jing, project executive of Green Watershed, an environmental NGO in southwest Yunnan province. And when the government is to blame, which most residents feel is often the case, they cannot publicly protest without serious consequences.
``In China you can't act like Greenpeace, taking to the streets, rising your fist and protesting - the hardline doesn't work in China,'' said Guo.
``What we can do is bring different parties into fair dialogues, make the government hear different voices and make its decisions include an assessment of the environmental impact,'' she said. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
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