'It's our turn to enjoy economic growth'
Wednesday, 25 April 2007
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There were blue skies with wispy clouds over Beijing yesterday, a spring day like in the old days before the smog hit the city. Still, everyone was waiting for the next day of yellow-tinged cloud to darken the sky.
Tell any Beijinger that the International Energy Agency believes China will overtake the United States as the world's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide either this year or next, and they will not be surprised.
They are just surprised it has taken so long. Greenhouse gases are a political issue on the streets of Beijing, and normally uncomplaining citizens rant about how the air is making it difficult for their children to breathe, and how environmental disaster is a poor legacy for one's offspring.
The government fears that this kind of thinking is politically destabilising. However, another line you get from people, and from the government, at least in private, is to turn on the developed world and say: "It's our turn to enjoy economic growth."
Beijing says the developed nations have no right to criticise, and argues that the country's lower levels per capita should make it a special case. It says it will not impose caps on carbon dioxide emissions until the Chinese economy has stabilised at a higher level.
For the rest of the world, worryingly, that means a point at which average Chinese incomes exceed those in the US, expected sometime around 2050. So many Chinese spend time overseas now, and they come back with tales of enormous sport utility vehicles being driven on American highways with just one person in the car. The Chinese car industry is booming, but that kind of waste is shocking to many in China, even if owning a car is a long-term goal of most people here.
According to the United Nations, US individual greenhouse gas production comes out at 20 tonnes per person per year, compared to 3.2 tonnes per person in China each year. The world average is 3.7 tonnes.
Nearly all of the worst polluted cities in the world are in China, but there is a feeling among people that this is an interim situation, a step on the way to general economic well-being.
China has honourable intentions of nearly halving the amount of greenhouse gases it emits for every US dollar of its economy by 2020, but authorities strongly reject the idea of capping. Premier Wen Jiabao has made some high-profile pronouncements on the need to tackle global warming, but details on what China plans to do are scant.
Growth is the central plank of government policy and while there are pronouncements about the need to reduce China's carbon footprint, there are few moves to reduce the growing number of cars on the streets, or to trim the number of coal-fired power plants which provide the lion's share of China's energy needs.
