The United States, the greatest contributor to the carbon emissions linked to global warming, is trying to point the finger at China for its carbon emissions. It is a craven effort to continue to avoid taking meaningful action to reduce U.S. emissions.
At the recent G-8 summit in Germany, Bush sidestepped a European initiative for climate change controls and issued
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Because it is a developing nation, China is exempt from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which created mandatory reductions in greenhouse gases. The Bush administration has refused to ratify Kyoto, while U.S. emissions of greehouse gasses exceed those of any other country.
In 2007, China is expected to overtake the United States as the top producer of greenhouse gases. The Bush administration is using this as a reason to reject new emissions limits.
Of course, the statistics on China’s role in carbon emissions need to be placed in context. Richard Welford, a climate-change expert at Hong Kong University, stated, “China has 20 percent of the world’s population, but they only produce 15 percent of the carbon dioxide. America has 5 percent of the population and produces 25 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide.”
Other bourgeois figures are attempting to pressure China, essentially drawing an equal sign between China and the United States when it comes to global warming. Kathleen A. McGinty, secretary of Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection and former adviser to Al Gore, is recommending import tariffs on China targeting carbon emissions.
Some environmentalists see the tariff and fee proposals as attempts to defeat climate-change legislation. “China’s rapidly growing emissions are a serious issue,” said Phil Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust. “But many diehard opponents of enforceable limits on global warming pollution who now can’t hide behind the science are trying to hide behind China. Note who keeps raising the China issue: the coal industry, the oil industry, members of Congress from coal states and the auto industry.”
Economic growth
China’s top priority, as stated by its leaders, is continued economic development. The “average” person in China emits one-fifth of the greenhouse gases and consumes one-seventh of the energy compared to an “average” American. Therefore, the leadership has set some goals for increasing fuel efficiency and use of renewable energy, while avoiding mandatory targets for carbon emissions reductions.
China released its first-ever national climate change policy at the beginning of June. Leaders rejected mandatory caps on emissions of greenhouse gases as unfair and a threat to development.
“It is neither fair nor acceptable to us to impose too early, too abruptly or too bluntly measures which one would ask of developed countries,” said Ma Kai, minister of China’s cabinet-level National Development and Reform Commission.
Why are emissions of greenhouse gases increasing so dramatically in China?
The Chinese economy is growing rapidly. China’s auto industry puts more than 1,200 new cars on Beijing’s streets daily; car exhaust contributes to global warming. Because the growing economy needs energy, China builds a new coal-fired power station every 12 days; coal also contributes to climate change.
The Chinese government’s plan for climate change includes developing more renewable energy sources such as hydropower, wind power and solar power, as well as nuclear power. China plans to increase its forest coverage rate to help soak up carbon dioxide. Ma said that better forest management between 1990 and 2005 has resulted in the capture of about 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide.
“It really baffles me to see some people say that China is a major threat” with regard to global warming, Ma said. “People are not putting the blame on those countries with large historical emissions, high per capita emissions … to say that these countries are the major threat to global environmental security,” he said.
China’s right to develop
China, as a sovereign nation emerging from a legacy of colonial underdevelopment, has an absolute right to reject rigid carbon emissions targets. It is ridiculous to expect that formerly colonized and semi-colonized countries that were crushed by poverty and underdevelopment imposed by the imperialist countries, can either forego economic development today or unilaterally bear the huge costs in reducing pollution caused by industry. The countries whose current affluence is directly tied to colonialism and neo-colonialism should be required to cover those costs.
Rapidly growing emissions and other pollution are a problem for the Chinese people and for the planet as a whole. China has 16 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities, according to the World Bank. Experts estimate that 300,000 Chinese people die yearly from problems related to urban outdoor air quality.
In China, two main pollution indicators continued to rise last year but at a slower rate, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said in a report on its work.
“Overall, China’s water pollution is in a steady state, and there hasn’t been a big improvement or a decline,” SEPA vice minister Zhang Lijun told a news conference.
He said air in cities was getting better, but output of the major industrial pollutant sulphur dioxide reached 25.89 million tons in 2006, an increase of 1.5 percent over the previous year. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), a measure of water pollution, rose 1 percent.
Zhang said these increases were lower than 2005, when COD increased 5.6 percent and sulphur dioxide increased 13.1 percent Zhang expects more improvement this year, due to stricter inspections and increased use of water treatment and emissions technology.
China’s pollution is linked to its pattern of economic development. Since 1978, China has increasingly relied on capitalist property interests and economic competition rather than central economic planning as a stimulant for economic growth. This policy has opened up the nation to foreign direct investment by western and Japanese transnational corporations.
The logic of capitalist development seeks to override restrictions and regulations in search of ever-greater profits. Despite these policies, China is not “just the same as” the United States. It is not a member of the small club of imperialist countries headed by the United States.
Washington and its allies would like to overturn the government led by the Chinese Communist Party and return the vast country to a subservient neo-colony.
