Part II: Dr. Elizabeth Economy Considers China's Environmental Challenges and Looks Ahead

Dr. Elizabeth Economy recently spoke about "China and the Environment" in a lecture at the University of Denver. This posting is the second of two parts about Dr. Economy's observations about China. Dr. Economy is a world recognized expert on the development and rise of this 1.3 billion person country.

Yesterday's posting related to Dr. Economy's comments about where China finds itself today in terms of environmental challenges. It can be accessed by clicking here. In today's posting, Dr. Economy's thoughts about the response of China's leaders, the role the US might play in helping China, and concluding thoughts are the focus.

II. Response of China's Leaders

China's leaders have responded in several ways to the growing environmental threat. First, the national leaders in Beijing have set targets for environmental protection and some of the targets have been "bold," as characterized by Dr. Economy. However, "real environmental protection" takes place at the local level and, generally speaking, local officials have not been very aggressive at implementing or enforcing the central government's targets.

Second, China is cautiously approaching the concept of "rule of law," a situation Dr. Economy described as in a "nascent stage."

China's leaders have enthusiastically engaged the international community. For instance, China has signed many environmental-related treaties.

However, the greatest hope, according to Dr. Economy, over the next five to 10 years is the non governmental organization (NGO) sector. Despite the fact that many of the NGOs have some relationship to the Chinese central government, there are independent NGOs. "They are developing and expanding" and will likely play a greater role as China moves towards the future, she predicted.

III. China, the US and Environmental Issues

There are several elements to the China-US relationship in the context of environmental issues, Dr. Economy explained, beginning with the need for the US to "lead by example." However, in some cases the US is simply not leading. For instance, "The fact that the US has not pursued greenhouse gas legislation cuts against [US efforts to influence China]," she said.

On the other hand, the US can seek to help China by assisting with "capacity building" in the areas of the law, regulations, and pricing systems. She pointed out that one third of China's factories have modern pollution prevention equipment, but simply don't use it. There is no economic-related incentive to do so, she pointed out. Fines in some cases do not exist or are so inconsequential as to reduce the industries' incentive to actually run the pollution equipment.

But in the final analysis, she said, "The [environmental] issue is really China's to solve."

IV. Conclusion

Dr. Economy is pessimestic in the short term about China's willingness and ability to take the steps necessary to prevent further environmental degradation. "The way China is developing is extremely negative on a global level," she said. However, in the longer term, Dr. Economy harbors some level of optimism. "The Chinese people are becoming aware of and concerned about the environment," she said noting that typically the richer a society becomes the more seriously are its concerns about environmental protection.

Part one appeared yesterday.