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Time to invest more on environment

By Ding Yifan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-07-15 13:57

Some people in developed countries have been criticizing China's environment pollution problem for quite a while and their views reflect a mix of glee over others' misfortune, derision and well-meant advice. Pollution used to be a typical internal issue of individual countries as it affects only people within a certain area, but China's pollution has become a major factor with its growing impact on the country's international image as people's understanding of environmental issues deepens, foreign media coverage expands and as global warming worsens while concerns about the future of our planet grow.

Environmental deterioration in some parts of China has led to progressive loss of topsoil and fast desertification, which has alarmed some neighboring nations.

We have made tremendous efforts in recent years to upgrade our technology and many industries have improved their energy efficiency markedly, but in general our economy is still way behind member-states of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development in terms of energy efficiency.

Many countries are therefore worried that China would try to secure more energy resources around the world and inevitably come up against other nations with the same intent, giving rise to more geopolitical rivalries over strategic reserves.

Mounting carbon dioxide emission has been seen as a key contributor to global warming in recent years. Some people elsewhere are now pointing their fingers at China when they express their frustration over global warming.

We should take a serious look at China's environmental pollution through the lens of international scrutiny and try to fix whatever loopholes in our development strategy while building up an environmental protection brand for ourselves.

Needless to say environmental pollution is holding China's economic development back. Investigations by environmental protection agencies have revealed the country counted 511.8 billion yuan ($74.8 billion) in economic losses to environmental pollution in 2004, setting that year's GDP back by 3.05 percent.

China's worsening environmental pollution is linked to the fact that the country is in the process of industrialization and to its involvement in globalization. In the process of globalization, enterprises of developed countries are moving their production toward the high end of the value chain while relocating the less-sophisticated operations to developing nations, especially China. This trend helps those companies secure their profit while providing the developing countries with jobs and market.

As a result of this relocation China has taken over the production of many products that developed countries no longer want to make but which are still in demand around the world, such as heavy chemical and heavy industry products. Such production is energy-consuming and generates more pollutants than others. As such, China in a way has made undeniable contribution to and sacrifices for the developed countries' efforts to maintain their high living standard as well as the growing world economy.

Some cross-national corporations based in developed countries took note of this predicament and began investing in China's pollution treatment sector. Many developed countries have realized environmental protection products have great market potential in China and seizing a bigger share of this market should go a long way in securing future profitability for enterprises in the green trade.

European and especially the Nordic countries are the first to take hold of the notion. They have the advanced technology needed in this industry and their investment banks are very active in providing loans to environmental protection projects on favorable terms, helping European enterprises to become the frontrunners in China's green industry development.

Against this backdrop China has no reason not to be more proactive in advancing this cause. In the early years of the country's reform and opening-up drive, our government implemented a series of favorable policies for foreign investment in our industries and let in a large number of enterprises specializing in processing, which contributed a great deal to the development of our export-oriented processing industry.

Today, as we are faced with the problem of deteriorating eco-environment, boosting environmental protection should offer us another opportunity to expand related international cooperation and introduce advanced technology and equipment from developed countries to advance our environmental protection industry and ultimately improve our environment.

On the greenhouse gas emission front China has made a lot of efforts but remains the second largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. If China increases cooperation with developed countries in this area it will not only help improve the nation's eco-environment but reduce a major contributing factor to global warming.

From a geopolitical point of view, developed nations can help China raise energy efficiency, which should reduce pollutant discharge and the need for China to seek more energy resources on the international market. This in turn would make energy-related geopolitical conflicts that developed countries worry about less likely to happen. Developed countries helping China improve the environment makes a great win-win deal.

Some futurologists predicted before the turn of the century that environmental protection technology will be second only to information and communications technology as far as its future development prospect is concerned. By boosting the environmental protection industry China can turn pollution treatment into a profitable generator in its own right.

For example, garbage recycling has proved a viable way to turn waste into profit. And talking about garbage pollution, the most dangerous waste has to be radioactive materials, but France has made nuclear waste treatment a highly profitable industry. It formed a company specializing in processing radioactive waste produced by nuclear power plants and developed a set of advanced technology to treat and manage nuclear waste.

With this capability France has made profit from helping disadvantaged countries such as Germany and Japan process their nuclear waste. France's experience shows treating garbage would not add to pollution if you have the right means to do it the right way.

Using specialized processes to treat garbage and properly dispose of the untreatable materials should not necessarily increase pollution in our country. The Chinese economy is growing fast and needs enormous amount of raw materials. It would be a great contribution to the whole world if we pursue the full-circle economy by recycling wastes as much as possible.

When our environmental protection industry grows into a special comparative advantage and is even able to help other countries "digest" some of their wastes, the international community would find China is not only supplying the world market with numerous inexpensive products but also solving the pollution caused by waste. That is what a responsible major power should be doing.

The author is a researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council