China is at crossroads. Environmental expectations are rising among its citizens along with the impatience and magnitude of environmental damage. World attention is focused on China as a result of its rapid economic growth and emergence on the global stage.
Yet, increasingly the image of China is as the world’s factory with pollution blanketing the landscape, urban areas clogged with cars, skies filled with emissions and rivers too polluted to sustain life or productive use. While this is a caricature, it contains many elements from reality that shouldn’t be ignored.
What can Chinese authorities do to address environmental issues?
- introduce tax incentives for recycling industrial land and thereby preserving agricultural land
- condition local official's promotion to achievement of environmental targets
- introduce systems of road pricing that reflects congestion costs and environmental damage
- appoint more and better trained staff within the authorities who are responsible for implementing the environmental regulations
Furthermore, the top down approach of dealing with environmental issues must be complemented by a bottom-up approach in which every company feels itself responsible for its effects on the environment.
How can EU help China in the environmental challenge?
- EU could assist China in reforms, could transfer cutting-edge technologies and develop demonstration project.
- enlist international NGOs to help with education and enforcement policies. Such measures would involve steering citizens and industries towards more energy-efficient and less environmentally damaging behaviour.
- Persuade multinational corporations (MNCs) to use their economic leverage to ensure that their Chinese partners adopt the best environmental practices is another alternative.
Furthermore, the prices of energy have been kept low to reflect merely the production costs. China could use EU’s approach of “user should pay” and extend reforms that make energy price align to the supply and demand and reflect externalities.
In line with the same reasoning “user should pay”, cars should be subject to safety inspections that include passing emissions tests on a regular basis. Policies that ban bicycles from some cities should be reversed, cycle tracks built and cycling, plus public transport, encouraged.
What can Chinese companies learn from EU companies approach to promote ecological awareness?
Chinese and foreign owned companies in China should be aware that:
- Corporate social responsibility can be a HR strategy for retaining the talents. This will become increasingly important as more and more young employees - especially those that are well educated and highly skilled - are looking at ethical issues.
- Corporate social responsibility has a positive effect on the bottom line and promotes team spirit. Organising staff outings to plant trees is one example of the kinds of activities that can help the environment while raising environmental awareness among employees and building team spirit. However, day to day activities such as paper recycling, limited use of air conditioning, turning off computer when they are not used have a more significant and longer impact.
- Along with demonstrating a commitment to corporate social responsibility and cutting costs, adopting an environmentally friendly policy can also be good for business. It can attract new customers while building community and investor confidence and expanding market share. Another key advantage is reduced overheads and operating costs in such areas as energy consumption, the production of waste and conservation of resources.
Finally, only the Chinese themselves can solve China’s environmental problems. The international community can help by persuasion, and where the environmental problems generated by China spread beyond its borders diplomatic pressure can legitimately be applied. But, the main role of the industrially developed countries will be to assist China through providing technology both commercially and through aid programmes.
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