International Kudos for China’s Green Policies – Justified?

2009-10-07

A new report out by the International Energy Agency highlights, among other things, that China's efforts to reduce carbon emissions are going better than expected:

Another reason for cautious optimism, the report said, is that China will be able to slow the growth of its emissions much faster than commonly assumed because of its rising investment in wind and nuclear energy and its new found emphasis on energy efficiency.

But avoiding some of the worst consequences of climate change will still require significant and rapid investments in clean technology, and more meaningful cuts in carbon emissions, the report said. (New York Times)

Thomas Friedman, also of the New York Times, has been gettting smacked around a bit lately for his cheerleading of China's environmental policies. Not surprising – Friedman likes to hold himself out as a jet-setter who hops around to different countries to hobnob with industry leaders and forward-looking government officials. What other message is he going to get from folks like that but "We understand the problem, and we are doing amazing things to fix it."

I still believe that China is the place to be for implementation of some of the world's most innovative green technologies. The government is spending a lot of money to clean things up and should be recognized for that.

But it is safe to say that the mess will not be cleaned up overnight, and in my opinion growth is still the number one policy priority in this country. To the extent that economic growth clashes with curbing carbon emissions, growth wins out.

I worry that some of these efforts will slow down in the future after stimulus money runs out (I have the same worry with respect to current U.S. spending).

Additionally, the significant support given to these green projects by Beijing tends to get watered down considerably when it gets down to the provinces and localities. Of course, some local officials out there are undoubtedly more green than Beijing, but China's federalism problem, which has been around for thousands of years, still means that implementation of these programs will not be easy nationwide.

Tags: China Business & Economy, Carbon emissions, Environmental Policy