Environmental responsibility

China's relentless drive for industrialisation and an inadequate environmental governance system, in some ways similar to the monitoring of labour standards, are the main culprits for the country's current environmental problems. Although national industries have undoubtedly made efforts to adopt cleaner and more efficient technologies, China has become the largest emitter of sulphur dioxide in the world. More than two thirds of China's energy is generated by coal. Statistics show that in 2006 China consumed more coal than the USA, Japan, and the UK combined: 2.4 billion tons. International rankings of the world's most polluted places frequently list a number of Chinese cities. To name just one example, because of their devastating air pollution the Washington-based World Watch Institute in 2006 included 16 Chinese cities in their list of the 20 most polluted cities in the world. Moreover, government efforts to establish a permanent reporting system in the form of a green GDP index at the National Bureau of Statistics have recently faltered.

Environmental certification is popular but is it effective?

Despite this grim outlook, environmental management systems and their certification prove to be very popular in China. Having introduced mandatory environmental impact assessments in the construction industry in 1998, the government has further extended this regulation to cover all development projects. In recent years China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has gained a reputation for publicly announcing the stop of several high-profile construction projects for environmental reasons. Nevertheless the fines for offenders are still comparatively low, and in the end economic interests traditionally trump any environmental concerns. On a company level, China boosts very high numbers of ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) certification. For example, only Japan can boost more ISO 14001 Environmental Management System certificates than China. According to official estimates more than 12000 Chinese enterprises had received ISO 14001 by 2006. At the same time, cases of public protests due to pollution are on the rise. Particularly Western and Chinese online media such as blogs oftentimes report on violent clashes between local residents and factory management.

Outsourcing ‘dirty production’ down the supply chain

Confronted with their poor environmental record, Chinese government officials as well as civil society representatives keep pointing out that the industrialised countries in fact share part of the blame. They argue that more developed countries could only  achieve their level of environmental protection because of outsourcing 'dirty production' to places like China. This might help to explain why multinational companies and their environmental practices are increasingly becoming the target of widespread criticism in China. Recent examples are the discussions about the handling of electronic waste and waste water treatment by multinational companies.

China and Kyoto

Finally, the Chinese government in June 2007 published its first national climate change strategy. China has ratified the Kyoto Protocol but like India is not required to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions under the current mechanism. China already is the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases behind the USA and the International Energy Agency estimates that it will surpass the USA in 2009 at the latest.

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