BOFIT Viikkokatsaus / BOFIT Weekly Review 2015/15
The environmental impacts arising from China’s model of rapid economic growth based on heavy industry are now so costly Chinese officials must take action. Pollution levels in nearly all urban areas in China exceed WHO allowed limits. In March, a documentary film posted online gained both national and global attention for its frank discussion of the extensive harms caused by air pollution in China.
China’s government has already moved ahead with certain measures. China and the US last November signed a framework convention on climate change in which China for the first time committed to a timetable on limiting emissions and ending growth in carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. Environmental issues were also on the agenda at the National People’s Congress last month, when premier Li Keqiang vowed the government would use best efforts to improve air quality and deal with related pollution issues. The government announced at the end of March that new environmental tax legislation was being fast-tracked. In addition, for the first time ever under China’s revised environmental law a court has agreed to hear environmental damage claims filed by an NGO.
The Rand report reiterates the general view that the responses of China’s government have been woefully inadequate given the scale of China’s pollution problems. The report adds that the most effective ways to improve air quality would be to move swiftly from coal to natural gas heating, replace coal-fired power plants with renewable formats and nuclear plants, as well as getting high-polluting vehicles subject to outdated emissions criteria off the road. Annual costs of implementing mitigation measures are significantly less than living with the current pollution.