Environmental Protection

Severe pollution affected the city of Beijing during January 2013, as shown in this photo. (Hung Chung Chih/Shutterstock.com photo)

China Regulates CO2 Emissions


In mid-November, the top echelons of China's leadership met for the 3rd Plenum of the 18th Communist Party of China Central Committee and introduced broad economic reforms that could have major impacts on China's goal to drastically reduce CO2 emissions per unit of GDP. In light of China's overall economic expansion and the complexity of the country's fuels market, it is difficult to predict which way these reforms will go but easy to understand that the stakes are high.

China emits more greenhouse gases than any other nation. China's per capita emissions are now higher than the global average and equal to or higher than some European countries. China burns nearly half of all the coal burnt globally and has the world's largest automobile market. All of these factors contribute to air pollution events worthy of international headlines. Additionally, China's relative lack of fresh water increases China's vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, as recent droughts have shown.




Further, as standards of living and incomes rise and China moves away from its heavy export dependency and toward increased domestic consumption, its appetite for energy and the resulting CO2 emissions will continue to rise. Though the 12th FYP aimed to cap GDP growth at 7 percent, China exceeded that rate in 2011 and 2012 and is on track to exceed the same goal in 2013, which could jeopardize China's desire to cap total coal and energy consumption.

While most observers agree that GDP growth will remain the Party's top priority for the foreseeable future, China appears to be taking these climate-related challenges seriously. Beijing is in the process of drafting a national climate change law. The 13th Five Year Plan, to be issued in 2015, may include a binding cap on greenhouse gas emissions. China is projected to build more renewable energy projects through 2035 than the United States, EU, and Japan combined. Ultimately, however, China's success will depend on the Party's ability to reform the economy to achieve a truly sustainable growth model that continues to raise people out of poverty while accounting for the nearly unrestrained environmental degradation of the past.

(The photo accompanying this article is a Hung Chung Chih/Shutterstock.com photo.)

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