Why China matters

A global climate deal without China is like having a wedding without either the bride or the groom. The easiest way out is to rubbish the Chinese as laggards in the environmental and climate sectors but that is, in my opinion, both an oversimplistic and a naïve approach.

Taking it as a given that they still have a long way to go till they reach desired standards does not mean they have not made giant strides ahead in recent years in these specific areas. This apart, one cannot generalise when talking of China.

We still have the China of the wayward provinces but then we also have various parts of China, like Shanghai, which, in spite of the global economic slowdown, continue to outpace and outsmart western countries in terms of economic growth.

Many venture capitalists are of the opinion that government policy, entrepreneurship and consumer awareness will accelerate clean technology innovation in China. Not only does this pose a bright future for investors but, beyond this factor, cleaner and more efficient technologies are needed in all of China's industries and the Chinese are fast realising that.

An article in The New Scientist recently claimed that China is greener than we think. It may have guzzled a lot of carbon in its 30 years of industrialisation but it could achieve a clean energy miracle in the next 30.

As the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, China has a number of urgent environment issues to address, but alarming statistics and the image of a country opening a new coal-fired power station every week are misleading.

Apart from incorporating clean coal technologies in a new generation of stations, wind, solar and biomass power is developing apace. This is largely down to leadership from the central government, which has established the National Renewable Energy Law (in this regard they are far ahead of us) and is backing new, cleaner power stations.

Awareness of energy saving is rising among the public too, exemplified by impressive sales of electric bikes employing technology similar to that in hybrid cars.

China could, should and will obviously do more. But much of this progress has been unsung.

The most objective assessment might be that, while the world needs to revise its image of China as just a carbon polluter and work with the country more constructively, China too needs to learn more and faster from the international community.

One area that needs revisiting is its wind power policies, which are due for a rethink. It needs more rational policies to make the most of its wind power.

Despite doubling capacity every year for the past three years, there have been reports that its wind turbines are less efficient at producing energy. Experts feel that the first thing China should do is to focus on producing clean energy rather than building turbines.

On the other hand, operating at international standards of efficiency, China's turbines could produce five per cent of the nation's energy needs by 2020, and could make it the biggest producer of wind energy in the world.

One strong positive factor is that China is on the look-out for foreign scientists. Not exclusively in the energy and climate sectors. They aim to attract some 1,500 outstanding foreign scientists and scholars, promising them more research funding than they were receiving at home. It is the first time that the Chinese Academy of Sciences has operated a scheme to attract foreign scientists on a large scale.

The academy also announced plans to attract more Chinese scientists back to their home country.

There was recent talk of America needing to help China turn green. The Chinese have long been asking them to pay one per cent of their GDP to help them do so.

China might have recently surpassed the US as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases but the US in pre-Obama days was the highest emitter per capita worldwide. They might be both climate sinners so far, but it is only through their synergy that we can ever hope to see any ray of hope emerge at the end of the forthcoming end-of-the-year Copenhagen climate talks.

The world's most populated country, which also happens to be the one with the fastest rate of economic growth, might be feared by many as a potential super power but with China back on track to environmentally sustainable growth, both them and us should be better off at the end of the day.

Oversimplistic? Perhaps. Naïve? Arguably so. Necessary and vital? Without a doubt.

If China is not "bailed out" this can not only lead to environmental degradation but also to environment-related social unrest.

This is why I have always argued that not only climate issues but also environmental matters have a geo strategic and national security angle. I believe that China proves it.

If the Obama administration manages to make climate issues the centre-piece of a broader more vigorous engagement with China, it will be one of its major achievements in his first 100 days in office. Hillary Clinton's visit to China pointed that way.

Meanwhile, our only contribution to the "greening" of China is our officially declared export to them of our hazardous waste!

Mr Brincat is a Labour member of Parliament.

brincat.leo@gmail.com