Japan's environmental lessons for China?

[Laurence Smith]

Will China follow the examples of Japan and Korea and solve it's environmental problems before they have disasterous consequences for China, and as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, the global environment itself?

This article suggests that there interesting parallels between the development paths of the three countries and that if China can surmount the challenges of getting officials in local provinces actually enforcing the existing environmental laws, there is the possibility of China, in a decade or two offering clear skies like those seen in Tokyo these days.

Since my first arrival in Asia in early 1994, both Seoul and, especailly, Tokyo, have offered dramatically improved environments with far more clear days these days. But on my recent trips to Shanghai, it was a rare day indeed that even the sun could be seen through the haze, never mind a blue sky!

Currently China is opening a new coal-fired power station every week and the rate of growth literally dwarfs any savings from eco-consciousness or energy efficiency improvements taking place in Europen countries. Both China & India will increasingly have massive impact on global emissions, China having recently passed America as the world's largest emitter.

The challenge is not just the lack of enforcment of environmental laws at the local level, it is also quite simply that, until America leads the way, China can quite reasonably insist on it's right to development and the pollution that this implies. Only America taking a clear lead in reducing it's own emissions and investing massively in CleanTech will inpsire China to more rapidly focus on making it's own growth more sustainable.

Let's hope I'm wrong! Let's hope that China, somehow, steps forward as a global leader in energy efficiency without waiting for the US. After all, China already has stricter Fuel Efficiency standards for cars than the US!

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/What_China_can_learn_from_Japan_on...

[Scott Smith]

There's an interesting story, although I've no links, on the relationship between Dalian-Kita Kyushu-Pittsburgh.

My experience is a little dated but, to my knowledge, Kita Kyushu is one of the few municipalities in the world to engage internationally in development assistance. It had a program aimed at community-community linkages to share environmentally friendly technologies and encourage their adoption.

Kita Kyushu has also sought over the past 20 years to develop a relationship with Pittsburgh, with a specific interest in the latter's economic transformation and clean-up in the 1950s-70s.

As there seem to be limits to the effectiveness of top-down programs, especially in a place like China, I wonder how more local programs are faring?