China’s pollution problem has been a popular excuse for deniers and those advocating for inaction on climate. But as the climate community has consistently pointed out, China began aggressively ramping up its environmental efforts in 2013, seeking to prevent a scenario where their massive population is consuming and polluting on par with Americans.
Then there’s another common denier attack suggesting that any effort to modernize the energy system with renewables will deprive the poor of any energy at all--an argument termed “energy poverty.” This (coal-sponsored) myth centers on a false choice between coal and renewables, between the age-old economy versus the environment.
Now, a trio of recent stories about China’s enormous environmental efforts--and the realistic drawbacks of those efforts--add layer of nuance to the situation.
First, the good news: China is taking pollution seriously, and cracking down on it in a big way. The country met aggressive pollution reduction goals set in 2013, and electric vehicles are increasingly popular--in no small thanks to a large regulatory push from the government.
The bad news: China’s rush to replace coal with gas has left some without any heat, the government’s enthusiasm to clamp down on polluters has targeted some small businesses, and the transition to electric vehicles isn’t as clean as it could be--a lot of the electricity powering those vehicles still comes from coal.
With Trump ceding US leadership on the issue combined with their strict top-down governance, some have claimed that “Only China Can Save the Planet,” arguing that a government with more control faces less resistance when a leader sets out to change the country--in this case by cleaning up its economy (literally).
That same authoritarian impulse can cause problems when it comes time for implementation. Knowing that the local bureaucracy is susceptible to undue influence from local businesses, the national Chinese government set incentives for reporting local polluters, and laid out sanctions to discourage local leaders from “accidentally” overlooking sources of emissions. But, as Yanzhong Huang describes in a Sunday New York Times op-ed, the threat of these sanctions caused local governments to overreach in the other direction: local authorities included all sorts of small businesses in their lists of emission sources, all the way down to carts selling steamed buns.
Unfortunately, that same overzealousness is having some even more serious drawbacks. The Washington Post’s China Bureau Chief Simon Denyer reported this weekend that China’s haste to kick its coal habit is leaving some in the cold--literally.
With coal burners destroyed and promises of gas heat yet to be fulfilled, and with polluting factories shut down, Denyer reports, the pollution reduction efforts appear to be happening a bit too hastily. He alludes to the potential for this program to backfire, because if people are left without heat or employment, then there “will inevitably come pressure to back off the clean-air policy.”
China’s swift and decisive action to clean the air is certainly commendable. But if the cost of that clean air is paid in freezing homes and empty wallets, it’s not going to be sustainable--or humane. As this trade-off shows, the transition away from fossil fuels must be one that accommodates and incorporates the needs of all communities--particularly those with the fewest resources.
Here in the US, that idea falls under the banner of environmental justice, a movement that calls for a just transition. Just transition is a principle that, as NAACP’s Jacqueline Patterson explained to Bill McKibben last year, “is about energy access and affordability, it’s about livelihood for oneself and one’s family, and it’s about being sensitive about tax revenues and how we’re shifting them.” Most importantly, “as we’re transitioning to renewables, we need to make sure there are not unintended consequences in terms of rate increases.”
This leaves China as an example of both what to do, and what not to do as we navigate our way to a carbon-free economy.
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