China's eco-entrepreneurs step
up By Christina L Madden
China surpassed the United States this
year as the world's top producer of carbon-dioxide
emissions. This came as no surprise given China's
size, economic growth and environmental record.
According to the World Bank, 16 of the
world's 20 most polluted cities are in China, and
as many as 750,000 premature deaths occur in the
country each year due to water and air pollution.
Although civil society is similarly stifled, the Chinese
environmental movement has
taken great strides - and made great progress - in
combating the harms of rapid development.
China's social entrepreneurs have taken up
the environment as a principal concern, aided by
international expertise and funding for a range of
activities. The Shanghai Industrial Investment
Corp has partnered with design and engineering
firm Arup to build the Dongtan eco-village on a
marshy island off the coast of Shanghai. Dongtan,
slated to sustain 500,000 people with renewable
energy and emission-free transportation, could
serve as a model for green development in other
cities around the world.
To promote
sustainable projects in China's already inhabited
areas, New Ventures, a project of the US-based
think-tank World Resources Institute, funds
Chinese businesses that focus on organic
agriculture, clean technology and renewable
energy. And a group called Green Choice has used a
State Environmental Protection Agency document to
create a blacklist of polluting companies so that
consumers can avoid selected products.
Eco-entrepreneurs can also be found in
China's rural areas. Cao Hai Nature Reserve
receives support from the Trickle Up Program and
the International Crane Foundation to implement
microfinance programs designed to encourage
conservation through small business. The goal is
community development that provides local farmers
with alternative sources of income so as to
decrease their dependence on behaviors that harm
the reserve, such as fishing, hunting and
land-clearing.
Rather than merely setting
regulations, the reserve now cooperates with
farmers and allows them to develop their own
solutions to the area's environmental problems,
giving them business skills to create and run
their own enterprises. This model has been used to
develop more than 800 small businesses across
China, and local governments have begun earmarking
funds to emulate the process.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have
been similarly effective at developing innovative
methods to promote environmental awareness and
participation across various sectors of society.
Friends of Nature (FON), the oldest environmental
NGO in China, stands out in this regard.
FON organizes environmental camps through
its Antelope Van project, a mobile classroom
designed to bring eco-friendly projects to schools
in China's rural areas and raise environmental
consciousness among young people. FON also trains
teachers to promote environmental values in their
classrooms, and has co-sponsored, along with the
Shell Foundation, contests for Chinese students to
propose ideas for environmental policies.
The organization's activities go beyond
raising awareness. FON began discussions with
Beijing's hotels in 2000 to implement green hotel
certification in preparation for the 2008 Summer
Olympics in the capital. FON will also monitor and
assess the environmental implications of the
Olympics, and will be guiding Olympic visitors on
environmental tours of Beijing's neighborhoods
through a partnership with Green Map System, a New
York-based civil-society collaborative.
Green Map System opened a branch in FON's
Beijing office in 2004, with dozens of volunteers
coming together to map out the Shichahai area so
that tourists and community members can explore
the area's parks and lakes and find out where to
rent bicycles and receive pedicab tours. The maps
also include reminders of some of the consequences
of rapid environmental changes, such as road
congestion and deteriorating water quality.
FON, while an exemplar, is not the only
organization engaged in this work. Despite
constraints such as rigid registration processes
and funding shortages, more than 2,000
environmental NGOs exist in China, not including
those that skirt regulations by registering as
for-profit entities, and unregistered student and
community groups. These other groups work to
educate journalists on environmental issues,
engage with industries to create energy-efficiency
standards, and use technology such as
text-messaging and blogging to steer clear of
censorship regulations and spread awareness of
environmental problems.
On the policy
side, public outreach is having an effect.
Environmental protests against dam construction
and chemical plants have become more common,
drawing tens of thousands of Chinese civilians.
The government has been responsive. In January
2005, the State Environmental Protection Agency
halted construction of 30 infrastructure projects
in 13 provinces pending more in-depth
environmental assessments.
China's most
recent five-year development plan allotted US$175
billion to environmental protection and includes
language about conserving resources and moving
toward a recycling economy. The government has
largely recognized the role NGOs can play in
developing environmental policies and garnering
the social capital needed to implement them. To
this end, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
recently introduced a decree that orders public
disclosure of official information regarding
environmental issues, a move that will allow
citizens to petition the government to release
such information.
Despite these trends,
the environmental movement should not be confused
with systemic political reform in China. Instead,
these activities have been labeled "advocacy with
Chinese characteristics" (a reference to the
country's open-door economic policy, "socialism
with Chinese characteristics"). The government's
receptiveness to the work of environmentalists can
be seen more as a way of making the country's
development sustainable.
In 2000,
then-president Jiang Zemin introduced the policy
of "Three Represents", which describes China's
progress as dependent on upholding the values of
economic production, cultural development and
political consensus in China. This was widely
interpreted as the CCP's acceptance of the ability
of capitalists and private entrepreneurs to spur
economic development.
While the government
is now adjusting its economic policies to
accommodate public opinion better on the
environment, it remains to be seen whether more
accountability will emerge when entrepreneurs with
greater access to information have other social
objectives in mind.
Christina L
Madden joined Global Policy Innovations in
July. She also works at the Global Security
Institute, focusing primarily on nuclear
non-proliferation and disarmament issues, and is a
political analyst for Americans for Informed
Democracy. She received her bachelor of arts
degree in international affairs and political
science from George Washington University in May
2006 with concentrations in security policy and
Asian studies.
(Published with
permission of the Global Policy
Innovations program at the Carnegie
Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
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