Pollution ushers in a new type of activists
Print Edition
MASSIVE pollution problems have given rise to a new force of environmental campaigners in China, different politically from middle-class activists in the West and potentially more effective, according to new research.
In Europe, the financial crisis knocked environmental policy down the political agenda and populist movements see environmentalism as a hobby for the elite.
Meanwhile in the United States, the September 11, 2001, attacks pushed energy security to the top of the political agenda.
But in China, some 64 percent of Chinese identify themselves as environmentalists, more than double that of Europe and the US, says a report by Dutch research agency Motivaction after interviews with more than 48,000 consumers in 20 countries.
Not only are many more people in China describing themselves as environmentalists, they also have a very different profile from those in the West.
The report finds they tend to be socially conservative, devoted to family and traditional Asian values, and pro-business groups who believe strongly in the role of technology to solve the world’s problems.
In contrast, the US and Europe have developed a “cosmopolitan environmentalism,” a movement supported frequently by liberal, highly educated and politically active groups.
Chinese environmentalists have a much greater sense of urgency, the report says. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang “declared war” on pollution in March after an official report dubbed Beijing “barely suitable” for living in due to the smog. China pledged to spend US$1.65 billion to combat air pollution and US$330 billion on water shortages.
There is still a big challenge to persuade China to sign up to a new global deal on tackling climate change, hoped for at a United Nations summit in 2015.
However, when spurred by its growing population of environmentalists, it can act more decisively than Western coalitions.
“When the Chinese government decides to do something, they do it,” said Kathryn Sheridan, CEO of a Brussels-based sustainability communications consultancy. “It’s not the talking shop that we see in Europe.”
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