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December 3, 2013

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Home » Opinion » Foreign Views

China slows CO2 increase by 7 percent

By Khalid Al-Akhal | December 3, 2013, Tuesday | Print Edition

FOR every environmental activist, every caring scientist and every living being on planet Earth, a piece of good news has come at last. Out of the CO2 cloud covering the sky above our heads a dim ray of light has broken through.

According to a recent report Trends in Global CO2 Emissions: 2013 Report by by the PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, the global increase in carbon dioxide emissions has slowed to 1.1 percent during last year. This is much less than half of the average annual increase in the last decade estimated as 2.9 percent.

There are two facts to be extracted from this information. First, global CO2 emissions are still increasing. Second, slowing down this increase tells us we are on the right track and there is much to be learned and done while celebrating this global achievement.

The report goes on to reiterate that the main emitters remain China, the United States and the EU. While US share of CO2 emissions decreased by 4 percent due to a considerable shift to shale gas and EU share also decreased by 1.6 percent due to economic recession, it was China that made most of the difference after slowing down its increase in CO2 emissions by 7 percent.

The development in China comes as the central government kept pushing for issuing as well as applying more environmental protection measures.

Waves of smog

On the other hand, severe waves of smog in major cities generated more public awareness. In the past three years social media like weibo (similar to Twitter), Youku (similar to YouTube)) and weixin (similar to Whatsapp) have played two roles in spreading public awareness and extending the voice of ordinary people to reach policy-makers.

Local governments did respond and enacted several independent or semi-independent measures. Perhaps the strictest and recent were those issued by Beijing authorities.

The new measures for the first time strictly demand a large scale temporary shut down of factories, limit the number of cars on road and even ban open air barbeques when air pollution reaches certain levels.

However, the country did not achieve the 7 percent slowing down only because of that. According to PBL report, it was due to three main reasons:

1. The significant increase in hydropower capacity and output by 23 percent.

2. The increase in using renewable energy and energy efficiency.

3. The end of the economic stimulus package.

China has suffered some of the worst droughts in the last few years that not only affected farming industry, but also affected its hydropower generating capacity. But, the less dry weather last year coupled with more projects helped the country’s hydropower to rebound.

The stimulus package that included investment in infrastructure and housing projects launched in 1990 also came to and end by 2010.

Please note, China as one of the fastest ”emerging economies” built most of its current urban infrastructure only in the past two decades.

However, its CO2 emissions per capita are comparable to levels in the EU and less than half of those in the US.

Another factor yet to have effect is China economic restructuring where more weight will be shifted from the manufacturing industry to the service industry.

Though it is a long-term plan, many changes are already taking place.

The dim light gives us hope, yet there is much to learn about what went wrong and what went right.

Those practices proved to be efficient need to strengthened, extended and fully utilized. Those new measures need to be tested, verified and carefully planned.

But above all, each of us must be responsible to keep working hard for a healthier future.

The author is a Jordanian national. He holds a master’s degree in international business from the University of Hertfordshire, UK.

 

Foreign Views


 

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