Dot Earth Blog: Tough Truths From China on CO2 and Climate

I?m way overdue to post excerpts here from an extraordinary recent China Dialogue with Zou Ji, the deputy director of China?s National Center for Climate Change Strategy. (China Dialogue is a fascinating independent dual-language blog with offices in London, Beijing and San Francisco that is supported by several foundations and other institutions.)

The interview is blunt and crystal clear in laying out the demographic and economic realities that will, for many years to come, slow any shift from Chinese dependence on coal.

[Feb. 27, 8:19 a.m. | Update | A new post describes some progress on meshing economic and emissions policies.]

Zou Ji has a remarkable resume for someone now working inside the Chinese establishment, having worked previously as the China director for the World Resources Institute.

Here?s a snippet, followed by a link to the rest of the piece:

CD: Cutting emissions isn?t easy for an industrializing and urbanizing economy. Is the rest of the world asking too much? Forget for a moment the political tussles over how much CO2 can and should be cut ? what?s China?s actual ability to reduce emissions?

ZJ: China does have some advantages, such as the opportunity for adjustments in the world economy due to the financial crisis. Also, China has become the world?s second largest economy and the gap with the U.S. is shrinking. Spending on institutional measures and research and development that in the past would have been unthinkable is becoming feasible.

Although the world is still led by the developed nations, the status and negotiating strength of the developing world is also on the increase.

But at the same time, China suffers from some obvious disadvantages.

The international community has some misconceptions, such as believing China is now a developed nation. This could mean China ends up taking on more global responsibility than its capabilities allow. We?ve held the Olympics and?sent astronauts into space, but you can?t look at the richest parts of Beijing and Shanghai and assume the whole country is like that. The welfare of hundreds of millions of rural residents isn?t yet assured. Healthcare, unemployment benefits, pensions, all of these are weak. Many Chinese people have no safe drinking water, and our per-capita GDP ranks ninety-something globally. Overall, China is still a developing nation.

Another important disadvantage is the make-up of our natural resources.

Brazil gets 90% of its energy from hydropower. It is fortunate enough to have those resources. If China could replace coal with oil as a primary source of energy, emissions would drop by one third. If we could replace coal with natural gas, they would drop by two thirds. But China?s main resource is coal. We only have limited amounts of other sources of energy, and obviously a reliance on imports is unrealistic. Moving to clean energy is a massive challenge.

Meanwhile, we still need to urbanize and educate hundreds of millions of rural residents. Quality of life needs to be improved. There can be no disagreement about that.

Domestically, there are two dangerous trends we need to steer clear of. One is sticking too rigidly to our traditional way of doing things. The other is changing too quickly, trying to create a low-carbon economy in a Great Leap Forward manner and misjudging China?s circumstances and technological ability.

China can only do its best as it is able. Moving too quickly will actually hold back low-carbon development.

CD: Will China take a different path to that of the?Kuznets curve?(the idea that certain environmental indicators start to improve once development has reached a certain stage)? [Click here for a fine 2009 John Tierney explanation of this "richer is greener" curve with a couple of examples.]

ZJ: In the current world economic system, it is difficult for a developing nation to cut emissions. China currently accounts for 70% of new emissions each year, and the pressure and expectations it faces are increasing. But China is still on the left-hand side of the Kuznets curve, while the EU is on the right-hand side, beyond the peak. The type of emissions of the two different stages aren?t the same, they can?t be compared. China?s high emissions come mainly from industry and are driven by investment. The EU?s emissions come mostly from building and transportation, and are due to consumption.

At their peak, France?s per-capita emissions were 19 tonnes, while Germany?s approached 15 tonnes. We shouldn?t forget that. You can?t ask China to get to 7 tonnes and level off or fall. It goes against the basic laws of developmental economics. Japan and Australia have per-capita GDPs of US$40,000, but their emissions still haven?t peaked. China?s per-capita GDP is US$5-6,000. The curve is still going up.

China can peak at a lower level than the US and EU did historically. But even a per-capita peak of 10 tonnes means total emissions of 13 billion tonnes. That?s more than I can imagine. It?s a huge challenge for China?.

[Read the rest here.]

Source: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/tough-truths-from-china-on-co2-and-climat/?partner=rss&emc=rss

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