The Battle of China Against Pollution - Essay Example

China and Globalization: China’s struggle for environment protection and related issues The central ities in China continue working towards enhancing the scope of powers for the top environmental regulators in the country. On the other hand, the need for Beijing to continue accelerating efforts for environmental protection are in conflict with the essence of sustaining employment and industrial activity in Chinas gradual and uncertain economic restructuring and rebalancing. For the recent years, the entire Chinese government put up some of the toughest emissions policy standards within airborne pollutants like sulfur dioxide. Beijing also wrote plans of limiting the use of coal in urban areas as well as curbing wasteful production from the heavy-polluting firms and industries. The actions are accompanied by pledges from the top leaders of the country in shifting China from a model of political economy, which prioritizes more growth across the environment (Perry & Selden 29). This will shift into a place of more emphasis for environmental protection, domestic consumption, and quality of life. However, the Chinese government is not equipped with environmental regulators for legal powers as well as human resources that are necessary for effectively enforcing the measures. The head of Environmental Protection there is a weak bureaucratic department in dealing with environmental issues. Probably, there is an overstatement of the case, even though in the recent years, the piecemeal approach by the ministry in regulating air pollution is a reflection of the limited jurisdiction and capabilities that are without matches for the local governments and the well-connected firms (Tilt 79). The essence of this is to maintain higher industrial activity levels for developing revenues and employment. Figure 1. Urban-rural inequality by degree of urbanization. WDR (Hill, 2010) Similarly, structural and institutional economic constraints hamper the ability of the government in enforcing environmental regulations across other fronts. This includes water resource depletion and water pollution which are acute problems closely overlapping with the aspects of public anxiety across air pollution from the northern industrial heartlands of China. On the other hand, the scheme could soon start turning in the struggle by Beijing in curbing the integral environmental impacts of the industrial development in China. Here, the important implications for investors and businesses are the traditional domestic pillar industries like steel and coal (Shapiro 109). Since early 2013, Xi Jinpings administration, Chinese President, continues to outline actively various measures to be implemented in tandem for purpose of alleviating some conflicts of interest hobbling Beijings efforts in enforcing the stated environmental regulations. The measures are inclusive of documentation and publicity of the overall air quality index more comprehensively. For instance, most Chinese airports continue displaying within pollution levels of the destination cities of the passengers while enacting stricter laws regarding industrial air coupled with water pollution emissions. Buildings are shrouded in smog in Lianyungang, China. (Getty) This administration outlines the panoply for market-oriented taxes including the pricing reforms taking the design of encouraging the conservation of resources like water and coal as they give local governments stable fiscal revenue sources. The measures reduce reliance of the local governments on the fees (development-related) accompanying continuous and rapid growth. Lastly, Beijing is working on making efforts of boosting the extensive legal jurisdiction, profile and, punitive and enforcement capabilities for the environmental protection policies. They are measures, which focus on developing new discussions or entering the earliest implementation stages (Hill 39). Time tells on whether such new administration approaches have the political will and capital of enforcing them through their opposition from all parts of the economic and political arena of China. Taken together, such measures are a representation of the leaderships Communist Party with its most comprehensive effort while addressing the structural imbalances and factors behind environmental degradation in China. This, together with the ongoing anti-corruption campaign initiated by Xi as well as the attendant consolidation drive power, points at having central ability of the authorities in making good on certain long-standing environmental pledges. Law and Punitive Order Seemingly, the main weak link in the battle of China against pollution is the Ministry in charge of Environmental Protection. It is responsible for the enforcement of air, soil, water, and other regulations on the environmental through central government approval. The weakness of the ministry and the combination of various labor constraints coupled with vague legal jurisdictions and the limited ability of punishing virtual guarantee that most Chinas ambitious environmental laws are unenforced. Stronger Environmental Protection ministry needs to be capable of easily enforcing the painful punitive measures on various firms conflicting with the Beijings laws. This is one environmental regulation aspect. Other punitive measures need a combination with other incentives like tax reforms for them to gain political viability as well as the violating regulations costs exceeding the compliance costs (Perry & Selden 73). This explains Beijings recent announcement in April to pass new measures this year towards substantially enhancing the Environmental Protection agencys powers in ensuring environmental regulation compliance mostly through giving more power on levying fines on businesses for breaking such laws. The National commission on Development and Reform is Chinas economic planning board is yet to put up the ideal powers wield by the ministry. On the other hand, it is apparent that there is a high likelihood that the law replaces the existing maximum fine systems. Through these, enterprises have an authority of continued pollution after paying a set fee to the local governments. The full compliance costs typically fall far outpace such costs of the fine. The lift of the maximum fine system is critical to the ability of the ministry in forcing businesses, as coal-fired power firms to use well-equipped sulfur dioxide scrubbers. There are a number of high-profile illustrations of plants that are punished for not applying their scrubbers while the anecdotal reports are persistently hazardous in the air across most of the Northern Chinas major coal basins (Heggelund 36). This is a suggestion that the collusion is persistent among the industrial players and local governments in sidestepping scrubber application requirements. It is not seen whether the agency receives the personnel it needs to make effective monitoring of enterprises and enforce the legal penalties. However, based on the central government’s hint on the desire to have an enshrined environmental protection element in the constitution through the amendment of Chinas initial Environmental Protection Law of 1989, such resources will be forthcoming. A Case Study of the Capital and its Periphery In the past decades, the Hebei province continues to play the unenviable role even though strategically critical for the supply depot of Tianjin, Beijing, as well as other China regions. Hebei supplies the mentioned areas with sufficient resources such as agricultural goods, low-end labor, water, coal, steel, electricity, and other heavy industrial aspects. The regional clusters like the Pearl River and Yangtze deltas with a central location in the cities sparked these economies for the surrounding metropolitan environs through integrating them into sustainable regional supply chains in the manufacturing sector. The link between Hebei and the other northern municipalities has been less beneficial to either side (Shapiro 83). The economy of Hebei continues to grow rapidly across the recent years because of the skyrocketing demand for the low-end industrial goods and raw materials that are produced in the province in abundance. On the contrary, this growth is ample for the cost of the extreme deterioration for the natural environment of the province as well as the steep declines in resources reserves such as water and coal. Air pollution and freshwater depletion are major issues in the northern China, but in Hebei, the risks are acute or immediate. Unlike other satellite cities such as Foshan, that process and manufacture parts for other assembly lines located in Shenzhen and Dongguan, and that gradually move up this value-added chain, Hebei is stuck in providing resource-intensive goods for the wealthier neighbors. Across the years, the peculiarly extractive and unequal dynamic widens the physical and human infrastructural gulf across the municipalities and Hebei that it avails its products. Hebei misses the possible gains of the quality of life and living standards evident in Tianjin and Beijing. The gross domestic product (per capita) is close to half of its immediate neighbors. Policies designed towards ensuring adequacy in supply of resources and raw materials for Tianjin, Beijing, and other metropolises in Bohai Rim make Hebei a great industrial giant (Hill 18). It is part of the most palatable environments on earth and hosts seven of most polluted cities in China. In Hebei, the pollution is so high, and the political and social risks of possible spillover into Tianjin and Beijing are eminent. This prompts Xi, the president, to focus on the creation of regional economic zone between Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin (popular as Jing-Jin-Ji). This is meant to move up Hebeis economy across the value-added chain while addressing the air pollution problems in the region. Conclusion Changing the model of development will require express alterations for attitudes to the immediate environment. Most people have the hope of following the path across the developed countries (including polluting first and controlling later). This is not practicable in China even though the hope is quite risky as China continues to suffer from new disadvantages of limitation of natural resources today, as well as fewer countries accepting the policy on pollution transfers (Heggelund 45). Even through pollution is controllable in later stages there are foreseeable elements that most species (both plant and animal) providing essential ecosystem contributions to humans (such as wild rice variety helping revolutionize the production of rice) becoming extinct. In addition, environmental impacts on socioeconomic well-being and human health will encounter greater impacts as China’s population grows larger as compared to the populations of other developed countries. They will suffer severe water and air pollution. Even though this does not amount to ease in making the fundamental changes, hope is cultivated towards having this happen. Environmental catastrophes will awaken more members of the public and government officials. For example, the floods of 1998 continued to stimulate large-scale programs on conservation (such as natural grain-to-green and forest conservation programs) and the chemical spill 2005 of in northeast China initiated examination for locations of critical chemical plants. The algal blooms of 2007 translated into closure of other polluting factories from the lakes. Works Cited Heggelund, Gørild. Environment and Resettlement Politics in China: The Three Gorges Project. New York: Ashgate, 2004. Print Hill, Marquita., Understanding Environmental Pollution. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print Perry, Elizabeth., Selden, Mark. Chinese Society: Change, Conflict and Resistance. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2010. Print Shapiro, Judith. Chinas Environmental Challenges. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2013. Print Tilt, Bryan. The Struggle for Sustainability in Rural China: Environmental Values and Civil Society. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013. Print Read More