For most of August this year Beijing was unusually, eerily beautiful. Famous for the Forbidden City and China’s most prestigious universities, the capital city of China also holds a dubious reputation as a hotbed for pollution. And yet, for about three weeks leading up to the September 3rd military parade, the skies were, for the most part, blue and virtually pollution-free. The parade came and went, and so did the blue skies.
How did this happen? Quite simply, because the Chinese government wanted it to. Through a series of restrictions on manufacturing, and cloud seeding to force pollutants out of the air via artificially induced rainfall, officials in Beijing were able to mandate clear skies for their soldiers’ marching. Such a capability is in some ways terrifying, but from another perspective is oddly promising as governments around the world take climate change more seriously and try to reduce their emissions internally because, unlike many other countries, the Chinese government can force results in a way others constrained by the structure of their economies cannot.
China is polluted, and this is only becoming more exacerbated by an increasing standard of living. Recent surveys have indicated trends towards increased energy demands per household – particularly electricity – and fewer occupants per household. These factors can only lead to increased pollution. Obviously, households do not present the biggest contributor to pollution in China. The largest consumers of energy and emitters of pollutants are found in China’s commercial sector. When the skies were cleared in Beijing, it was due to the capital’s fiated closure of large swaths of factories having a direct effect on the city’s air. That said, as China’s economy matures and more Chinese citizens are becoming comfortable with a more affluent lifestyle, the effect China’s residential sector has on energy consumption is inflating at a rapid speed. Between 2000 and 2008, reports have indicated that residential electricity use tripled and the sector rose from 7 percent to 11percent of the country’s total energy consumption. This is the fastest rate of increasing energy intensity over any sector of the Chinese economy. Furthermore, these rapid rises in energy consumption are only predicted to continue.
As a result, the Chinese government is beginning to pay closer attention to the sustainability of its residential sector. Increasing energy consumption from this sector presents a difficult situation for the government because it cannot be controlled in quite the same way as, for example, manufacturing. With manufacturing, the government can simply order plants to shut down or use less energy. This can be mandated. With the residential sector this can also be done, but it is not as safe of a political decision.
As the Chinese Communist Party has largely abandoned many original ideologies, much of its legitimacy has become based upon China’s continued economic growth and the people’s gradually increasing standard of living.
While the government could, for example, ban air conditioning during the summer months, which would cause massive energy savings, this decision would be unpopular for obvious reasons, and thus Beijing needs to find other means of achieving energy-saving goals.
It should also be noted that it does appear these goals are being taken seriously. This summer China announced a pledge to curb peak emissions by 2030 and laid out a variety of actions with the intent of achieving that objective. That said, China has not just recognized its need for energy efficiency, as it has been continuously implementing new energy saving policies over the past two decades. With respect to buildings, China entered a third phase of developing its building code regulations in 2006. Each phase set out to improve the energy efficiency of new buildings, in addition to retrofitting old ones, and each phase also increased the stringency of enforced regulations. The gradual increase in required energy efficiency has also resulted in the industry’s gradual adjustments to meet new needs. For example, buildings in the north of China, to combat the cold climate, have largely switched to double, and in some cases even triple, glass pane windows. The enforced regulations give the industries time to adjust to their new requirements, but also ensure that the drive continues moving forward.
These energy-reducing objectives in turn manifest themselves in a variety of interesting ways. Of course on one side China is not only trying to burn coal in a cleaner, more efficient way but is also investing in the research, development, and implementation of massive amounts of green technologies, such as solar power. As China is still developing its infrastructure, this is easier to do than in, for example, the United States, where energy production methods are limited by a well established, expensive to alter, energy grid. In people’s homes, however, there are also major efforts afoot to decrease energy usage.
As mentioned above, efforts are being made to better improve the efficiency of buildings themselves. For example, according to a March 2014 report by the U.S. Department of Energy, policies mandated by China’s 12th Five Year Plan are expected to spur investments of $35 to $43 billion USD on insulation alone. The profit margin of energy efficient doors and windows is 13 to 15%, far greater than the 3 to 5% boasted by their traditional counterparts. With pushes by the central government, this $60 billion USD industry is expected to slowly shift to a greener incarnation. The Chinese government is forcing similar measures upon the heating, lighting, and other elements of the residential sector as well. The result of these requirements and adjustments to the sector is the forced development of new industries to meet new standards, making the development of green products and materials in the economy more profitable. With mass production, implementation becomes increasingly affordable, and so on.
Of course, there are critics. Professorial candidate Lin Lishen, studying under Professor Jiangyi of Qinghua University, specializes in household energy efficiency. In an interview for The Nanjinger, he stated that while the government’s response to energy production is gradually improving, it is not enough. “China should consider total energy use, not just energy efficiency – they are two different things.” But this is not the case, as he points out more antiquated central heating is being used today than before. This is linked to people’s inflated expectations for their standard of living, but the increased outputs are also producing unwanted results. “If the pollution becomes more serious, the people will lose faith in their government,” he points to last year’s winter, which was a case in point, stoking people’s concerns over pollution and PM2.5. “After the heavy pollution of last winter the government invested more money to deal with the environmental problem” – but he thinks such investments are still far from enough.
It should be stressed that the Chinese people are not oblivious to the harmful effects of pollutants, and many are increasingly willing to make some form of a contribution to alleviate the smog descending upon their cities.
With better education, leisure time, and a generally more comfortable, stable standing that economic development has afforded the people, more citizens are becoming increasingly worried about the effects of pollutants on their bodies. That said, while there are some outspoken groups about environmental issues in China, perhaps the most appropriate way to describe the population is receptive to energy-saving suggestions. The government has made some efforts to tap into this receptiveness by labeling and providing education with the hope of spurring buyers into choosing energy-efficient products. Still, in the usual interest of stability, it wants to avoid fear mongering and has tried to keep alarming reports of pollution out of the public eye.
What the Chinese populace ultimately seems to want most is a better life. While they are willing to help with the country’s energy-saving objectives, they seem most keenly interested in keeping their homes heated during the winter and cool during the summer.
They want blue skies and fresh air, of course, but such aspirations can sometimes be obfuscated in the daily rhythm of living – that is, living comfortably.
Lin Lishen points out, however, that such aloofness does have a limit. The terrible levels of pollution the Chinese people have experienced in recent winters bring the situation into sharp focus: the pollution needs to be controlled. For him, and many, it is a question of protecting the international environment: the amount of global warming needs to be kept under a mean two degrees rise in temperature, hence his assertion that “in the future the Chinese government should give a stronger target [than 2030 to curb emissions].” For the Chinese people it is one of basic safety, and for the Chinese government it is one of maintaining a satisfied population and stable condition for society.
Regardless, the desire is there from both the top down and the bottom up. The Chinese government jointly recognizes the need for a cleaner, more efficient, even low-carbon economy because it will entail less pollution and require fewer resources, ensuring more stability for the present and the future. From the bottom up, the people quite simply want clean air. The fact that the Chinese government seems keen to act decisively on such issues speaks to some exciting prospects for the future. China has the potential to both curb its pollution and kick start a genuine, competitive renewable energy industry that could also potentially provide a model for the rest of the world to follow. Whatever the result, the jury is still out, but China appears to be gearing itself up to impress the world with more than just the uniformity of its marching soldiers.
This article was first published in The Nanjinger Magazine, October 2015 Issue. If you would like to read the whole magazine, please follow this link.
