Air Pollution in China - Case Study Example

Case Study Name Institution Date Introduction Air pollution is a problem in many countries. The global community is struggling to keep it under control through many different initiatives (Martin, Li & Qin 2007, p. 45). Among the countries where air pollution is a big problem is China. China is among the countries with the highest levels of air pollution around the world. Most of this is attributed to industrialization. Because this problem is big in China, there are many issues surrounding its governance (Ho & Nielson 2007, p. 102). In fact, these issues are the ones contributing to the high levels of air pollution in the country. Governance of air pollution in China started with the control of air pollution from the combustion of coal. Heaters, boilers and home ovens were using boilers because it was the only fuel in use. This had a bad effect on ambient air quality and it was also resulting in indoor air pollution. There was a lot of acid rain because sulfur levels in the air were so high. In 1984, the Chinese government created “smokeless districts” that placed controls on the release of harmful gases from equipment fired by coal (Feng 1999, p. 112). This was made formal in 1987 upon the passing of the first legislation on air pollution control. Since then, the country has had various steps in the governance of air pollution matters. This is a case study on environmental governance issues surrounding air pollution in China. Outline of the key actors involved The major actor in issues of environmental governance in China is the Chinese government. However, since the government alone cannot effectively handle all issues related to air pollution, other actors have come on the scene (McBeath & ‎Leng, 2006, p. 78). They include the citizens, businesses and non governmental organizations. Many of these actors are of the opinion that air pollution in China is a thorny issue. However, the government does support much of these claims and even if it does, there is little action to show that. The government seems to be bowing to international pressure to make initiatives to reduce air pollution (Martin & Li & ‎Qin, 2012, p. 66). It is clear that the Chinese government prioritizes economic growth at the expense of the health of the environment. Therefore, government is an actor but it does not take meaningful steps to curb air pollution because this is bound to affect economic growth. During the annual two sessions in China for example, delegates rated the ministry of environmental protection and the Supreme People’s Court very lowly. This is because; environmental governance in China is not effective at all (Rooij, 2006, p. 50) Analysis of governance challenges Environmental governance and governance of issues of air pollution in China is faced with many obstacles. Some of the challenges facing air pollution issues and their governance include institutional barriers, value conflict, contested knowledge and competing interests (Feng 1999, p. 71). Institutional barriers The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has not been able to develop the rule of law any further. Among the requisites needed to establish the rule of law is giving the judges some independence for them to function properly (Breton 2008, p. 76). This independence can be achieved by way of structural alignments in the bureaucracy of China. Such re-alignments can be done although certain entities in government are bound to lose out. These are the entities that hinder the independence of the judiciary. In China, there have been very dynamic developments in law whereby the country has established over 90 environmental tribunals in local level court systems in the entire country. This portrays the readiness of the courts to play a bigger role in enforcing the environment. However, with no judicial independence, these courts will all through be held back by local politics (Freeman & ‎Lu, 2008, p. 29). The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) has also been on the spot for failing to make significant progress on the air quality in China and the general environmental situation. The enforcement powers of the MEP have been deliberately restrained because the National People’s Congress (NPC) to enact enforceable environmental legislation. The MEP is also unable to enforce legislation that can help prevent air pollution because its regional offices have no permission of enforcing laws and regulations locally without seeking to be supported by local environmental protection bureaus (Shapiro 2012, p. 12). Unfortunately, these bureaus have a high vulnerability to the influence of politics. The ability of MEP to enforce the law is also limited by weak standards and laws. For example, MEP has been denied the power to do away with the financial benefits that polluters are entitles to whenever they deliberately ignore emission limits. For there to be effective environmental governance the financial benefits of no-compliance should be totally eliminated. Barriers to the enforcement of legislation protecting the environment would not end even if China had to pass very strong environmental laws (Day 2005, p. 41). The absence of judicial independence not only hinders the ability of the courts to bring about environmental justice and citizen enforcement. The cadre system of evaluation created by the Communist Party puts the career interests of officials at the local levels at loggerheads with the environmental laws of China. China’s environmental situation is still a big challenge. There are environmental violations and large scale incidents of environmental pollution. Therefore, the public is forced take initiatives to protect their own environmental interests and rights Shapiro 2012, p. 62). China’s environmental situation is that of less order and more laws. It seems that the enforcement of environmental legislation depends on slogans but commercial and industrial enforcement must have licenses. Competing Interests China is the biggest coal consumer. This is in spite of the fact that there are efforts to balance environmental concerns and development. China has very big economic ambitions which are clearly in conflict with its efforts to maintain good air quality (Stalley & ‎George Washington University 2006, p. 18). Its economy is expanding at a very fast rate as the Chinese government aims at increasing the standards of living of its citizens. In an effort to pursue this goal, the country has found itself among the biggest polluters in the world. It is the biggest car market and its levels of consumption of oil are quickly approaching those of the United States. Its green house gas emissions are almost the size of the U.S, India and Russia emissions combined. Looking at per capita levels, the emissions from China exceed the global average. Ongoing urbanization and development are threatening to increase these emission levels. Cutting down on emissions presents a very big dilemma to China because, economic development cannot be foregone. The country must strike a balance between these two (Gang 2009, p. 45). Sadly, striking a balance may be painful because it will mean cutting down on the consumption of coal, petroleum products and other fossil fuels and yet these are the ones that drive industrialization. Competing interests in the Chinese context are represented by the passion for economic growth on one hand and the pressure to reduce emissions on the other. It is expected that over 225 million Chinese people will migrate from the rural areas to urban areas in the coming 15 years. Looking back at the recent history of China, this would translate into more cars and more factories being moved from big cities to areas that are less developed. This coupled with increased consumption of energy would heighten the cases of air pollution (Martin, Li & ‎Qin, 2012 p. 29). Competing interest are also seen when matters of environmental conservation are placed second to other matters such as urbanization, population growth and employment creation. China has the world’s largest population. The government, citizens and other stake holders are under pressure to create jobs for the jobless and improve the life of people through better housing increased food production through agriculture among other activities. When these things are given first priority, the end result is that the matters of environmental protection and reduction of air pollution will be forced to compete with the other needs that have higher priority (Carter & ‎Mol, 2013, p. 90). Value Conflicts Value conflict has been cited by some authors as a contributing factor to the governance problems in China’s efforts to prevent air pollution (McBeath & ‎Leng, 2006, p. 34). The conservation of the environment and prevention of air pollution requires that all people pull together. All actors should act in as a team with a common goal. However, the existence of value conflicts is undeniable and this is why governance of environmental issues is a big problem in China. Non-governmental organizations and some other groups within the Chinese society may be seeking to promote environmental conservation. They see this as a valuable thing that will help to ensure that future generations have an opportunity to enjoy natural resources and the environment that exists today. On the other hand, the government and investors do not see the value in environmental conservation and pollution control (Carter & ‎Mol, 2007, p. 55). This means that they prefer other things including economic growth and wealth generation to cutting down on emissions and air pollution. Investors in various industries value the money they make out of the various manufacturing and mining activities they are involved in. These activities are the same ones that cause pollution to the environment. With this type of interest, these people are in direct conflict with others who value reduction of air pollution. Value conflict has also played a role in the failure to make environmental friendly legislations that promote reduction of air pollution. The government makes efforts to conserve the environment but it favors and effectively enforces legislation that can enhance economic growth as opposed to those that promote the reduction of air pollution. There are several factors that affect the enforcement of environmental legislation. Value conflict plays out in the fact that the government uses performance evaluations for all government officials which out extra emphasis on the development of the economy (Rooij, 2006 p. 88). Government officials in China are appointed by those above them instead of being elected by citizens. This means that the future of the government official depends on the feelings of the superior and not the vote of the citizens. The opinions of the superiors about an official are shown in evaluation indexes which are then used as a guide for official behavior (Innes ‎& Haron, 2000). Environmental enforcement is strongly determined by whether evaluation indexes are well designed and given strict enforcement. For a long time, the Communist Party of China has strongly focused on the task of economic construction and it has said that the importance of development is overriding to any other thing. Therefore, the performance evaluation system puts excess emphasis on economic indexes but fails to recognize the environmental protection indexes. The result of this is that local officials become interested in GDP growth alone. Environmental protection does not stimulate or can even restrict the growth of GDP, environmental protection indexes comprise of just a small section of performance evaluation. Therefore, in practice, the protection of the environment is only shown to be important through the word of mouth, and it is never taken seriously (Committee on Energy Futures and Air Pollution in Urban China and the United States, ‎Development, Security, and Cooperation, ‎Policy and Global Affairs 2008, p. 23). In order to solve the problem of value conflicts, several areas should be improved. This will ensure that value of the air and the entire environment is heightened. First of all the official evaluation system must be improved because this will help to improve the environmental protection ratio. The way that administrative responsibilities and financial resources are divided between local and central governments should be adjusted. This will ensure that local governments get sufficient funding to support environmental protection activities. Legislative quality and efficiency should also be high so that help in environmental enforcement and to sought out the problems related to environmental enforcement. It is also necessary to ensure that every level of environmental protection agencies are enabled to do environmental supervision and administration. Finally, it is necessary to have better judicial support for enforcing environmental legislation so that the decisions made by environmental protection agencies can receive full implementation (Feng 1999, p. 67). Contested knowledge Issues of contested knowledge in matters of air pollution in China also exist. Contested knowledge has been found by some observers to be a contributor to the challenges of environmental governance in China. This goes as far as matters of emissions and air pollution are concerned. Some players in the economy of China, and actors in matters of environmental conservation do not agree on certain issues about air pollution. Available knowledge about environmental conservation and prevention of air pollution has not been embraced by some people that matter in China (Ho ‎& Nielsen, 2007). For the effects of green house emissions on earth, the effects of air pollution and particulate matter in the air, matters of acid rain and their effects are things that some people to do agree on. Knowledge about the effects of air pollution on health and the general health of the environmental is contested by some people who are not experts in the area of environmental conservation. Contested knowledge puts environmentalists on one side with the other groups of people who do not value environmental reduction of air pollution on the other side (Policy and Global Affairs, ‎Chinese Academy of Engineering, ‎Chinese Academy of Sciences 2005, P. 34). Conclusion The case study is about air pollution in China and the challenges of governing it. China is one of the biggest air polluters around the world. It has many challenges in the area of governing environmental issues. These challenges have been discussed in this paper under the headings of institutional barriers, competing interests, value conflicts and contested knowledge. There are many policy and legal matters and processes that stand in the way of proper enforcement of environmental legislation. The government ministry responsible for this implementation does not have the powers to enforce legislation that relates top cutting down on emissions. The government and other stakeholders in the economy have the dilemma of choosing between competing interests. The growth of the economy is on one side and environmental protection on the other. Competing interests in China are to blame for the failure of the government to give priority to reduction of air pollution. Value conflicts have also played their role. While non-governmental organizations and other environmental groups place very high value on the prevention of air pollution, the government and industrialists have been blamed for polluting the air with their activities. Environmental governance is also hindered by the fact that available knowledge on the environment is not embraced. Bibliography Breton, A. 2008. Environmental Governance and Decentralization. Edward Elgar Publishing. Carter, N. & ‎Mol, A.P.J. 2013. Environmental Governance in China. Routlege. Carter, N.T, ‎Mol, A.P.J. 2007. Environmental Governance in China. Routledge. 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