Economic Growth and Environmental Conservation in Developing Countries, Case of China - Essay Example

?Economic growth and environmental conservation in developing countries Introduction In the past few decades, the relationship between the economic growth of a country and conserving their environment and natural resources have received wide discussions and debate. Many scholars opined that there happens an exchange between achieving high rate of growth and conserving the environment. The debates of the scholars with respect to economic growth have taken three approaches. Some believe that to achieve the high rate of growth natural resources are required by higher amounts. Therefore it is necessary to reach a steady state before environment can be preserved properly. Some differs that a high economic growth leads to more demand for less resource utilizing goods and services. Therefore it automatically translates into better environment conservation. There is a third argument between economic growth and environmental conservation given by the U shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve. It gives the policy of attaining high economic growth at the cost of environment in the initial phase of development. Then take control of the environmental degradation at a later stage. Then pollution comes down with economic growth. However there are several weaknesses in this concept of attaining sustainable development in the later phases of economic growth. The thought of sustainable development first attracted the attention of the world in 1987 after the Brundtland Report. The term means the ability of the present generation to meet their consumption needs without sacrificing the ability of the future generations to consume at least at the present level. (Moe) In China, the course of development had caused a lot of environmental degradation. The economic reforms undertaken by Deng Xiaoping, prominent politician and diplomat of China had more balanced environmental risks. However it can be said that China in its course of development seldom considered the environmental hazards till 1980. Even in Taiwan where the economic progress had been less rapid through industrialization had undergone considerable amount environmental destruction. However in the recent decades there has been a remarkable transformation in the attitude of the Chinese policy-makers and civil society towards environmental conservation. The government had undertaken several policy measures to control the pollution from heavy growth of industries and reduce the environmental degradation. However the consciousness towards environmental exploitation for economic growth is less among the Chinese people than the Taiwanese people. More Chinese people are in favor of rapid economic growth at the cost of environment. The Taiwanese on the other hand are ready to adopt policy measures to preserve the environment at the cost of economic growth. They are ready to achieve sustainable development even if they have to have a less economic growth in the present.(McBeath, Leng, 220-2221) However China has undertaken a significant number of policy measures in various directions of environment conservation including preserving their biodiversity, reducing pollution and wastage. Economic Growth and Environmental Concern: China China has achieved a very high growth rate in the few last few years. Forecasts predict that such high rate of growth shall continue into the future. However the problem with attaining this high rate of economic growth in China is their large population but low endowment of natural resources. In their journey towards urbanization and development of infrastructure for further restructuration of the economy, they face close scrutiny from the local as well as global environmentalists. In the face of such close observation, the Chinese government had undertaken wide range of policy measures in the past and set their goals in reducing the pollution and wastage in their country without compromising their economic growth. Some of these goals were maintaining a 7% rate of growth and at the same time reduce the discharge of pollutants by one tenth from 2000 to 2005. There was also a target of reducing emitted sulfur dioxide within the acid rain control zone and sulfur dioxide control zone within 2005. Recycling of water was also given consideration. In the industries, 60% of the water was to be recycled. The domestic sewage systems were to be treated at the rate of 45%. For the cities which were populated beyond 5 million the sewage waste treatment would be 60%. This would increase the daily domestic sewage treated to 2600,000 tons. There were more waste treatment plans and the total urban waste disposal was targeted at 65%. There were also plans to preserve the natural resources. According to plans 13% of the land cover of the country would be preserved. The forests and the grasslands of the country would be recovered systematically from the cultivated lands. The basins of the rivers, the coastal areas and the cities will get an emphasis for the protection of their environment. The three gorges of the countries which are the reservoirs of water will be treated with an aim to improve the quality of water there. (Qinghua) To meet these goals, policies for different sectors were devised. Each sector was individually targeted and policies were devised to change the operation patterns in these sectors so that they fall in line with the targeted conservation policies. For the industries extensive policy measures were incorporated in the plans. The country had already embarked upon an ambitious rate of economic growth through the restructuration of the countries industries. However along with the vast pace of industrialization there were also clauses for environmental protections. In these industries clean production were promoted. The government undertook the policy of promoting efficiency in the industrial production without compromising the environmental concerns. The new products from the industries were designed to be more ecology friendly. Projects for the demonstration in the eco-parks were undertaken and new sustainable development models which were also economic were formed. Similar focus was also diverted towards the agricultural sector of the country. The government had plans to improve the traditional methods of farming. The improvements would be directed towards more environment friendliness. Farming practices would be adopted which had better water conservation capacity. The farm products were also made more organic and green farming was encouraged by the government. The Urban sector was developed so that less destruction towards environment was caused. The cities were planned so that the environment was made cleaner and more comfortable. In this way the citizen of the country benefitted from the development towards sustainability. The solid waste treatments plans were developed and waste water treatment was given more priority. The pollution was also controlled by efforts to reduce the emission from all sorts of vehicles. The rural sector was also given adequate attention. It was assessed that education among the rural people for ecological destruction was lacking. Therefore it was decided that the farmers would be educated to make them more aware towards the environmental degradation. There were also plans to construct more towns and villages that were eco-friendly. Several measures were adopted to promote the ecology. The protection of environment and raising the awareness of the people had found priority in the agenda of the Chinese government. (Qinghua) Visible Changes due to Environmental Policy China made huge progress in the control of their pollution along with attaining a high economic growth rate. In 2002 they managed to reduce the level of pollution of several greenhouse gases. Sulfur dioxide was reduced to 10.3%. The rivers were made significantly pollution free and the water quality degeneration of the lakes like Taihu and Chaohu was checked. Several projects for the conservation and protection of land were started. Large tracts of forest lands to the tune of 5831000 hectares were restored from the cultivation. In various other dimensions significant achievements were made. Natural reserves were restored and the attempts were made to protect the bio-diversity of China. 1757 natural resources were made by 2002. Stubble burning in the rural area was banned. Several other laws and regulations were undertaken to promote environmental conservation. Twenty laws and one hundred regulations were passed in order to protect the forests and natural resources. A significant law a China is the Environment Protection Law. This law requires the government to maintain the natural reserves and protect the ecosystem. The governments should also protect the endangered animals and maintain the ecosystem (McBeath, Leng, 69, Qinghua). Chinese Energy Policy In terms of energy China had made significant commitments in 2007. Beijing announced their target of reducing their usage of energy by 20% before 2010. The requirement for energy would be compensated by the alternative energy sources like wind, hydro-power, and nuclear-power. The deadline for achieving these targets was fixed at 2020. However china is a country highly reliant on their industries for their economic growth. Therefore the possibility of the country for reducing their greenhouse gases to a large extent was bleak. The Chinese government in 2007 announced that though they shared the environmental concern of the world, they would still promote their economic growth over the environmental degradation. According to them, eliminating poverty and developing sustainably was of more importance to than the environmental up gradation. China meets 70% of their energy requirements from coal which is a high emitter of greenhouse gases. But it is required for them to maintain the high industrialization rate. According to Dr, Tim Forsyth of London School of Economics, the climatic impact due to Chinese emission is high. However it is a country of huge size. The per capita emission of China is only a 50% of that of United States. For a developing country on a path of steady economic growth it is a necessary amount of pollution. Curbing this rate of pollution can stunt their growth prospect considerably. (Sussman; Song, & Woo, 367) Developing Countries and Tragedy of Commons A significant problem in maintaining a sustainable rate of development in the developing countries is the failure or the absence of the market. The natural resources generally have the characteristic of non-rivalry and non-excludability. As a result the prices of the goods fail to account for the environmental harms caused. This also tends the firms to make more use of the resources as abuse of the resource does not lead to any private cost though huge amount of social costs may be incurred. According to the Asian Development Bank, for the developing countries there exist a number of domains of reducing environment abuses with little effect on the economic performance of the country. However they would require some structural changes. Proper utilization and management of resources and population is one of the crucial policies. Developing and adopting technologies that utilize resources more efficiently. Helping the better conservation of environment through the promotion of education and awareness among people, proper pricing of resources to reduce resource abuse and preventing resource abuse through legal procedures. (Moe) Conclusion Some of the developing countries have witnessed a rapid development of their production capacity in the recent years. The rapid rise in the consumption of these countries has been accompanied by a growth of production of both agricultural and industrial goods. However the benefit has not trickled down to every layer of the society. There are also a significant number of poor people residing in these countries. As a result there is a still a significant amount of environmental abuse for daily sustenance by these people. Most of these countries face a number of environmental problems that puts their prospects for their future development at jeopardy. Problems like soil deterioration, deforestation, polluted air and water, shortage of water puts the countries chances of sustainable developments at stake. Some of these problems like climate changes, pollution, and transmission of hazardous wastes have transcended the boundaries of the countries and have assumed global dimensions. According to alarms sounded by the Asian Development Bank, in the Asia Pacific region where a number of developing countries are experiencing rapid economic growth environmental degradation can put the lives and livelihoods of the people at stake. However the maintenance of the natural resources is required for the sustainable development of the country. Or else the present rate of growth would soon start diminishing. The effect of imbalance in the environment had always affected the poor people disproportionately. Therefore it is required to strike a balance between achieving a high rate of growth and protecting the environment (Moe). The governments must adopt strategies that integrate both these aspects. That would require enhanced political will and wisdom. References 1. McBeath, Gerald A. & Tse-Kang Leng, Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan, Place: UK, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2006. 2. Moe, Tin Yadana, “Economic Growth, Environmental Conservation and the Asia-Pacific Region”, Asian Development Bank, May 23, 2011, from: http://www.adb.org/AnnualMeeting/2007/Essay-Competition/winning-entries/Tin-Yadana-Moe.pdf 3. Song, Ligang & Woo, Wing Thye, China’s dilemma: economic growth, the environment and climate change, Place: Washington D.C., Brookings Institution Press, 2008. 4. Sussman, Paul. “China: Economic growth, Environmental destruction”, CNN Tech, June 4, 2007, May 23, 2011, from: http://articles.cnn.com/2007-06-04/tech/china.environment_1_greenhouse-gas-climate-change-pollution?_s=PM:TECH 5. Qinghua, Xu, Progress and Prospect on Environmental Conservation in China, NEAC, November 24, 2003, May 23, 2011, from: http://www.env.go.jp/earth/coop/neac/neac12/pdf/027.pdf Read More