1. Chazal Aurélie Université Blaise Pascal (Clermont Ferrand)
Environmental
protection
in China

2. The environment has been neglected for a long time as the country concentrated its effort on
its economic growth, relying on heavy industries, adopting the «polluting first, clean after» policy.
The problem is that there is a lot to clean now that China has become a powerful country. But
people getting richer are not immediately concerned with the environment protection as much as
improving their living conditions. China consume more and more energy but is investing more and
more in renewable energy setting an example to the World.
In 2002, China agreed to the Kyoto Protocol, promising to reduce its greenhouse gaz emissions by
40% by 2050. This approval shows China’s desire to cooperate with other countries for the
environmental protection.
China pays more and more attention to the issue of climate change and is willing to inject important
sums of money into environmental protection. It is actually a necessity for the country as they
consume more energy and pollute more than every other country.
Moreover chinese people have always seek to like in harmony with their environment and the
construction of eco-cities like Tianjin’s one prove that respect of the nature is still one of chinese
people priority.
I) Government institution and official regulations
II) Protection of the Ecological Environment and Biodiversity
III) Eco-cities
IV) Renewable energy
V) Electric vehicles

3. I) Government institution and official regulations
THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
The Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China the official chinese
institution in charge of protecting China's air, water, and land from pollution and contamination. It
is administrated by Zhou Shengxian.
It was established in 1998 but environmental protection appeared long before that amoung chinese
government. In 1972, Chinese representatives attended the First United Nations Conference on the
Human Environment, held in Sweden. The next year, 1973, saw the establishment of the
Environmental Protection Leadership Group. As soon as 1983, environmental protection was
established as a state policy. In 1998, China went through a disastrous year of serious flooding, and
the Chinese government upgraded the Leading Group to a ministry-level agency, which then
became the State Environmental Protection Administration.
REGULATIONS
After the opening China had been more concerned about developing its economy than saving the
planet. But environment protection takes up more and more space in the five years plans recently
issued and has become one of chinese government priority. We can see the authorities concerned to
protect the environment with different policies adopted in the past few years.
The ban of free plastic bags (2008) :
As in many others countries in the world, it is now impossible to find free plastic bags in chinese
supermarket. Ultra-thin plastic bags is the main source of white pollution as they usually
decompose only after 200 years and sometimes never. The goal of the government is to limit the use
of those bags.
Large supermarket such as Wal-mart had been trying to replace plastic bags with eco-friendly
cotton bags since 2007 but people were not ready to pay when they could have free plastic bags.
Wal-mart hopes that the ban of free plastic bags will encourage people to turn to more eco-friendly
substitutes.

4. Encouraging FDI for environment friendly industries
It is well know that China attract lots of foreign investors and the country is know trying to
encourage investments for greener industries. There is still a lot to be done as for energy efficiency
of chinese industry and to reach the objective to cut CO2 rejects by 40% by 2050 China will need
important amounts of money. FDI is therefore needed if China really wants to improve its carbon
footprint. Since 2010, the environmentally-unsound industries even receive restricted funding.
Energy efficient projet are on the contrary subject to a preferential treatment especially if investing
in the less developped part of China such as the Center and Western part of the country.
Environmental tax policy
The introduction of a comprehensive environmental tax policy has been under discussion for years
in China. There is still no proper environment tax in China but a range of taxes aiming to promote
the environmental protection. The creation of an official environment tax will be a real step forward
to control and limit the use of natural resources and energies. The introduction of this tax in addition
to the existing resource taxes will hopefully encourage heavy industries to be more energy efficient
in order to save money. The government does not hope for changes right away but it will certainly
have an effect on the long run as environment-friendly industries will enjoy tax reductions and
therefore make profit easily.
I chose a few examples of environment-friendly policies issued by the government but there are
many others. A lot more policies are expected in the coming years as the lack of natural ressources
is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.
II) Protection of the Ecological Environment and Biodiversity
The protection of the ecological environment is one of the priority for chinese government and a lot
of work needs to be done after years of destroying it. Lots of species are disappearing, the water is
so polluted it is not drinkable and deforestation has ruined hectares of land.
AFFORESTATION
Since the 1950s the Chinese government has made lots of efforts in afforestation, protection and
management of forest resources. Since the reform and opening up the afforestation efforts have
been quickened, and the growth of forests has begun to exceed consumption. For this area China
has become a role-model for many other countries and is actually one of the rare countries where
there are more trees planted than cut.
The Great Green Wall

5. It is the name of a tree-planting program which began in 1978 and was designed to fight against
climate change and desertification. It is supposed to stop the Gobi desert from going south and
possibly reach Beijing. The artificial forest is expected to stretch 400 million hectares and cover 42
percent of China’s landmass by 2050.
The Grassland Law
Promulgated in 1985 the Grassland Law goal’s is to control activities such as unauthorized
reclamation, excessive digging and overgrazing which are forbidden. Control over grassland
deterioration and desertification has been strengthened in order to protect the natural forests.
MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
China has lots of laws and regulations to protect its sea territory which is not easy since most of the
industries are situated on the East Coast. Offshore construction are also being monitored to prevent
marine pollution and «red tide».
CONSERVATION OF BIODIVERSITY
China being a large country with many different climates, it is one of the richest environment in
terms of biodiversity. Currently, there are 612 national-level rare and endangered species of flora
and fauna listed as key protection species, including 258 species of wild animals and 354 species of
plants. To ensure an effective protection of those species China decided to create natural reserves all
over the country but also zoological and botanical gardens. But it is not an easy job to save those
endangered species and as for the afforestation the government still has to invest lot of time and
money into the biodiversity protection.
The conservation of the Giant Panda
The Giant Panda is one of the symbols of China but it is also one of the most endangered species.
China has done a lot to preserve them, creating natural reserve as the Wolong Natural Reserve in the
Sichuan province. But also in artificial breeding environment as the natural habitat of the Giant
Panda has been broken up. The total population is now around 1000 animals and is hopefully going
to increase thanks to the large protection campaign launched in China.
III) Eco-cities
China appears to be a pioneer country in the field of entirely environment-friendly cities. Many
projects received awards for their originality. Those eco-cities are supposed to set an example for all
the cities of tomorrow. The ones being constructed in China are test- cities and the technologies
used will then be applied to other chinese big cities if they are proved effective.

6. THE DONGTAN PROJECT
The eco-city of Dongtan construction is planned for the island of Chongming off Shanghai. A self-
sufficient energy system was designed, implanting zero-energy buildings, and generating energy
using solar panels, wind turbines and bio-fuels. The conception of the city began in 2005 but has
currently been delayed. The project was to house people from the country side in an environment-
friendly place. 80% of the city wastes were intended to be recycled and reused to generate more
energy and possibly supply part of the city of Shanghai. Unfortunately, the project is not moving
forward and lots of doubts are raised concerning its ability to be completed.
THE SINO-SINGAPORE TIANJIN ECO-CITY
This project is for now the most likely to be completed and the most advanced too. Both China and
Singapore attach great importance to this project as environmental concerns have become more and
more important for both countries. It is not only a way to save energy at the scale of one city but it
also will teach people how to respect the environment as the project is widely promoted.
The Tianjin eco-city will not only be environment friendly but also an harmonious living
environment for people.
The site selection is not random as the project is placed in a water-lacking area with salty land,
scarce vegetation, unfavorable natural conditions and fragile ecology. The project therefore proves
that environmental protection can be applied everywhere, even in the less favorable areas. But the
Nanjin eco-city location also allows it to benefit from the big surrounding cities support.
The main goal of this eco-city is to create a place where men can live in harmony with the
environment. This idea perfectly fits chinese culture and the development of such a city in China is
not a coincidence. The project appear like a glimmer of hope that men can live in good conditions
and respect the environment.
IV) Renewable energy
China has recently become the world’s largest maker of
wind turbines and solar panels surpassing all Western
countries.
Renewable energy industries are increasing rapidly,
adding jobs and money to China’s economy. But we have
to keep in mind that China is also one of the countries
that consume the more energy, the rapid increase in
renewable energy is more a future necessity however
China’s supremacy upon that market show the fast ability

7. of the country to adapt.
In order to promote the use of renewable energies the government also grant consumers generous
subsidies to install their own solar panels or water heaters as the demand for domestic energy is
increasing drastically. China is also intending to control the use of non-renewable energy by
charging extra taxes to users.
The final goal of China is to become self sufficient and even sell renewable energy to the rest of the
World. The biggest project so far is the Three Gorges Dam hydropower station which is supposed to
provide a large part of the population with hydropower energy. But this project also encounters
social problems as many people had to be relocated for its construction.
V) Electric vehicules
Electric bicycles and scooters
China is leading the electric bicycles and scooters economy. The number of bicycles in China is one
of the biggest in the world and the large bicycle lanes along the streets are a good example of the
huge number of bicycles owned by chinese people. The developing of e-bikes is not due to random
factors. Indeed chinese government made developing them an official technology goal in 1991 and
licensing fees were drastically raised on gas-powered scooters.
But the quick development of e-bikes is not without its issues. More and more interrogations are
raised about the road safety in China as more accidents occur every day. Indeed, e-bikes are
completely silent which make them hard to spot, especially at night.
The increasing number of cars
The other problem is that, as chinese people are getting reacher they are beginning to buy more
comfortable means of transportation such as cars. And as in western countries, the richer they get,
the bigger the car they buy will be. The electric car market is not as developed in China as the
electric bike market and the authorities are wondering if chines people will be disposed to buy
environment-friendly cars as they get richer.
A problem also lies in the manufacturing of the electric batteries as they use big amounts of lead.
Indeed, lead poisoning is one of the most common pediatric health problems in China. A 2006
review of existing data suggested that one-third of Chinese children suffer from elevated blood lead
levels.

8. China is without a doubt paying much attention to environmental protection nowadays but the
country still has to patch up all the damage caused by its quick economic growth after the opening.
It is also still to be proven that the manufacturing of new renewable energy is not polluting and
endangering the Earth more than the energies used before.
Most of all, people mentality have to change as it is proven that most of the pollution is due to
individual behaviors. China being one of the most populated country, it has to pay particular
attention to individual consumption which is growing as people standard of living is increasing.
However China still is a reference in terms of eco-friendly projects such as eco-cities.
Moreover, China has more and more money to invest in research and development of new energies
that can afterwards be used all over the world.
China still is the biggest polluting country in the World but the engagements taken to decrease its
carbon footprint announce a greener future.
Sources :
http://www.gapem.org/Text/China%20eco-efficiency%20managi.pdf
http://www.fpif.org/articles/chinas_environmental_policy
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/jan2008/2008-01-10-03.html
http://www.sidley.com/SidleyUpdates/Detail.aspx?news=4452
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2010-04-15/news/27629967_1_fdi-rules-fdi-flow-
foreign-direct-investment
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/china/2011-10/24/c_131210004.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/zhengfu/2002-11/18/content_633191.htm
http://www.macaupanda.org
http://sustainablecities.dk/en/city-projects/cases/dongtan-the-world-s-first-large-scale-eco-city
http://www.eco-city.gov.cn/eco/shouye/zoujinshengtaicheng/shengtaichengjianjie/en/en.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/business/energy-environment/31renew.html
http://www.china-briefing.com/news/2011/06/16/an-overview-of-chinas-renewable-energy-
market.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/01/business/global/01ebike.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1904334,00.html