china environmental policy 2018

Recycling of plastic has always painted a complicated and uninspired picture. But after local leaders learned that they would be sanctioned if inspectors found any additional san luan wu firms, they expanded their lists to include many very small businesses, like auto repair shops or stalls selling steamed buns. China’s calculations here are fundamentally different from those at home, as the proximate costs of environmental decline are largely absent. Chinese environmental policymaking in the Xi era is increasingly ambitious. A newborn girl is the first baby born in the New Year at Nanjing Maternity and Child Health Hospital on January 1, 2018 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. A Chinese public-health expert later told me that it was no exception: There were far fewer days of smog in 2017 than just a couple of years ago. It would be quite a twist if so-called Communist China ultimately wins the war against pollution by embracing market-based regulations, while the United States continues to use them only intermittently. The following month, the Ministry of Environmental Protection kicked off an inspection campaign said to be its largest to date. Growth last year accelerated to 6.9 percent—the first uptick in seven years—and remains a crucial prop for global expansion. China’s efforts to cut excess industrial capacity overlap with the imperative to clean up the environment. Taiwan’s semiconductor industry will require major restructuring if it wishes to maintain its competitive edge in the crowded global market. The global stakes for success are high. Bringing all of China into compliance with its own standards would increase average life expectancies by an additional 1.7 years (as measured in the areas where data is available). Yet the rapid concentration of power under President Xi Jinping — helped along by the steady purging of officials suspected of corruption — has put apparatchiks and bureaucrats on edge. The remainder ends up in landfills, incinerators, or floating free and polluting the environment. They said heavy air pollution days in key cities are down 50 percent in five years. But now the government is trying to change that without damaging the economy—and perhaps even use its green policies to become a leader in technological innovation. Plausible or not, that assertion suggests that measures for controlling air pollution were devised with too little regard for its actual impact on health. Emissions have started to fall again. So, as lawmakers attend the annual National People’s Congress, here’s a look at the impact of the environmental focus, at home and abroad. Berkeley Earth interpolates available station data on particulate matter air pollution less than 2.5 microns in diameter (PM2.5) using Kringing-based techniques. PM 2.5 Concentration Estimate (µg/m3) as of January 31, 2018, Source: Berkeley Earth (see footnote for methodology). Note: Does not include imports for Hong Kong and Macao. Enjoying this article? Sources of China's plastic waste imports, millions of metric tons, 2016. All rights reserved, Plastic waste imports, millions of metric tons, 2016. China’s new policy could displace as much as 111 million metric tons of plastic waste by 2030. Six years after the “airpocalypse,” China has made progress – but is still struggling in some areas. No wonder some of the pollution-control targets can seem arbitrary: Why decide that the level of PM10, another dangerous particle, should be brought down to 10 percent nationwide, rather than 9 percent — or even 11 percent? In 3Q2018, our average airborne particulate pollution (PM 2.5) index decreased by 5.6% from 2Q2018, indicating improved air quality. Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. might be the best-known name, but China has been the global leader in EV sales since 2015, and is aiming for 7 million annual sales by 2025. While smog was long excused as the inevitable byproduct of rising wealth, there’s no sign so far that the cleanup is derailing the country’s economy. China alone took in the lion’s share—45 percent of the world’s plastic waste imports. Finally, an Environmental Protection Tax Law – the first of its kind in China – came into force on January 1, 2018, tightening up the enforcement of environmental regulations. However, by following in the footsteps of many western countries that opted to “pollute first and clean up later,” China built its economic success on a foundation of ecological destruction. Between 2010 and 2016, imported plastic waste to China added an additional 10 to 13 percent to the country’s domestic waste, increasing China’s difficulties in managing its garbage. These measures appear to be paying off: By the end of last year, according to government sources, China seemed to have met all the major targets in its 2013 action plan. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/06/china-plastic-recycling-ban-solutions-science-environment.html, Learn more about the plastic pollution crisis. Its success will hinge on the ability of new institutions to exert influence in wider debates on the country’s strategic priorities, and show effective results from policy implementation. An estimated 1.3-to-3.5 million metric tons enters the oceans from China’s coastline. China’s “National Sword” policy, enacted in January 2018, banned the import of most plastics and other materials headed for that nation’s recycling processors, which had handled nearly half of the world’s recyclable waste for the past quarter century. In the decades after enactment of the Clean Air Act, American policymakers have used many tools to reduce pollution, with market-based regulations having proved the most cost-effective. It can stretch from Mongolia to the Yellow Sea and often as far as South Korea. During a visit to Beijing, Hong Kong's leader denounced U.S. sanctions targeting the national security law. Centralized, authoritarian power is sometimes credited with allowing quick policy changes that would be difficult to contemplate in democracies, where checks and balances and political jostling can delay reform. In 2015, Jambeck published the first comprehensive global count of plastic trash, which concluded between four and 12 million metric tons of plastic slips off the coastlines and into the oceans every year. The statement broke from the country’s longstanding policy of putting economic growth over environment, and many wondered whether China would really follow through. By Yanzhong Huang. It will take time to develop and expand domestic systems and markets and to change product design.”, Jambeck adds: “The recycling system in the United States especially has been challenging, and in general, less economically viable for some time.” (Learn more about the plastic pollution crisis.). The statement broke from the country’s longstanding policy of putting economic growth over environment, and many wondered whether China would really follow through. Yet further improvements will also be much costlier than necessary if they too are pursued by fiat, particularly with many of the easier fixes having already been made. These studies are based on data from China, so they don’t require extrapolation from the United States or some other country with relatively low concentrations of pollution. But under Mr. Xi, political power has become so centralized and so authoritarian that it has perverted the incentive structure that drives environmental policy and its execution. To investigate the effects on people’s lives in China, I used two of my studies (more here and here) to convert the fine particulate concentrations into their effect on life spans. “I think it is probably going to be harder before it gets easier,” says Jenna Jambeck, a University of Georgia engineering professor and National Geographic Explorer who is the co-author of the new study. And their rush to please has unexpectedly distorted how environmental policy is made and implemented, sometimes with unwanted consequences. Chinese environmental policymaking in the Xi era is increasingly ambitious. But given the MEP’s lackluster record this does not necessarily say much, and the new ministry faces a steep climb, especially on climate change. It also brought toxic rivers and groundwater, deplorable urban air quality, and made China the world’s largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitter. Now, with China’s door closed, much of that recycled plastic is likely ending up at your local landfill. China’s withdrawal as the world’s repository for plastic waste also laid bare the notion that all that disposable plastic you conscientiously put into your taxpayer-financed recycling bin was actually being recycled. Although these moves have disappointed some for not being faster and more ambitious, they represent a marked shift from China’s previous climate agenda of developing first and cleaning up later. Kim Jong Un’s year did not go as planned. © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, © 2015- The effectiveness of this new ministry will inform not only China’s environmental future, but also its stability, its socioeconomic ambitions, and global efforts to address environmental challenges. The close race indicates lasting shifts in American politics which will spill over to U.S. international engagements. And then, in order to quickly meet these sometimes questionable goals, some local officials with an eye on career advancement — or simply fearful of being sacked — have overshot or been heavy-handed with enforcement. Of course, air pollution levels still exceed China’s own standards and far surpass World Health Organization recommendations for what is considered safe. How did China get here?

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