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China is the biggest polluter on the planet by some stretch, pumping out more carbon emissions each year than the United States and the E.U. combined. In some cities, such as the capital Beijing, industrial smog clouds have become so toxic that simply breathing the air for 24 hours has the equivalent effect of smoking 40 cigarettes. As well as having a devastating impact on its citizens’ health, China’s carbon emissions - which are produced mainly as a result of fossil fuel combustion and industrial processes – are also a major contributor to global warming.
For many years, China has refused to countenance the introduction of policies to curb its rampant emissions, despite increasingly vocal international pressure for it to do so. The country argued it should be allowed to continue increasing its emissions until it had boosted its gross domestic product (GDP), reasoning that western countries carbon output peaked when their per capita GDP was between $40,000 and $50,000.
On the face of things, Beijing now seems to be taking its environmental responsibilities more seriously. In April, both China and the U.S. agreed to ratify the Paris climate deal by the end of the year. At the beginning of this month, the Chinese government announced the introduction of “red line” limits on energy consumption, which included targets for cutting coal use in key industrial areas. However, Deputy Director of the country’s National Development and Reform Commission’s Energy Research Institute Dai Yande said the targets were not designed to curb energy consumption, but to improve the efficiency and quality of energy use. Both of these moves came after Beijing unveiled a succession of progressive but flawed environmental initiatives in its most recent five-year plans.
Unfortunately, China’s lofty environmental ambitions are matched only by its incapacity to meet them. As anyone who has ever lived in provincial China knows, the central government has little hope of properly enforcing the environmental limits and targets it has set, thanks in no small part to deep-seated corruption and cozy deals struck between company owners and crooked local officials. China’s failed efforts to cut overproduction of key commodities showed how its central government is unable to control the country’s sprawling private sector, which is made up of thousands of small companies that are responsible for the majority of China’s carbon emissions and excess capacity.
Responding to international calls for central government to force deeper cuts to its overproduction of steel, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei pointed out that China is not a centrally planned or controlled economy, and that central government has no real power to enforce such policies on businesses. This system, which effectively devolves regulatory governance to a local level, will likely result in China’s environmental pledges delivering similar results to its empty promises on overcapacity. Despite government assurances that steel output would be cut, production of the alloy has consistently continued to rise, partly as a result of corrupt local officials failing to crack down on firms that refuse to toe the line.
A recent report from Toxic Leaks demonstrates perfectly how local corruption nullifies the will of the China’s central government, making a mockery of Beijing’s environmental initiatives. The activist website uncovered reports that showed two Xinjiang mining companies had produced considerably more coal than their government licenses allowed. One firm, Xinjiang Beishan Mining Industry, had permission to produce 400,000 tons per year, but was found to be boasting in marketing material that its output was nearer to six million tons. Investigators found the company had also applied for financing that indicated a six-million-ton output.
A second coal-mining company, Xinjiang Jimusaer Dacheng Energy Technology Development, was found to be producing 900,000 tons a year despite only holding an exploration license. According to evidence uncovered by Toxic Leaks, Dacheng managers claimed that none of the top coal operations in the region bothered applying for the proper licenses, and that local government officials tipped them off when inspectors were planning to visit.
Indeed, this type of environmental fraud is rife among China’s coal producers and heavy industries, and corruption is helping multiple firms find ways to continue polluting the country’s environment in pursuit of profit. Coupled with Beijing’s inability to control these SMEs, the companies guilty of environmental fraud will be highly unlikely to be brought before justice. Indeed, recent revelations from China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) that 300 employees of the National Bureau of Statistics have been manipulating data in return for cash suggest that Beijing probably has very little understanding of how its current green laws are being routinely dodged by corrupt companies at a local level. With such poor oversight and little political will to clean up the rampant corruption that blights China’s local government, the country’s apparent good intentions on environmental reform are likely to lead to very little.