2006/2007 Annual Report - International Institute for Sustainable ...

Perhaps no other economy in human history has grown as quickly as China’s has
in recent years. But with growth, comes challenge. What does China’s expanding
economy mean for sustainable development, and what can be done?
By Wanhua Yang
[IISDFEATURE]
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China is by far the fastest growing economy in the world; perhaps the fastest in human history.
China’s gross domestic product (GDP) was up 11.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2007—
0.7 per cent higher than for all of 2006. 1 Growth and rapid urbanization will continue until at
least 2020, when China expects to quadruple its GDP over the year 2000.
China’s environmental problems are also among the most serious in the world. Ninety per cent
of urban groundwater supplies and 70 per cent of rivers and lakes are contaminated; 16 of
20 of the most polluted cities in the world are in China; about 200 Chinese cities fall short of
World Health Organization standards for airborne particulates; and more than 30 per cent of
China’s cropland is suffering from acidification. 2 Sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions alone are
causing an annual 12 per cent loss in gross national product, an amount about equal to the
country’s phenomenal annual growth. 3
Rapid growth has created complex ecological ties with the rest of the world. Some
environmental problems, started in China, already extend beyond the country’s borders.
SUSTAINABLE CHINA?
Meeting the challenges of rapid growth
Airborne pollution and dust from Chinese industry, for example, carry to nearby countries
such as Korea and Japan. China provides the headwaters for several international rivers
including the Yangtze, Yellow, Mekong and Brahmaputra. Some of these rivers are being
dammed and diverted. And climate change is threatening the glaciers that feed these rivers.
China acts as the world’s largest workshop, producing 30 per cent of the world’s televisions;
30 per cent of the world’s furniture; 50 per cent of the world’s cameras; and 70 per cent of the
world’s photocopiers. 4 While providing cheap goods to many parts of the world, China absorbs
the pollution and bears the related health costs. China’s quest for natural resources through
global investment and acquisition has led to surging commodity prices, as well as international
concerns about China’s voracious appetite for natural resources and its growing impacts on the
global environment. At the same time, China has become the largest dumping ground for the
world’s garbage, including paper and electronic waste.
Currently, China is the world’s second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after only the United
States. The International Energy Agency recently said that China could overtake the U.S. as the
world’s largest emitter as soon as late 2007, and certainly by 2008. 5 Meanwhile, China will be hit
especially hard by climate change, with longer droughts in the north leading to falling farm
production; heavier rainfall in the south, leading to more flooding and heavy economic losses;
and rising sea levels in China’s wealthy coastal cities in the east.
A polluted river at Humen town, South China: China acts as
the world’s “largest workshop,” writes Wanhua Yang.
iStockphoto
“Growth and rapid urbanization
will continue until at least 2020,
when China expects to quadruple
its GDP over the year 2000.”