China and the Climate Crisis

by Franky Elsmore

(image: High Contrast - Own work, CC BY 2.0) 

China’s importance in the rapid acceleration of the climate crisis cannot be understated, and neither can the magnitude of its involvement if the impending global disaster is to be stopped in its tracks. China is the world’s second largest emitter of green-house gases, after the United States, with these emissions increasing steadily year on year. On top of this, China’s influence and status in the G-77

of Third World states give it great prominence in climate negotiations. As the world's largest developing country with an important voice within the United Nations, China’s decisions are set to be an integral part in how the world deals with the now arguably unavoidable climate crisis. 
As a developing country, it is extremely difficult to agree upon and enforce any regulations regarding any field that involves climate consequences as they are naturally inclined to strive to be in a position where they are developed to a similar standard to ourselves. It is only expected for a country with a newfound chance for economic growth to want to exploit every opportunity to improve the country’s economic situation and the standard of living for all. This comes with a great cost, as seen with the large scale deforestation happening at present. As the Chinese population gets a taste for the western diet, more and more land is being cleared for cattle grazing and other agriculture. This has several detrimental effects, such as decreasing biodiversity which would better equip the planet to regulate itself following environmental adjustments or natural disasters. It also depletes the naturally occurring carbon stores, whilst increasing greenhouse gas emissions through the growing agricultural sector. The effect on the environment doesn’t stop just with their expanding diet, the energy requirements of the average household is skyrocketing, as well as the expansion of factories, with almost no consideration for minimising the climate impact. A new coal fuelled power plant is built approximately every fortnight, clearly showing the lack of consideration for more sustainable energy sources.   


If we are to succeed in solving the climate crisis, it is imperative that China and other rapidly developing countries are aided in finding a way to develop both economically and socially in such a way with the smallest environmental impact as possible. This will have to include finding more accessible renewable forms of energy that can work on a large enough scale to allow the development of these newly emerging, globally influential superpowers. Alongside this, new ways of feeding this booming population with foods that have a minimal greenhouse gas footprint, whilst maintaining pre-existing biodiversity, must be found and acted upon. Inevitably these countries may need help with this monumental task, (perhaps countries that are currently behind China in terms of development) so it is all the responsibility of countries such as ours who are currently in such a position to help. I believe that solving this problem starts with China. Due to it being such a large and influential country, should these problems be publicly addressed and consequently solved in an accessible way then other developing countries may follow suit. This would stop the emission of green-house gases skyrocketing quite so quickly, and thus help to make the climate crisis more solvable world wide.