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Issues Decisive for China’s Rise or Fall pp 95–108Cite as

Sustainable Development

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Abstract

Social and economic progresses become unsustainable, if they are based on irresponsible planning and practice, resulting in irreversible damage to ecosystems and exhaustion of raw materials, energy supplies and waste assimilation capacity of the environment. Such development deprives future generations of the rights to enjoy environmental benefits comparable to those possessed by the present generation, and may even give rise to the destitution of future generations. After decades of dynamic economic growth, China faces cumulative ecological and social problems. Due to the economic hyper-expansion and a lack of awareness of environmental protection in the past, the nation has to find ways to continue to develop under the new conditions – decreasing resources, greater social inequity, and climate uncertainty. This makes China’s problems more complex.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    World Commission on Environment and Development, Our Common Future 1987 (Brundtland Report, 1987).

  2. 2.

    Ibid. See also William E Rees, “Defining Sustainable Development ” CHS Research Bulletin (May 1989) 1–3, available at https://scarp.ubc.ca/sites/scarp.ubc.ca/files/1989%20May_Defining%20Sustainable%20Devt_Rees.pdf

  3. 3.

    United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Agenda 21 (Rio de Janerio, Brazil, 3 to 14 June 1992), Preamble 1.3.

  4. 4.

    See Editor, “Local Governments and Legal Persons Act as the Main Ecological Destructors”, Legal Daily (January 8, 2015), available at http://news.sina.com.cn/o/2015-01-08/065931374186.shtml. See also “Local Governments played the main role in Grassland Ecology Destruction”, Economic Information Daily (July 28, 2014), available at http://finance.qq.com/a/20140728/000127.htm

  5. 5.

    See Robert D Kaplan, “The Coming Anarchy: How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet”, 273 (2) The Atlantic Monthly (1994) 44–76. See generally Robert D Kaplan, The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post-Cold War (Random House, New York, 2000).

  6. 6.

    See Richard A Matthew, Jon Barnet, Bryan McDonald, and Karen L O’Brien (eds.), Global Environmental Change and Human Security (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2010), p. 4.

  7. 7.

    See Marc A Levy, “Is the Environment a National Security Issue?” 20 (2) International Security (1995) 35.

  8. 8.

    See Sherri Wasserman Goodman (Deputy Under Secretary of Defense, US), “The Environment and National Security”, Speech at National Defense University (August 18, 1996), available at https://www.loyola.edu/departments/academics/political-science/strategic-intelligence/intel/goodman.html

  9. 9.

    See D L Johnson, S H Ambrose, T J Bassett, M L Bowen, D E Crummey, J S Isaacson, D N Johnson, P Lamb, M Saul and A E Winter-Nelson, “Meanings of Environment Terms”, 26 (3) Journal of Environmental Quality (1997) 581.

  10. 10.

    Levy, supra note 7.

  11. 11.

    Pauli Tikka, “The Environmental Challenges of China” (Helsinki University of Technology, 2006) 3 http://ptikka.mbnet.fi/Tikka.pdf.

  12. 12.

    Min Shao, et al., “City Clusters in China: Air And Surface Water Pollution ” 4 (7) Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (2006) 355.

  13. 13.

    Editor, “China at Crossroads: Balancing the Economy and Environment”, Yale Environment E360 (November 14, 2013), http://e360.yale.edu/features/china_at_crossroads_balancing_the_economy_and_environment.

  14. 14.

    Ibid.

  15. 15.

    Elizabeth C Economy, The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future (Cornell University Press, New York, 2004), pp. 1–26.

  16. 16.

    Ibid.

  17. 17.

    Eleanor Albert and Beina Xu, “China’s Environmental Crisis” (Council on Foreign Relations) https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-environmental-crisis.

  18. 18.

    Ibid.

  19. 19.

    See Jon Barnett et al., “Global Environmental Change and Human Security : An Introduction” in Richard A Matthew et al. (eds) Global Environmental Change and Human Security (The MIT Press, 2010), p. 3.

  20. 20.

    See Richard H Ullman, “Redefining security” 8 (1) International Security (1983) 129–153; See also Frances Stewart and Valpy Fitzgerald, War and underdevelopment: Volume 1: The Economic and Social Consequences of Conflict (Oxford University Press, New York, 2000).

  21. 21.

    Tom Levitt, “Ma Jun: China has reached its environmental tipping point”, The Guardian (May 19, 2015) https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/may/19/ma-jun-china-has-reached-its-environmental-tipping-point.

  22. 22.

    Ibid.

  23. 23.

    According to 2013 UN figures, life expectancy in China is 75.3 years. Albert and Xu, supra note 16.

  24. 24.

    Barnett et al., supra note 18, at 6. See also WGBU (German Advisory Council on Global Change) “World in transition: Climate change as a security risk—Summary for policy makers” (WGBU, 2007); See also Maxx Dilley, “Reducing vulnerability to climate variability in southern Africa: The growing role of climate information” 45 (1) Climatic Change (2000) 63–73.

  25. 25.

    Barnett et al., Ibid.

  26. 26.

    Ibid, at 6–7.

  27. 27.

    See Bridget Lewis, “Human Rights and Environmental Wrongs: Achieving Environmental Justice through Human Rights Law” 1 (1) International Journal for Crime and Justice (2012) 65.

  28. 28.

    Ajit Lal, “Right to live in Healthy Environment vis-à-vis Human Excretion” in B P Singh Sehgal (ed) Human Rights in India: Problems and Perspectives (Deep and Deep Publication, New Delhi, 1995), p. 370.

  29. 29.

    Dinah Shelton, “Human Rights, Health & Environmental Protection : Linkages in Law & Practice” (A Background Paper for the World Health Organization, Health and Human Rights Working Paper Series No. 1, 2002) 4, 23.

  30. 30.

    The Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, UN Doc. A/CONF. 48/INF. 5 (1972).

  31. 31.

    The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, UN Doc. A/Conf.151/26 (Vol. I), 12 August 1992, Annex 1.

  32. 32.

    See Justice Susan Glazebrook, “Human Rights and the Environment” 40 Victoria University of Wellington Law Review (2009) 297–298.

  33. 33.

    “The human rights approach to sustainable development : environmental rights, public participation and human security ” (An initiative of the United Nations Association in Canada with the support of IDRC, 2013) Insight Series 2, at 1, http://unac.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/HRandSD-EN-PDF.pdf.

  34. 34.

    It acknowledges the paramount duty to preserve the ecosystem and the right to live in dignity in a viable global environment. See the Hague Declaration on the Environment, 28 ILM 1308 (1989).

  35. 35.

    Para.1 of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 45/94 (14 December 1990).

  36. 36.

    Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Meeting of Experts on Human Rights and the Environment (2002 Experts’ Report), para 3.

  37. 37.

    Para.1 of Human rights and the Environment, A/HRC/RES/16/11 1 (2 April 2011).

  38. 38.

    See generally Romina Picolotti and Jorge Daniel Taillant (eds), Linking Human Rights and the Environment (The University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, 2010).

  39. 39.

    Economy, supra note 14, at 15.

  40. 40.

    Build a Well-off Society in an All-Round Way and Create a New Situation in Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics (Report at 16th Party Congress), available at http://blog.netat.net/portal.php?mod=view&aid=277046&page=3.

  41. 41.

    The Constitution of the Communist Party of China (Amended and adopted at the Seventeenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, October 21, 2007).

  42. 42.

    Constitution of the Communist Party of China , available at http://e.3edu.net/gwy/E_88582_2.html.

  43. 43.

    Ibid.

  44. 44.

    The Chinese government has set for itself the objective of attaining “harmonious society” by 2020.

  45. 45.

    Editor, “China Focus: Environmental audits to decide official promotions”, Xinhua News (July 6, 2017), http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2017-07/06/c_136422947.htm.

  46. 46.

    Reuters, “2000 police used to quell pollution protest in China which left one dead”, The Guardian (April 7, 2015), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/07/2000-police-used-to-quell-pollution-protest-in-china-which-left-one-dead.

  47. 47.

    Ibid.

  48. 48.

    Ye Qi, “China’s Challenges in Environmental Regulation”, http://policydialogue.org/files/events/QiYe_Environmental_regulationChallenges_1.pdf.

  49. 49.

    See Bo Zhang and Cong Cao, “Policy: Four gaps in China’s new environmental law”, Nature (International Weekly Journal of Science, January 21, 2015), available at http://www.nature.com/news/policy-four-gaps-in-china-s-new-environmental-law-1.16736.

  50. 50.

    Fuqiang Yang and Min Hu, “Enhancing China’s Environmental Governance: Challenges and Opportunities” 35 Ecology Law Currents (2008) 119–123.

  51. 51.

    Junjie Ge et al., “Public Participation in China’s Environmental Protection ”, Chapter 2 in Jun Bi and Kenji Otsuka, Building Effective Governance for Water Environment Conservation in China—A Social Experiment in Community Roundtable Meetings in the Tai Lake Basin (Joint Research Program Series, No. 153, 2009), http://www.ide.go.jp/library/English/Publish/Download/Jrp/pdf/153_ch2.pdf.

  52. 52.

    Ibid.

  53. 53.

    See Qingfeng Zhang and Robert Crooks, “Environmental Strategy for the 12th Five-Year Plan Period: What Can the People’s Republic of China Learn from the 11th Five-Year Plan?” 8 ADB Briefs (June 2011), https://www.scribd.com/document/152831719/Environmental-Strategy-for-the-12th-Five-Year-Plan-Period-What-Can-the-People-s-Republic-of-China-Learn-from-the-11th-Five-Year-Plan.

  54. 54.

    VOA, “The State Council Released a National Plan on Environmental Improvements for the 13th Five-Year Plan” (December 2016), http://www.tingvoa.com/html/20161229/420617.html.

  55. 55.

    Zhaokui Feng, “What China is Doing to Clear the Air and Fight Climate Change”, The World Post (2017), http://www.huffingtonpost.com/feng-zhaokui/china-climate-change-fight_b_5798234.html.

  56. 56.

    Ibid.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Jason Potts and David Runnalls, Sustainable Development and China: Recommendations for the Forestry, Cotton and E-products Sectors (International Institute for Sustainable Development, Paper 2008) 3, available at https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/china_sd_sum_0.pdf.

  59. 59.

    Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, “Environmental Expenditure during 12th five-year-plan period Is Forecast to Reach RMB 5 Trillion” (Special Topic on the National Plan on Environmental Improvements for the 12th Five-Year Plan Period). http://www.mofcom.gov.cn/article/zt_shangwubu/lanmufour/201408/20140800695475.shtml.

  60. 60.

    Ming Chen, “Seventeen Trillion Are to Be Spent in 13th Five-Year-Plan Period” Beijing Business Today (September 25, 2015). http://finance.chinanews.com/ny/2015/09-25/7543515.shtml.

  61. 61.

    Editor, “Recommendations for Local Environmental Governance”, Environmental Governance (January 17, 2016), http://www.xchen.com.cn/lylw/hjzllw/606539.html.

  62. 62.

    Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China, “An Interpretation of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan of National Environmental Protection” (February 1, 2012), http://www.zhb.gov.cn/xxgk/hjyw/201202/t20120201_223034.shtml.

  63. 63.

    Detailed information about the carbon trading market will be introduced in the next chapter.

  64. 64.

    The number was 46,984 by the end of eleventh five-year-plan period. Xiaoqing Wu (Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection ), “Summing up the Past Experience, Looking Forward to the Future, and Promoting the development of Environmental Monitoring”, speech at the National Environmental Monitoring Conference (February 22, 2011), http://www.zhb.gov.cn/gkml/hbb/qt/201103/t20110314_206717.htm.

  65. 65.

    Ibid.

  66. 66.

    Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China, “An Interpretation of the Thirteenth Five-Year Plan of National Environmental Protection” (December 6, 2016), http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/2016-12/06/content_5143872.htm#1.

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    Yuwa Wei

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Wei, Y. (2019). Sustainable Development. In: Issues Decisive for China’s Rise or Fall. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3699-7_6

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