China has no other option but to go green

China really has no other option but to go green in order to start cleaning up a huge environmental mess across the country. China is currently the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, and despite the huge economic growth there is an increased number of Chinese, particularly those from growing middle class, who believe that there has to be some limit on growing the economy without taking into consideration the environmental condition.

Air pollution is running loose in many Chinese cities, water pollution is also taking heavy toll on China's rivers, and there is also the ever-present global climate change threat that will not spare China once it starts running out of control. Going green is really the only logical option that China can do right now, and the first signs of this new policy are already visible.

Despite the fact that „dirty“ coal is still the main energy source in China renewables are becoming increasingly important and China is global clean energy leader with its investments into different renewable energy sectors, most notably wind and hydroelectric power.

China is becoming increasingly aware that the only way to maintain the balance between the economy and environment is to have strong renewable energy sector. More energy coming from sun, wind and other renewable energy source is the only way for many Chinese to have access to clean air and clean water.

More renewable energy does not only mean healthy environment with clean air and water, it also means many new economic opportunities and most of all many new jobs within the renewable energy industry. As I write this China has around one million people employed in renewable energy industry, and is dominating the global production of wind turbines and solar panels.

But China still needs plenty more clean energy before we can see any serious improvement of environmental condition in China. But at least we can't say the Chinese aren't trying though they will certainly need lot more efforts before being able to experience healthy life without the polluted environment.

If China manages to clean up its environment this would come as a huge boost for entire world as it would given us hope that we can still win the fight against major ecological problems such as pollution and climate change.

Good luck China, and keep it green.

China's dependence on coal causing not only environmental damage

China's recent economic boom is mostly based on coal as its primary fuel but such huge economy growth has too many negative impacts, and not only from environmental point of view. Latest report by Greenpeace China, WWF, and the Energy Foundation shows that coal is mostly responsible for air pollution, water shortages, polluted soil, ecosystem degradation, widespread human illness, and injuries or deaths related to mining accidents.

We already knew that air pollution is taking heavy toll in China, but latest report is showing even worse data as air pollution from coal has become so bad in China that chronic respiratory disease has become a leading cause of death. Water shortages have become regular in many China's regions since for every ton of coal produced two-and-a-half tons of water become polluted. Acid rain as a result of excessive coal production is almost constant in one third of China's territory.

And there is of course the biggest problem of them all, namely the climate change. many scientists believe that China recently overtook US as the world's leading CO2 emitter, where coal burning holds dominant place with about 80 % of total China's CO2 emissions. Chinese government did some moves that should increase total percentage of renewables in China's energy sector but this is still negligible because use of coal hasn't yet showed signs of slowing down.

For instance in 2007 China consumed massive 1311 million tons of coal so you could imagine the impact this has on climate change. However though China leads the way in coal consumption, some other states, most notably US should raise some questions about their energy policy, because US consumed 574 million tons of coal in 2007. Big coal users like China, US, Australia are nations mostly responsible for global warming, but still these countries haven't done nothing significant that would change their energy policies in order to significantly decrease dependence on coal. Despite huge environmental, social, and economic losses caused by coal.

China to become greener with the new law?

China is one of the world's largest emitters of CO2, greenhouse gas mainly responsible for global warming. Such high level of CO2 emission is mostly the result of coal based economy that helped China achieve incredible economic boom in the last couple of years. On the one hand China's economy recorded instant success, while on the other China pays extremely high environmental price for such rapid growth.

This is the main reason why China's legislature approved a new law designed to put production in on a more sustainable foundation and go green by raising efficiency and harnessing alternative energy sources to reduce reliance on coal, and other fossil fuels responsible for global warming.

Despite this positive law many environmentalists are still worried because having the law doesn't necessary mean obeying the law, especially since many industries believe how this law could undermine its competitive advantage on global market, and stop China's economic boom. Another problem that could affect efficiency of this law are provincial and local governments across the China that compete to attract and retain fossil fuels based industries, and the last thing they want is a law like this.

The problem lies in the fact that many countries, including China haven't still figured it out that they have to achieve competitive advantage with clean energy, and not by sticking with fossil fuels. We know now that fossil fuels are bad solution that can only make global warming more serious than it already is. And as soon as China, and other big CO2 emitters (USA, Australia, etc..) realize this, the better it will be, not only for them, but for people worldwide. Why not compete in clean energy sector and who'll become greener? Industry should focus more on developing newer cleaner technologies, instead of protesting and complaining about losing competitive edge. After all every successful industry should follow modern trends, and newer, better solutions. Does everything always have to be around money?