The Price of Emissions in China

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China bank offers draft plan to reduce nation's emissions

Posted at 12:43 PM on 09 Jun 2008

China's central bank has taken a first stab at a national emissions-reduction plan that could apply to various pollutants. A draft emissions-trading proposal unveiled to top officials on Friday suggests that China determine a national goal for reducing pollution, have regional authorities determine quotas for businesses, and put in place a system with controls at the national, provincial, and city level. It's a heartening step from the country that by many counts is the world's top polluter, though meeting organizers hastened to emphasize the preliminary nature of it all. Said one, "This is a new topic; the idea is just to introduce the ideas and allow the policymakers to discuss them."

source: Reuters

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Comments: (3 comments)

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Inadequate...

have regional authorities determine quotas for businesses,

Considering the high level of corruption amongst most regional heads in China, and the fact that most of 'em also have business interests with many of the large-scale manufacturing, construction, and mining interests in their territories, I forsee the plan to be woefully inadequate.

by Tasermons Partner at 1:53 PM on 09 Jun 2008

As If We Are Doing any Better

I'd suggest working to stop emissions here before complaining about China. Per capita emissions are what is important and in North America, we are doing far worse than China.

by racc at 9:13 PM on 09 Jun 2008

I'll complain all I wish...

We Americans have been working on reducing our emissions for the past 40 years. Unfortunately for China, we are now the #1 exporter of pollution on the planet, and guess where we're sending it. Actually, I have no evidence for that, but it seems to me if we have spent 40 yrs trying to reduce toxic emissions and other forms of waste--airborne and waterbone--then it would logically follow that those controls and reductions, which were present in American plants, have been eliminated or abridged with the construction and operation of manufacturing facilities in China. That is, if a factory in the US produced shoes or steel or leather, and now that same company has set up operations in China, I can guaran-damn-tee ya' that the regulations/protocols and machinery in place here(US), have not made the trip to the new plant in China. Which, I am certain, was the point of moving to China. Oh, that and virtually no safety or health regulations to ensure that the lives of the Chinese workers are more important than profit. But then again, 6000-9000 workers die on job here in the US. You are no more important than a bolt or lathe. Actually, less so. We are buying Chinese-made goods at the expense of the health of millions upon millions of Chinese citizens. Gross.

The mellotron is your friend.

by archigeek at 9:07 AM on 10 Jun 2008

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