Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ronmental degeneration occurs within a specific
historical and political-social context and not only
within a specific economic-technical context. Es-
pecially, but not exclusively, generating sufficient
energy provides a clear link with the economic
development strategy of the reform period. In
addition, as shown in Figure 4, coal provides the
principal source for generating energy. This de-
pendence on coal in producing sufficient energy
largely contributes to China becoming one of the
leading CO
2
emitting nations and for fuelling the
increasing trend of Global Warming. CO
2
also
represents a critical issue for urban air quality in
many Chinese cities. However, when comparing
energy consumption with energy production (Fig-
ure. 5) we can identify an emerging gap, which
may be interpreted as an indication of increasing
efficiency in the use of energy, signaling a critical
and positive development. Overall, improving the
energy efficiency certainly will help to address
both air pollution issues and China's contribution
to the process of climate change.
A comparison of the GDP growth rate with the
energy production growth rate (Figure 6) signifies
that China has managed to disconnect economic
growth and the growth in energy production,
which certainly represents a crucial and progres-
sive step, albeit the relationship is not character-
ized by a singular development as the gap between
them varies over time. What is worrisome is the
process in the period between 2003 and 2004
where the growth rate of energy production was
higher than the GDP growth rate. Although the
following years have indicated a return to the
former trend, it needs to be seen whether this will
be an indication for the years to come.
The economic reforms have certainly trans-
formed China and had a fundamental positive
impact on million Chinese people by lifting them
out of absolute poverty. Yet, this success came at
a significant cost and the increasing environmen-
tal stress China's population has to endure is one
prominent feature. Critically, as the challenge
environmental degeneration represents has to be
understood in a wider political and developmen-
tal context, the following section will focus on
this wider and complex relationships.
Figure 4. Composition of the Energy Production (Source: Various editions of the Chinese Statistical
Yearbook)
