Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
a specific environmental issue poses. Another
crucial implication for the speed and success of the
securitization process of a specific environmental
issue is related to the geographical dimension of
a specific environmental issue. It is at the local
and regional level that the awareness towards the
human related costs will be most sensitive, and
consequently, by adding pressure, facilitating a
successful securitization process. Yet, not every
securitization process is successful and the earlier
mentioned complexity of specific environmental
issues as well as political and economic consider-
ations may work against a successful securitiza-
tion of a specific environmental issue despite the
negative impacts it generates.
As for the domestic situation China finds itself
in, there is a strong indication that the government
recognizes the serious significance of environmen-
tal degeneration by addressing various pollution
issues, which threaten the welfare of a considerable
part of its population. However, there are limita-
tions to the central government directives, as many
environmental issues are applicable to the local
and provincial level, where the political actors
may be less inclined to address them for various
reasons, including economic considerations, lo-
cal corruption, and local resistance reflecting the
existence of vested interests. In addition, economic
considerations at the central government level
may also override environmental considerations
despite statements made to the contrary as gener-
ating and guaranteeing strong economic growth
represents an overriding goal for the Chinese
government. Overall, economic success represents
a crucial source of its political legitimacy. The
energy issue represents another, but intrinsically
related example when identifying a potential
goal conflict between environmental protection
and in providing enough energy for its economic
development strategy, as coal provides a cheap
and available source for addressing China's energy
demand. However, the use of coal for producing
energy also generates some of the worst cases of
use of coal for energy production would dramati-
cally increase the environmental quality in many
parts of China, though the government recognizes
this, it is unlikely it will reduce the amount of
coal for producing energy, as such a step would
seriously undermine the government's ability to
provide adequate energy for its growth strategy
and consequently have a negative impact on the
critical issue of energy security.
With regard to the domestic-international
interface of environmental issues in northeast
Asia, it is accepted that both acid rain and Kosa,
originate in parts of northern China,
15
and that
both have negative environmental implications
not only on China itself, but on other Northeast
Asian countries as well. Both subjects provide
good examples of cross-border pollution issues
and the complexity involved in addressing their
impact on a variety of countries. Albeit there are
signs of increasing bilateral and multilateral coop-
eration regarding trans-boundary environmental
issues in Northeast Asia, there is no uniformity
in the degree of cooperation of various environ-
mental issues. As pointed out by Brettel, in the
case of acid deposits the cooperation developed
is more comprehensively, illustrated by the es-
tablishment of the Acid Deposition Monitoring
network in East Asia (ADMNEA) in 1992, and its
subsequent evolvement into the East Asian Acid
Deposit Monitoring Network (EANET) in 2001.
This development forms the core of an emerging
regional acid rain regime, covering both east and
Southeast Asia.
16
EANET recognised that further
development was required to perform its role as a
regional organisation and at the Fifth Session of its
Intergovernmental Meeting in November 2003 it
took the decision to prepare a medium term plan:
'Strategy on EANET Development (2006-2010).'
In it, a number of goals and objectives are identi-
fied, among them are the necessity to improve
the quality of the data and data management of
acid deposition monitoring; an extended assess-
ment of the current acid deposition situation in
