Assessing China’s Recent Efforts to Protect Its Environment via the Indian Lens
Raakhee Suryaprakash
As attention focused on the Modi-Xi summit at Wuhan (in between applauding and marveling at the coming together of Korean leaders, of course!) it is easy to lose track of environmental concerns. Geopolitics, strategy and economics ‘Trump’ environment (couldn’t resist that pun!). But both India and China are living with hazardous pollution levels — this despite improvement in air-quality in certain Chinese cities. In spite of taking pole positions on the Paris Climate Agreement, policies and practices of both Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi still back thermal power stations.The sustainable development approach of a low-carbon growth strategy is still a pipe dream.
India’s carbon emissions grew in 2018 while that of the developed world and China’s have plateaued. Though in China’s case, while it eschews coal within its borders, Chinese thermal power technology is being exported to developing nations in Asia and Africa. Fossil Fuels are still central to the energy security strategy in both India and China. This contributes to the two countries’ emissions dilemma as well as their air pollution burden or as Greenpeace puts it — Airpocalypse. With Earth Day (April 22) behind us and World Environment Day ahead (June 5), both focused on curbing the plastic menace, Chinese impact on the First World’s plastic recycling habit must be highlighted as well. When the Chinese government banned the import of plastic waste for recycling in China it caused chaos and changed consumption patterns throughout the developing world. This is because China, in 2017, had imported 7.3 million metric tonnes of waste(metal, plastics, paper, etc.) for upcycling. However, China later stopped the import of many categories of waste, most importantly plastic waste. This began in January 2018 to curb the Chinese pollution crises and as well as, as many believe, in response to the film “Plastic China”. On the other hand, India continues to import and recycle plastic. Most Indian slums have thriving mini-industries of plastic recycling despite limited segregation of waste and efforts to cut the plastic habit.
It remains to be seen whether actions taken by both countries’ leaders will actually help the environment. As the call is for looking beyond Doklam, areas of cooperation can include exploring approaches and technologies to resolving the environmental damage. After all both India and China have been working to develop technology in order to fix carbon emissions and check pollution, while raising millions from below the poverty line. At the last Communist Party meeting President Xi had promised an ecological revolution. The new and improved Environmental Protection Tax Law is a step in that direction.
The declaration of this environmental protection tax was launched on New Year’s Day 2018 and was brought into force on April 1, 2018. According to a report in Xinhua, some 260,000 businesses and public institutions producing noise pollution, air pollution, water pollution, or solid waste started paying this new and improved environmental levy at the end of the first quarter of 2018. As pollution is seen as a major domestic crisis, the Environmental Protection Tax Law is central to the Chinese president’s promised ecological revolution. This tax, which can be paid online as well, replaces the “pollutant discharge fee” that has been in place since 1979. But as seen in the documentary, Under the Dome (2015) by Chinese journalist, Chai Jing, these earlier fines for pollution were not levied effectively as the law lacked teeth and the local authorities interfered with effective control of polluting industries. It’s believed this new and improved law will incentivise emission cuts and production technology upgrades, since the tax is charged based on the amount of pollutants discharged.
Toxic air qualities especially in major cities, polluted rivers and waterways, as well as degradation of arable lands due to soil pollution are pollution hot-button issues in China as well as in India. These in turn risk the health of the population, human security, water security, and food security as well as add to the costs of governance.
In 2017, the now-defunct pollutant discharge fee yielded some 17.3 billion yuan (US$2.65b) from around 280,000 businesses according to official data. Although the advantage of this new tax law lies in it making it profitable for companies to clean up their act while plugging the loopholes of the pollution discharge fee regime, early estimates for 2018 show that revenues from the new tax could reach 50 billion yuan (US$7.6b), almost triple the pollutant discharge fee of 2017. According to a previous article it is believed that the environment tax ranges from anywhere between US$55 and US$1,770 (350–11,200 yuan) per ton of solid waste. While carbon dioxide is exempt from this Paris Accord signatory’s landmark environment tax, the tax costs companies between US$0.18 and US$ 1.83 (1.2–12 yuan) for emissions of 0.95 kilograms of sulphur dioxide, and US$0.21 to US$2.14 (1.4–14 yuan) per kilogram of chemical oxygen demand (COD, water pollution measure). This is revenue for the provincial-level governments.
This “environment cess” can be paid by companies with their corporate tax declaration even in advance, based on estimates thus streamlining the process. Reports from Xinhua, indicate that some of the major players including BASF Application Chemical company are happy with the savings as a result of the new tax regime and are eager to implement optimizations to their processes to ensure further savings. For example, in this quarter they paid only 8,800 yuan and saved 600 yuan (US$95).
While collecting revenues and ensuring incentives to clean-up is a good start, there’s a need for stronger action which is easier in their one-party system when the situation is as critical as it is in China. Fixing what is broken through cutting-edge technology and reverse engineering is like applying band-aid to a bleeding major artery. For example, in India we know our coal power plants are major polluters and they decimate our carbon budget. Despite this the Indian government declares that it needs time till 2022 to clean them up. These power plants are under government control yet legislation and policy is geared towards promoting more vehicles on the road — this time electric vehicles rather than optimizing existing coal power plants and stopping building of further plants.
Here’s hoping that both China and India do more to save the planet. With over 2 billion people between us, we have a greater chance in implementing systemic and real change that prioritizes Sustainable Development.
(The writer, Ms Raakhee Suryaprakash is a Chennai-based analyst and Associate Member, C3S. She holds a Master’s degree in International Studies and is the founder of ‘Sunshine Millennium’ which focuses on sustainable development and social issues. The views expressed by the author are her own.)
