Environmental Economics Research and China's Green Development Strategy

The following sections are included:

• Preface
• Contents

In the Report of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), ecological progress, together with economic, political, cultural, and social progress, has become one of the five aspects in the overall plan of socialist construction with Chinese characteristics. Promoting ecological progress aims at building a beautiful country, achieving lasting and sustainable development of the Chinese nation. It is a long-term task of vital importance to people’s well-being and China’s future.

This part reflects on the green development strategy of China and includes Chapters 1–3.

The first chapter discusses the necessity and the rationale for China to treat climate change as one of the concerns of its state strategy. The necessity lies in the fact that China needs to take climate change as an opportunity to focus on and actively participate in the possible worldwide revolution of energy technology. Also, the transformation of the current economic development model can start by making this a focus. For this, China should, first, express to the international community its notions and methods as regards climate change; second, make efforts to turn to a self-controlled and sustainable development model; and third, treat the problem of climate change as a point of departure to reach a consensus among all sectors of the society on long-term development strategy…

Recently, China has been presented as “the biggest trouble-maker” by Western media in terms of climate change, and also as “the most important partner” in the state strategies of Western countries. This is because the growth rate of CO₂ emissions in China has repeatedly exceeded the expectations of international energy agencies, which thus already lands China as the world’s biggest emission country; also, international capital can hardly ignore the huge market capacity of the country. Meanwhile, China, as a developing country, is also one of the major powers to protest against and to call for a change of the unfair practice of developed countries in matters of climate…

The following sections are included:

• Coping With the Turning Point: A Reconsideration of “Energy-Conservation First”
• Can We Overcome the Forces that Hinder Our Transformation? — A Reconsideration of the Challenges Confronting “Energy-Conservation First”
• Firm Policies With Uncertainties: A New Viewpoint of Energy Conservation
• Some Suggestions

China is now in the industrialization stage of rapid economic growth. Against the background of global warming and with the huge pressure of resources and environment, China has stepped up its regulation of energy conservation and emission reduction in recent years. After the 11th Five-Year Plan, a sharp drop in energy consumption intensity continues to be treated as a binding indicator in the 12th Five-Year Plan. Among the major countries in the world, China’s attitude toward energy conservation and emission reduction is active. However, we should also be soberly aware that although China has made great efforts in energy conservation and emission reduction and has made remarkable achievements, there are still many areas both in understanding and in practice worth thinking about and improving. Facing these problems squarely and deepening the understanding of the targets and their regularity of energy conservation and emission reduction will be beneficial to the healthy development of energy conservation and emission reduction in China and to the realization of the sustainable development strategy.

This part discusses the path of green development and includes Chapters 4–7.

Chapter 4 analyzes the ways to reduce per capita carbon emissions in China with regard to economic development and technological progress. The analysis shows that from 1980 to 2012, the per capita carbon emissions of China have greatly increased and showed a phased feature. This growth is largely brought about by the continuous improvement of labor productivity (per capita output). In the meantime, China has been committed to improving its technical level since the Reform and Opening Up, which has greatly improved the energy efficiency of the country and effectively reduced the per capita carbon emissions. Generally speaking, the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects in the next 20–30 years cannot be achieved at the cost of economic development, but also requires an enhanced ability to reduce carbon emissions and adapt to global climate change. Thus, the strategy of “energy-conserving first and efficiency-oriented” is of a great significance. At the same time, the potential of adjusting industry structure and energy structure to reduce carbon emissions needs to be further explored…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Methods and Data
• An Empirical Analysis of Changes in the Per Capita Carbon Emissions of China
• Potential and Ways to Reduce the Per Capita Carbon Emissions of China in the Future
• Concluding Remarks
• Appendix
• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• The Production Mode Determining the Environmental Impact of Agriculture
• An Overview of the Environmental Impact of Agriculture
• Concluding Remarks
• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Methods and Data
• An Empirical Analysis
• Conclusion and Discussions
• Appendix A: Trade Volume for Various Industries (Based on 2002 price)
• Appendix B: Carbon Embodied in Various Industries
• Appendix C: Carbon Avoided by Imports of Various Industries
• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Water Crisis of Human Society and the Concepts of “Water Footprint” and “Virtual Water”
• Analysis Model and Data Processing
• Discussion on the Estimates
• References

This part includes Chapters 8–10 and focuses on several fundamental problems concerning green development policies.

Chapter 8 discusses environment value evaluation methods that we should pay attention to when making green development policies. In order to break away from the extensive mode of economic growth and realize green development, policymakers must fully understand and evaluate the loss and gain of protecting the ecological environment and economic growth so as to make trade-offs and policy choices. Understanding and application of the environment value evaluation methods discussed in this chapter can help policymakers and decision-makers evaluate the following problems in a more scientific way when choosing between protection and growth: (1) comparison between ecological environment benefits and protection costs; (2) the impact of protection strategy (or program) on the society and the poor; and (3) how the ecological environment benefits share the protection costs between relevant interest groups through compensation…

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Key Points of the Evaluation of Environmental Value
• Welfare Economics and Measures of Welfare Changes
• Categories of Environmental Values
• Evaluation Approaches of Environmental Value and Relevant Cases
• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Efficiency Analysis and Distance Function
• Distance Function’s Disposal of Undesirable Output
• Introduction of Undesirable Output in Productivity Measurement
• Conclusion
• Appendix A: Properties of Distance Functions
• Appendix B: Properties of Input Distance Function ψ(u, x)
• Appendix C: Proofs
• References

Since the Reform and Opening Up, the Chinese economy has been growing at the overwhelming rate of 9.5% a year. Simultaneously, China’s resource consumption, mainly coal consumption, has been increasing year in and year out, and its CO₂ emission has repeatedly gone beyond expectations of relevant international institutions, becoming one of the largest concerns in the global efforts to deal with climate change. The 2007 World Energy Outlook published by the IEA (IEA, 2007) looks into China and India’s energy demand and supply projections as well as their carbon emissions in the future based on different scenarios. At present, China’s greenhouse gas emission is not only a research priority of international energy and environmental organizations and relevant institutions in those developed countries in Europe and the USA (UNFCCC, the World Bank, IEA, WRI, EIA, PBL, etc.) but also a research focus in the domestic academic community.

This part, which includes chapters 11–14, is about the overall review, prospect, and analysis of the two specific policies of China’s green development.

Chapter 11 systematically reviews the green development policy of China, and envisages its future. The environmental policies of China have taken form and developed mainly since the Reform and Opening Up. Three principles have been formed before the 1980s, i.e., prevention first, clear responsibility, and strengthening environmental supervision and management, which resulted in a series of systems and policies. The environmental policies during this period were mainly command and control (CAC). Since the 1990s, the environmental policy has made new progresses, with a more complete policy system established. But in its formulation, the government is still dominant, and marketization is still low in degree. Also, the implementation mechanism of environmental policies was imperfect, with little public participation and supervision. Due to the fragile ecological environment and insufficient environmental capacity in recent years, the environmental problem has gradually become a major issue in China’s development, and environmental policies have been continuously strengthened. As far as the current situation is concerned, the environment has become an important decision-making factor in the economic and energy planning and policies. China has also been actively carrying out environmental policy innovation so as to explore the positive behavior of using economic means to control polluting industries and polluting products, which is conducive to overcoming the problems brought about by relying too much on CAC methods in the past, opening up a new path for environmental protection. Generally speaking, the economic policies, energy policies, and environmental policies of China are being merged with each other and gradually evolving to an integrated policy system…

The following sections are included:

• Evolution of China’s Environmental Policy System
• Innovation of China’s Environmental Policy System: Prospects and Challenges of Economic Means
• Integration of Environmental Policy With Economic Policy and Energy Policy
• Conclusion
• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methodology and Data
• Analysis and Discussion
• Conclusion and Policy Implications
• Appendix
• References

The following sections are included:

• Questions Raised
• Model, Data and Scenario Design
• Macro-Impact of Carbon Intensity Constraint
• Impact of Carbon Intensity Constraints on Sectors
• Conclusion and Policy Recommendations
• References

The following sections are included:

• Introduction
• Diversity and Uncertainty of the Collection Standards of Carbon Tariffs
• Model, Data and Scenario Design
• Results
• Conclusion and Policy Discussion
• References

The following section is included:

• Index