The InterDependent

BEIJING -- While China's reluctance to support new international climate change agreements has been the focus of much attention in recent years, within the country the Chinese have begun working with the United Nations to lower environmental damage from high-pollution power generation and other sources of harmful emissions. The benefits could be global.

China, which accounts for nearly a quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, is now the leader emitter of these gases, according to the government's own figures and those of the International Energy Agency. The emission of greenhouses gases in China – while still relatively low in per capita terms – is growing faster than in any other country.

Perhaps unexpectedly, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (Unido), which was created to promote industrialization in developing nations, is now playing a big part in mitigating the effects of polluting industries, which have degraded the Chinese environment and are contributing increasingly to global climate change. The organization (from which the United States withdrew in 1996) leads the climate change UN team in China.

Edward Clarence-Smith, head of the organization's office in China and in a wider region that also includes the Koreas and Mongolia, said in an interview that he senses that the Chinese, with a growing, civic-minded middle class and rapid urban development, seem to be more generally aware of the environmental impact of the country's phenomenal industrial growth and booming consumer culture.

"I also get the sense that there are those in government who realize that growth at all costs is not the best policy," he said, adding that this has already been reflected in China's 12-year economic plans. Some of the dirtiest coal-fired power plants have been closed and other measures introduced, including support for alternative energy.

"Most of Unido’s work here is now on the environmental side," Clarence-Smith said. Some of that entails assisting China in following through on international agreements, while looking for ways to support the creation of cleaner industries for the future. Three years ago, Spain committed $12 million in seed money for efforts on climate change mitigation in China, later bolstered by private sector funds and government contributions. That program, part of the UN-Spain MDG Achievement Fund for China, will expire this year. Before it does, Unido and other partners hope it will become a model for less-developed countries just beginning industrialization.

Bennett Ho

Pollution in Shenzhen in southern China, near Hong Kong. Working on some projects with the UN Industrial Development Organization, China is trying to mitigate the effects of heavy industrialization in the last few years.

"I think that China, more than the developed countries – here I’m talking mostly about Europe – is much more at risk from climate change," Clarence-Smith said, citing the effects of global warming in the Himalayas, the potential for severe storms, prolonged drought and other natural disasters. The Chinese could benefit from backing stronger international agreements, if only to deprive the U.S. and other industrialized nations of the excuse that they won’t sign on to global warming treaties until countries like India and China do.

Meanwhile, China is doing a lot to improve its environment, Clarence-Smith said. "Clearly there has been a huge improvement in air pollution," he said, noting that there was still much to be done to meet World Health Organization standards. "They’ve also done a lot on land use and reforestation. I think there is a realization that water is very important; China is quite stressed in some parts of the country."

Waste collection and disposal are becoming challenges in a more affluent society, Clarence-Smith said, adding that the "not in my backyard" spirit emerging in the population is complicating the issue when, for example, the location of incinerators is discussed.

To an outsider, it looks as if all the problems the West confronted as industrialization byproducts over decades if not centuries, China has been experiencing in a matter of years, Clarence-Smith said. The tasks can seem overwhelming.

"But they're trying," he said. "They’re trying."