China has for the first time admitted it is responsible for the world’s highest CO2 emissions. The rising industrial superpower has overtaken the US as the biggest polluter. Despite this, the Chinese government continues to reject mandatory CO2 reduction. The issue of further reducing greenhouse gas emissions will be central to the climate talks in Cancun in Mexico.
China is actually doing a lot to reduce its emissions and improve the air quality of its cities. The world’s biggest polluter is also its biggest investor in green energy.
In the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese capital Beijing united to fight against the city’s huge air pollution problem. The thick pall of smog had to go.
Polluting factories were banished to outside the city limits, construction projects were temporarily halted and car traffic curbed. Eventually though, the drastic measures to ensure blue skies had to be mothballed again. Chinese people, who are enjoying consumer wealth for the first time, want what people in the West have. And a car is mostly top of the wish list.
Two cities - two solutions
Mega-cities
Reductions in CO2 emissions, support for developing nations which are having to deal with the results of climate change and the protection of forests. These are the issues up for discussion by the nearly 200 countries involved in the climate summit about to begin in Cancun in Mexico.
This new round of negotiations has to produce concrete agreements to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. By turning the spotlight on four mega-cities – Beijing, Mexico City, Cairo and Nairobi – Radio Netherlands Worldwide is taking a look at the most important environmental issues: air pollution, safe drinking water, overpopulation and the depopulation of the countryside.
*** LONDON, UK
The capital of the United Kingdom is so polluted that the European Union is demanding measures be taken. One early result is the Boris Bike, named after London Mayor Boris Johnson. Londoners are to be lured away from their cars by 5000 rental bicycles dotted about the city. The desired result: 40,000 fewer short car journeys per day.
But cycling in London is highly dangerous and Boris Bike users have to be at least 14 years old. Another measure, introduced some years ago, is the Congestion Charge, whereby motorists have to pay if they want to drive through the city centre between 07:00 and 18:00 on weekdays.
And more vehicles will have to pay to enter the wider city limits under the Low Emission Zone scheme which is being gradually tightened up.
*** LOS ANGELES, US
Los Angeles has both the worst smog and the tightest environmental regulations of any city in the US. But, because the Smog Alerts keep coming between March and August, city residents and those of California as a whole have voted for even tougher rules. Over the next decade, fuels, air-conditioners, lorries and cars will all have to be cleaner.
Eventually, California’s CO2 emissions will have to be brought down to 1990 levels. That won’t just cost money, it will also earn money. The burgeoning green industry profits from research into sustainable products. And Los Angeles will get blue skies again.
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