China, India seen setting stage for environment-friendly world
BY P. PARAMESWARAN
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Energy guzzlers China and India are often blamed
for some of the world's environmental problems, but a new study says the
two most populous nations may well set the stage for a clean and green
Earth.
The two countries are mastering energy-efficient technologies,
implementing cheap and environmentally-responsible transportation
systems, and adopting new water harvesting techniques as models for a
sustainable economy, says the annual report of the US-based Worldwatch
Institute.
"China and India are positioned to leapfrog today's industrial powers
and become world leaders in sustainable energy and agriculture within a
decade," the president of the environmental research group, Christopher
Flavin, predicted at a news conference.
"We were encouraged to find that a growing number of opinion leaders
in China and India now recognize that the resource-intensive model for
economic growth can't work in the 21st century," he said.
China's world leading solar-industry already provides water heating
for 35 million buildings, and India's pioneering use of rainwater
harvesting brings clean water to tens of thousands of homes, according
to the 244-page report.
Zjeng Bijian, head of China Economic Reform, an academic group,
called in the report for "a new path of industrialization based on
technology, low consumption of resources, low environmental pollution
and the optimal allocation of human resources."
Zjeng holds senior posts in academic and party organizations in China
and his non-governmental group has drafted key reports for five Chinese
national party congresses.
Sunita Narain of India's Center for Science and Environment said in
the report that "the South - India, China and all their neighbours - has
no choice but to reinvent the development trajectory.
A country heavily dependent on coal, China's ambitious renewable
energy law enforced this month stands a good chance of jumpstarting
windpower, biofuels, and other new energy options, the report said.
The world's most populated nation has already successfully pioneered
the use of small wind turbines, hydro generators, and biogas plants for
power generation in remote rural areas.
China is world leader not only in solar hot water technology but also
in producing super-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs.
It is also aiming for an ingenious bus rapid transit system that
combines the speed of a subway with the affordability of a bus. Trials
have been held and bus ridership has jumped five fold during rush hour,
the report said.
Electric bicycles are also becoming popular, with domestic sales
having reportedly trebled the projected sales of cars.
India, which has a long tradition of promoting renewable energy,
recently built the world's fourth largest wind power industry and the
largest among developing economies.
It wants to increase renewable energy's share of its power from five
percent to 20-25 percent.
"Armed with creative solutions to critical problems and with evidence
of the futility of current development paths and the superiority of the
alternatives, Chinese and Indian pioneers are providing models for a new
and sustainable economy," the report said.
This is seen as welcome relief as China and India - with 40 percent
of the world's people between them - are set to join already
industrialized economies as major consumers of resources and polluters
of local and global ecosystems.
In fact, rapid economic growth has already taken a toll on the
environment in the two countries.
China, for example, has just eight percent of the world's fresh water
to meet the needs of 22 percent of the world's population, the report
said.
In India, it added, only about 10 percent of sewage is treated, and
both urban and industrial pollutants are commonly dumped directly into
waterways.
"Rising demand for energy, food and raw materials by 2.5 billion
Chinese and Indians is already having ripple effects worldwide," Flavin
said. |