China's pollution timebomb: the giant elephant in the corner of the global environmental parlor.

• Author: Wu, Friedrich

Historically most emerging economies undergoing rapid industrialization have experienced the noxious by-product of environmental pollution. But the gargantuan size of the Chinese economy, in combination with nearly three decades of industrial development carried out at a sustained and breakneck pace, weak enforcement of environmental protection, and heightened economic decentralization, have rendered environmental challenges a lot more daunting to the government. The country's over-reliance on coal as a main source of energy presents an additional hazard to the environment.

With China's energy consumption accelerating expeditiously in recent years in the midst of an inexorable surge in world oil prices, coal has become the predominant source of power supply to the country's industry. Between 2000 and 2005, coal consumption leaped by 800 million tons, which now accounts for 70 percent of China's energy needs. Combined with the still prevalent use of coal burners to heat domestic dwellings, China has the world's highest emissions of sulphur dioxide. Such emissions escalated to 25.5 million tons in 2005, or a 27 percent jump from 2000, which contributed significantly to air pollution as well as acid rain. According to the report Environmental Protection in China, 1996-2005 released by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in June 2006, "[b]y 2005, one-third of China's territory suffered from acid rain.... [and] one-third of the urban population breathed heavily polluted air." The dire situation has been corroborated by the World Bank, which estimates that China has the dubious honor of being home to sixteen of the world's twenty most polluted cities, and that roughly 300,000 Chinese residents each year die prematurely from respiratory diseases. Going forward, even if the SEPA could reduce sulphur dioxide emissions, air quality in China is unlikely to improve as the country's car population is predicted to multiply swiftly from still a very low base.

Air pollution aside, water contamination in China has also reached an equally critical state. The SEPA has found that an average of over 70 percent of the water in five of China's seven major rivers is of undrinkable quality. Over the years, the wanton disposal of industrial waste, household sewage, agricultural chemicals, and shipping discharges into these rivers have caused severe pollution to China's precious water resources. With 64 percent of its water being considered...