Turning the tide

After working with the department of environment and other governmental departments in Canada for 30 years, I was the resident project coordinator for an environmental project in Beijing from 1996 to its completion in 2005.

In my opening column for China Business Weekly's environment and energy section, I would like to introduce the solutions we found to energy conservation and emission control:

The China-Canada Cooperation Project in Cleaner Production was initiated in 1996. The multi-year, multi-million dollar effort had as its goal the promotion of sustainable development in China by enhancing the country's capacity to manage its environment.

The strategic context was a shift in environmental policy from treatment after pollution to the more sustainable objectives of pollution prevention, or cleaner production (CP), and the effective use of raw materials and energy.

China was at that time in the unique position of being compelled to modernize its aging, inefficient, polluting industrial sectors as it met the opportunities of becoming a major player in the global market.

Over the years, my team and colleagues have been striving to set an economic example in recycling factory wastes that used to be discharged directly into the river. And we were always concerned about the deteriorating water quality of the nation's most polluted waterway - the Huaihe River - and so insisted that it was urgent to adopt recycling in industrial production and fight pollution along the river that runs across several provinces.

Starting from 1997, my team joined the Chinese government's efforts in purifying the Huaihe River and started a first pilot project at a fertilizer factory in the river valley. The team, which is part of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), worked with the Fuyang Chemical Factory, a producer of carbamide - ammonium hydrogen carbonate - at a riverside factory in Anhui Province. Together, we discovered ways to stop pollution and to recycle waste materials collected in the process of production. Previously, pollution-reducing measures were only taken at the end of the production.

Sun Yongqiang, a former chief engineer at the factory, said that changing the firm's way of thinking and the "action-now" attitude were both crucial in making environmental protection viable. Sun said that cleaner production is sustainable at his factory since recycling has garnered true economic returns.

Many people believe that fighting pollution is only costing money. On the contrary, we help enterprises use technology to reduce costs, yield additional profits and lessen pollution at the same time.

With help from my team, the factory collects 2,500 tons of ammonium, 550 tons of sulfur and 150 tons of oil each year from the production process.

That yields an additional profit of 3 million yuan. Meanwhile, the discharge of polluted water has been reduced by up to 3,000 tons every year.

With a total of 100 million yuan donated by the Canadian government over the last seven years, the Chinese and Canadian governments have jointly started cleaner production in six sectors, including fertilizer-making, brewing and paper-making.

Former CIDA President Len Lengood, who is also current president of the Global Environmental Fund, said the cleaner production project has had great achievements and it's feasible to spread it throughout the nation. The National Development and Reform Commission said the biggest achievement of the endeavor is reflected in its contributions to helping China set up a legal foundation to promote cleaner production.

With the help from the CIDA and the National People's Congress - China's top legislature - the Law on Cleaner Production was enacted, taking effect at the beginning of 2003. With the passage of CP Promotion Law in June, 2002 and coming into force in January 2003, the project's focus then shifted from assisting the drafting to support in implementing the new law: the creation of management tools for measuring performance, putting in place accountability regimes, raising awareness of the benefits of CP, and encouraging enterprises to reach beyond regulated requirements and to embrace voluntary initiatives that would result in more sustainable and profitable operations.

And now priority should be placed on setting detailed energy and resource consumption ceilings for all sectors in the process of cleaner production. And a massive publicity campaign nationwide is needed to make Chinese people informed of the practices because insufficient resources can be the single most dangerous threat to China's economic development.

With a national industrial strategy that was changing from a central planning approach to becoming more influenced by the marketplace, China decided to encourage globally competitive enterprises to employ technologies that are cleaner and more efficient in their use of material and energy resources.

This orientation drove the CP project design and implementation. Implementation focused on collaborative efforts with Chinese counterparts designed to support the achievement of its CP goals at all levels, from policy and legislation through the factory levels.

People from across Chinese society are beginning to recognize that CP practice is a necessary step reach sustainable development and realize the goal of a well off (xiaokang) society for China by 2020.

One additional benefit of the project has been the creation of the website, in Chinese and English, which has provided excellent dissemination of CP information across China and beyond. Several million people, about half from abroad, have visited the site, and many linkages have been created and relationship fostered.

Notwithstanding of its initiatives and successful results, China has to move forward on its own with little help from outside. A number of issues of paramount importance in taking the implementation of CP further to Chinese industries will be elaborated.

Robert Lao was the 2005 National Friendship Award winner for his contribution to China's environmental protection. The opinions expressed are his own. He can be reached via rclconsulting@comzik.com

(China Daily 01/05/2008 page5)