Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Background: Recent Development
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Climate change and change in living conditions, over-population and increasing urbanization are factors which should lead and demand for stronger implementation of sustainable development.
Consequently many designers, engineers, academics and government officials gradually shift from traditional city1 development towards one of a more sustainable city. They compile and make use of appropriate concepts and approaches in order to find a “harmonious” balance between urbanization, sustainable development, economical aspects and the environment.
1.1 Background: Recent Development
The IPCC released Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) states clearer than before that it’s not too late to prevent the negative effects of climate change. The report draws a quite dramatic scenario in which a temperature rise of about 3.7° to 4.8°C might be possible.2 The possible risks might affect whole eco systems, settlement areas at the costs, disturbance or loss of biodiversity as well as a threat to maintain food security worldwide. The report states that only 20 countries are account for about 75% of the worldwide CO2 emissions, only five countries for about half of the emissions, including China. As a result that all countries have important roles to play, the mitigation efforts which are needed
1 cf. Southall, Aidan. The city in time and space. Cambridge [England], New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998, 125ff.
2 IPCC, ed. Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change: Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. With the assistance of Edenhofer, O et al. Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2014. http://mitigation2014.org/report/final-draft/ (accessed May 5, 2014).
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rely on a few countries to make the most impact, excluding themselves would have dramatic impacts on the global economy, eco-systems.
The report clarifies, that it is necessary to take initial steps before 2020;
otherwise climate change’s negative impact might involve severe risks. If we do not take actions global temperatures are expected to rise to hazardous level for the biosphere. Heat waves, failed harvest, acid rain and ocean acidification, rising sea levels are just a few of the possible consequences if humanity does not take counter-measures.
"This report makes very clear we face an issue of global willpower, not capacity", says U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry3 in a statement after the publication of the report.
Consumption-based GHG emissions increased in the major economies in the world from 1990 to 2009, 0.1%-0.2% for the EU27, whereas in China this value ranges from 4.8% to 6.0% p.a.4. While resource productivity showing a small but still constant growth and especially industrial countries’ economic activities register an increase in the process of dematerialization. This caused a global trend of slowing down resource consumption; however there is still a very high variation between different countries’ individual process of dematerialization.
Some countries’ varying factor can be up to ten times greater than the one of other countries.
3 U.S. Department of State. “Release of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group 3 Report: Remarks by Secretary Kerry: April 2014.”.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2014/04/224755.htm (accessed April 26, 2014).
4 Peters, G. P., J. C. Minx, C. L. Weber, and O. Edenhofer. “Growth in emission transfers via international trade from 1990 to 2008.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 21 (2011): 8903–
8908.
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Dematerialization matters enormously for the human environment. Lower materials intensity of the economy could reduce the amount of garbage produced, limit human exposures to hazardous materials, and conserve landscapes.5
The Asia-Pacific area especially has to improve its efficiency in order to establish equilibrium with other countries in the world in terms of productivity and resource-saving management and be sufficient competitive. The region has to use three times more resources to produce $1 of GDP than the rest of the world.6
According to scholars about 70 percent of the worldwide energy-related greenhouse gases are emitted by cities.7 As a result it is important to shift the focus of sustainable development to the cities and urban areas and their growth.
“The future will be predominantly urban, and the most immediate environmental concerns of most people will be urban ones”.8
In 1900 less than ten per cent of the global population lived in cities, whereas by the year 2000 the number has dramatically increased and half of the world’s population is located in urban areas. In the case of China, its urban population counts for about 660 million people or 50 per cent of its total population.9 There
5 Wernick, Iddo K., Robert Herman, Shekhar Govind, and Jesse H. Ausubel. “Materialization and dematerialization: measures and trends.” Daedalus, no. 3 (1996): 171–198, 172.
6 Rankine, Hitomi. “Why account for environmental change?”, 4.
http://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/2-ESCAP_0.pdf (accessed April 24, 2014).
7 Chien, Shiuh-Shen. “Chinese eco-cities: A perspective of land-speculation-oriented local entrepreneurialism.” China Information 27, no. 2 (2013): 173–196, 173.
8 Brundtland, Gro H. Our common future. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
9 Roberts, Peter, Joe Ravetz, and Clive George. Environment and the city. 1st ed. Routledge introductions to environment series. London u.a: Routledge, 2009, 15.
United Nations. “World Urbanization Prospects: The 2011 Revision.”. http://esa.un.org/unup/CD-ROM/WUP2011-F03-Urban_Population.xls (accessed May 10, 2014).
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cities will increase approximately by 350 million inhabitants.10In the year 2011 China’s emitted amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions represented 28 percent of the worldwide global CO2 emissions, and the urbanization rate and trend is not stagnating at all. Recent studies confirm a continual upward tendency. 11 12 China’s ongoing impressive economic development stands contrary towards the fact that China’s government is almost daily facing and managing new arising or reintroduced threats as well as problems in areas of maintenance of economic growth, social harmony and stability, urbanization and also increasing concerns about the environment and its protection.
China was one of the earliest countries in the developing world to announce the research, possible adoption and the implementation of a sustainable development strategy. China has been paying attention to the idea of ecological principles in the planning and construction of cities since the late 1980s13.
Different countries have been seeking various sustainable paths that will allow them to concurrently make (interrelated) social, economic and environmental causes subject of discussion. Officials of the Chinese government,
10 Baeumler, Axel, Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez, and Shomik Mehndiratta. “Sustainable Low-Carbon Cities in China:
Why it Matters and What Can be Done.” In Sustainable Low-Carbon City Development in China. Edited by Axel Baeumler, Ede Ijjasz-Vasquez and Shomik Mehndiratta, xxxix–lxvii. The World Bank, 2012, xxxix.
11 The pure increase of over 800 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in 2011 is equal to the total amount of Germany’s whole year emissions. The data also reveals that in the same year Chinese emission per person of 6.6 tons of CO2 were almost equal to the average amount for citizen in the European Union (7.3 tons).
12 Le Quéré et al. “The global carbon budget 1959–2011.” Earth System Science Data Discussions 5, no. 2 (2012): 165-185, 177.
13 Yip, Stanley C. T. “Planning for Eco-Cities in China: Visions, Approaches and Challenges.” Dalian, China, 2008, 3.
Li, Yifei, James Shepherd, Jennifer Layke, and Julia Currie. “Essential Buildings: The Emergence of “Low-Carbon Cities” in Post-Industrial Urban China.”.
http://www.colliers.com/en-us/~/media/files/global/researchreports/emergenceoflowcarboncities.ashx (accessed July 2, 2013).
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environmental research experts, as well as citizen or non-governmental organizations and enterprises have recognized and indirectly admitted the fact that the environmental issue is giving rise to problems and threats concerning the above-mentioned issues and apprehensions. Hence, it can’t be ignored anymore.
To revisit the issue of China’s method of dealing with environmental problems and protection, it’s important to indicate that the charge on the environment and the resulting negative consequences have been gradually noticed throughout the whole country, in society and in government. The Chinese government has started and is undertaking several ecological national projects and international cooperation in order to promote sustainability and environmental development nationwide and even across the nation’s border.14 In order to counteract environmental issues and threats, China has concentrated its attention on sustainable development in urban regions and especially on the construction and implementation of ecological cities. This plays a decisive role in the planning of the Chinese Communist Party.
The concept of eco-cities has a growing number of proponents in developed and developing countries looking to effectuate and adapt environmental policies.15 A global research and survey study on eco-cities which was conducted with the help of the International Eco-Cities Initiative categorized eco-cities into three types: ‘new development’, ‘expansion of urban area’ or
14 Bosshard, Peter. “China’s Environmental Footprint in Africa.” Working Papers in African Studies, no. 01 (2008): 2–19.
15 Joss, S., D. Tomozeiu, and R. Cowley. “"Eco-Cities - a global survey: eco-city profiles".”.
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/119909/pdf_research_ecocities_Global-Survey-updated.pdf (accessed June 28, 2013), 1 ff.
Lye, Liang F., and Gang Chen. Towards a liveable and sustainable urban environment: Eco-cities in East Asia.
Singapore, Hackensack, NJ: World Scientific, 2010.
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‘retro-fit development’. More than half of all new developed ecological cities are constructed in the Asia and Australasia regions.16
Due to this and the fact that China is one of the biggest emitters of CO2, the concept of eco-cities in China should gain more attention.