Straits Times 5 Sep 09;
World Wide Fund for Nature China's country representative Dermot O'Gorman was in Singapore this week for a meeting of WWF senior management. He speaks to Grace Chua about urbanisation, climate change, energy and biodiversity in the world's most populous nation.
# What are the biggest environmental challenges facing China today?
Water and energy. In terms of immediacy, water is by far the most pressing - access to water, pollution, lack of clean water and adaptation to climate change.
In 1970, China was 25 per cent urban and 75 per cent rural. By about 2030, those figures will be reversed. Providing water to another 500 million to 600 million people in urban settlements will be a big challenge.
For the last decade, WWF has run a water programme focusing on the Yangtze River basin, which produces 33 per cent of China's gross domestic product (GDP) and where a quarter of China's population live. (China has a population of about 1.3 billion.)
Next month, we'll be launching the results of a Yangtze River-wide vulnerability assessment, showing that climate change will have different impacts at different parts of the basin.
# What are China's current targets for energy efficiency and use of renewable energy?
China's targets are reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 per cent by next year (4 per cent a year from 2006 to next year), and getting 20 per cent of energy needs from renewable sources by 2020.
A lot of people said these were unrealistic when they were announced in 2005, and they had less than 1 per cent in the first year, but last year, the increase in energy efficiency was more than 4per cent.
My view is that the Chinese government has recognised that in order to not only lift China's population out of poverty but also move them into the well-off middle class, they need to look at a different model because there are not enough resources in China or even in the world to take people out of poverty and into those consumption levels.
The targets are driven by a recognition of future prices of oil, but also a recognition that they need to be a resource-efficient society. It's a far-reaching strategy, thought through for the next few decades.
# What do you expect China's response to be at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP-15) in December?
WWF is still optimistic that we'll be able to achieve a deal at Copenhagen, but there are still a number of hurdles.
We feel that China is already making and can continue to make important contributions to (carbon emissions) reductions through energy-efficiency initiatives and renewable-energy targets.
For the last two years, China has built one 1-megawatt wind turbine every hour, and that is only going to accelerate.
China is likely to become the world's largest producer of wind energy and then solar energy. There are fantastic business opportunities.
# What is WWF's role in shaping China's climate change policy?
The WWF has been in China for nearly 30years. We see ourselves as playing a role in bringing best practices from around the world to China, raising awareness about environmental issues to the general Chinese population, and bridging a gap of understanding between China and other countries.
# WWF is traditionally known for its biodiversity and conservation work. What are the threats that climate change poses to biodiversity in China?
We do studies of species' vulnerability to climate change - for example, in panda conservation, we take a holistic approach to managing panda populations.
We work with local nature reserves and forest bureaus to do patrols and surveys of pandas in the wild. One of the things that these patrols are telling us is that bamboo bloomings (where bamboo flowers and dies after several decades of growth) may be triggered by climatic changes.
There's further research to be done on how climate change would impact bamboo stems in Sichuan, which would have a major impact on pandas' food sources.
# What happens when some of WWF's conservation measures, such as fighting the illegal wildlife trade, run up against cultural practices like consuming traditional Chinese medicine or eating shark's fin soup?
Some of those cultural practices involve products such as shark's fin and tiger bones. We work with traditional Chinese medicine doctors to explain that tiger bones and other things don't have medicinal purposes, and work with restaurants to explain that by consuming these products, they're endangering the species.
It's no different from other environmental issues where because of growing industrialisation and wealth, people have increased access to these items, and the practices are no longer sustainable.
# What lessons can Singapore learn from China, and vice versa?
There's a long history of exchange between Singapore and China. Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing - these are really examples in Asia of cities that are on the cutting edge of a lot of things.
It's important (for them) to play a leadership role in the region to show innovation, business ideals on green energy, sustainable buildings and transport systems. There's a lot that's already being exchanged.
There are increasing opportunities for Singapore and China businesses to work together, and to collaborate on environmental and energy issues.
