Last Friday, I conducted an interview with Professor Qian of the School of the Environment, Nanjing University. He introduced me to a term I hadn't been familiar with previously: 生态补偿机制, translated as "eco-compensation mechanism". This seems to be a term used primarily in China, refering to the institutional allocation of the costs and benefits associated with environmental degradation, primarily through economic means. In short, the people who pollute upstream pay the people downstream who have to deal with the polluted water, compensating them for their losses. It's an environmental economist's favorite concept, and I was excited to hear Professor Qian bring it up when I asked who bears the cost of pollution control in China. However, he emphasized that these eco-compensation mechanisms are by no means widespread in China. For the most part, he said, people rely on the government. It gives me the image of little toddler manufacturers spilling whatever they want all over the kitchen floor and Mama Government coming through with a mop to clean it up. I know the issue is more complicated (Mama Government really likes the towers of flour paste and graham crackers the toddlers make, for one thing), but there really does seem to be some questionable parenting of industry taking place in China. I asked Professor Qian, could this change? Yes, he said. Slowly.
No comments:
Post a Comment