China Environmental Law

Ah power from the sun, what could be more natural (except perhaps power from the wind which is also a little more iconic-the wind turbine being more inspiring than the solar panel)? Here in China, however, solar has a real image problem. Even though it is one of the major global centers of PV panel production (and it will soon be the largest), China consumes little of what it produces. Why?

At the Sino-US Green Building Workshop I attended yesterday, one of the questions to the US sustainable development presenters was “How can you incorporate PV panels into your buildings when solar panels take so much energy to produce and generate such hazardous chemicals?” This is a meme repeated frequently in China. As to the hazardous waste issue, the Washington Post ran a good story on the production of polysilicon (used in solar energy panels), and the unsavory means by which the toxic wastes generated in the production process are disposed of by many polysilicon manufacturing plants in China (h/t China Digital Times ). The practices described in the story are unquestionable violations of China’s hazardous waste disposal laws and regulations. Having seen how the sausage is made, perhaps the Chinese are not too keen on eating it.

These stories and similar ones regarding the adverse environmental impacts of producing some biofuels , and the exploitation of workers by “green” businesses, make it clear that just because a business operates or invests in a “green” space, it should not be exempt from the standards for responsible sourcing and investment that apply to a company making running shoes or children’s toys.