China Environmental Law

I recognize that it is difficult for the organizers of any conference to keep all speakers on topic, especially when many are the representatives of governmental and corporate co-sponsors.  In yesterday’s panels, a number of speakers seemed to forget the theme. Thus, I am happy to report that the first panel of the morning generally kept on-topic and the star of that show was Huang Xingguo, Mayor of Tianjin, a co-organizer.

His speech began with a well-constructed tour through the history of China’s modern (post-”liberation) environmental progress up through 2007’s encouraging energy efficiency improvements and pollutant emission reductions. The bulk of the speech was devoted to Tianjin’s particular recent accomplishments (better energy efficiency gains (4.4%), not as good SO2 and COD reductions (-3% and -2.1% respectively)) and goals. While there was nothing earth shattering in Tianjin’s plans, they are admirable and well-considered. For instance, Tianjin, plans to increase its sewage treatment rate from the current 80% to 98% within the next (I think he said) 5 years, and aims to continue to improve upon the already impressive water conservation gains it has achieved (tap water usage decreased from 2.2 cubic meters in 1999 to 1.65 cubic meters in 2007, during a period of rapid population growth). Listening to Mayor Huang one certainly came away with the impressive that these goals would be achieved. There are some definite advantages to a planning process that brooks no opposition.

Those good for nothing “uncultivated salt marshes” made a reappearance. Turns out Tianjin has imported soil from the “mountains” to fill in the marshes and then needs to provide water for the trees planted on the fill (I assume because the groundwater is brackish). This is not a sustainable practice. Fortunately there are plans to preserve 500 square kilometers of these marshes in Tianjin.

Although I had already determined that I liked Mayor Huang, he cemented my good opinion by the way he dealt with a boorish question from the representative of an American company that will remain nameless. The gist of the “question” was “won’t you buy our product to help your city become more efficient?” The response batted down the request with polite good humor.

I was surprised that such grace was displayed by a northern Mayor. As with most countries China has several regional rivalries, the strongest being between the north and south. Living in Shanghai I naturally take the side of the southerners. Whenever my Chinese teacher, an cultured product of old Shanghai, starts a sentence with “beifang ren” (anyone living north of the Yangtze River), I know that what will follow will be something coarse and vulgar: northerners use this ugly word, northerners eat this barbaric food, etc. I was beginning to think that these stereotypes were wrong if the well-mannered Mayor Huang was a beifang ren, but turns out his hometown is Ningbo, Zhejiang Province-a city squarely within the Jiangnan. Tianjin is in good hands.