The United Nations report on climate change, released last Friday, warned of 50 million made homeless as a result of global warming by as early as 2010.
Reports such as this will serve to pile even more pressure on the big polluters including, of course, China - the mothership of chemical demand growth.
Any investor who doesn't have a Plan B, factoring in a much harsher regulatory climate in China, is burying their heads in the sand.
China's government will have to introduce new legislation, and more effectively implement existing rules, because of rising international pressure.
This LA Times article provides a neat summary of the scale of the problem.
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This is not the time to behave like an Ostrich
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Comments (2)
Hi John--
Interesting piece you linked to. A couple of the passages that jumped out for me:
Many of the laws and regulations passed by the central government are routinely ignored or otherwise undermined by local officials because of corruption, mismanagement, greed and a system that hands out promotions based on economic growth.
and
Even within SEPA, officials' hands are tied. In a quirk of the Chinese governmental hierarchy, local SEPA inspectors are paid by and otherwise dependent on the mayors and local Communist Party secretaries they are supposed to oversee, creating potential conflicts of interest.
I love that word "potential".
This national/local dichotomy is something I keep hearing about in regard to China, not only affecting pollution, but also the ability for foreign firms to do business.
It's worth noting that the Wall St Journal won the Pulitzer for it's reporting on development in China. You can read all the stories here.
Posted by Clay | April 17, 2007 6:29 PM
Posted on April 17, 2007 18:29
Hi John--
Interesting piece you linked to. A couple of the passages that jumped out for me:
Many of the laws and regulations passed by the central government are routinely ignored or otherwise undermined by local officials because of corruption, mismanagement, greed and a system that hands out promotions based on economic growth.
and
Even within SEPA, officials' hands are tied. In a quirk of the Chinese governmental hierarchy, local SEPA inspectors are paid by and otherwise dependent on the mayors and local Communist Party secretaries they are supposed to oversee, creating potential conflicts of interest.
I love that word "potential".
This national/local dichotomy is something I keep hearing about in regard to China, not only affecting pollution, but also the ability for foreign firms to do business.
It's worth noting that the Wall St Journal won the Pulitzer for it's reporting on development in China. You can read all the stories here.
Posted by Clay | April 17, 2007 6:31 PM
Posted on April 17, 2007 18:31