There has rarely been an economy of the size of China that has been catapulted from a continent that represented old world and ancient philosophies, into a thriving, bustling modern world. The era of most of their citizens riding bicycles and shopping at community markets has made a dramatic shift to the industrial age and the heavy pollution and overpopulation of cars exemplifies this perfectly. Recognizing the problems that they have created, China has made some rather hefty commitments to establish an effort to being ‘green’. The question is, can they follow up with those promised or has it become a daunting task.

The industrial boom that China has experienced raised the standard of living for thousands that were previously poverty stricken. However, this came at a price as heavy metal poisoning has left thousands of children dying and sick and has created what is called ‘cancer villages’ that are over seventy percent polluted on land, rivers and lakes. The effects that China’s economy has expanded outside their own country and into areas on a global scale, including Southeast Asia, South America and Central Asia.

The drastic changes in China and the intensity of pollution and environmental degradation has promoted China’s regulatory commission to create the “Green Credit Directive”. The purpose of this unprecedented policy is to have the Chinese banks base social and environmental standards as the benchmark for evaluating candidates for bank loans. They updated the language of the policy in 2012 to match more closely to the adherence of international standards regarding safeguards.

It appears that the wording and the intensions of the Chinese government are at a high level of compliance for the directive, but the implementation is sorely lacking. Very little has been done to show that there will be actions that implement the words.

Source: http://www.foe.org/news/archives/2013-03-assessing-chinas-commitment-to-greening-its-overseas-finance

3 Responses to “How Committed is China in the Green Effort”

1. 1
   WhereAreWe Says:
   

   Sorry, but there isn’t much that the Chinese government does that I think can be fully trusted. They have made shady deals, polluted their own country, treat their people terribly, create products that are dangerous for ourselves, our kids and even our pets. What makes us think they have any serious attitudes about going green? Of course, unless they can make a very large profit. And that seems to be the only thing that is encouraging them to approach the topic of ecology.

   June 17th, 2013 at 10:51 pm
2. 2
   AllAboutMe Says:
   

   Nope, as far as I am concerned China is filling everyone with nonsense. They’re already under the microscope for a lot of bad habits. Kind of difficult to be a Communist country with a Capitalist attitude toward profit. Until they begin to clean up their own act, no one is going to believe them.

   June 16th, 2013 at 7:43 pm
3. 3
   PrettyDarnedGood Says:
   

   China has changed more than almost any country in the world, in a faster method that I think even they expected. They are stuck in what they have created and now the world is looking at them like their idiots for some of the decisions that they made. They have a lot of explaining to do and it has to be in actions, not words.

   June 15th, 2013 at 11:35 am

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