Sustainable Living in China

A comprehensive introduction of Chinese sustainable living styles

Liao Er Dong (Erasmus Winter 21-22)

January 24, 2022

Overview

With the rapid economic development thorough the country, China has been undergoing nationwide industrialization and urbanization. However, in line with all the other developing regions, the inevitable consequences -- environmental damage pushed the society to put focus on sustainability.

As a developing country, the sustainable development is just at its beginning. The good thing is, up to the central government and down to individual citizens, the awareness of sustainable development and living is rising up.

Air Pollution in China (Shutterstock, 2018)

Location and Background: Foshan, China

Taking my home city, Foshan, a typical Chinese developing city, as an example to illustrate the sustainable living in China.

The city map of Foshan

Foshan (known as "Buddhaberg" in German) is a typical developing city located in Southern China, with a greatly industrialized economic foundation and a population of 7.2 million people. The city is situated in the delta of the Pearl River , only about 20 km from Guangdong's metropolis of Guangzhou and is one of the nine cities of Guangdong that are part of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

To the present day, Foshan serves as an important trade and industrial center in China. The light industry dominates; The most important products that are manufactured are textiles, ceramics, household appliances, electronic products, leather goods, printed matter, building materials, pharmaceuticals and foodstuffs. The ceramic industry is a major contributor to the high levels of air pollution in Foshan. Some areas in Foshan are very well developed economically and are among the richest areas in Foshan.

Sustainable Living Styles

Generally in China, people who live in urban areas have the basic awareness of sustainable living. Citizens tend to practice their green ideas in aspects of commuting, consuming, recycling and so on. The younger generation in particular, are willing to devote more into promoting sustainability in their communities. Veganism, eco-friendly life-styles are emerging as more and more attention is being drawn towards sustainable development in the city.

“For China, this is no time for incrementalism. It needs to steer the emerging middle class to greener pastures before they develop the unsustainable tastes and habits of the western middle classes.”

1. Eco-Commuting （Mobility）

In the City of Foshan, public transportation is comprehensively- developed. The public transportation network includes metro lines, buses, and shared vehicles (e.g. shared cars, shared bikes). Commuting with the metro would sometimes be more preferable as driving a car in a populous city on a daily basis is way more troublesome, since commuting on a car during the peak hours can take up to 2 hours.

Case study 1: Bicycle Sharing System

Shared bikes are extremely popular in the city of Foshan, in line with all the other cities in China. Bike sharing has been booming rapidly in China since the second half of 2016, and already looks to be impacting the future development of the urban mobility ecosystem. Essentially, bike sharing relies on a system of self-service bike stations. Users typically check out a bike using a membership or credit/debit card. They can then ride to their destination and park the bike in a nearby docking station. Nearly 300 million rides per day were completed on conventional bikes in China in 2019. More than twice as many journeys were made on electric bikes and electric scooters that year - 700 million rides a day. In this way, tons of energy burning could be reduced.

Shared bikes cluster in Foshan (VCG, 2017)

2. Sustainable Consumption

The sustainable consumption behavior has increased in China, especially in urban cities. Some clear evidence of this includes food purchasing behavior. Recent studies have also suggested that considering full product information transparency, consumers are willing to pay premium prices for products. With this in mind, sustainable consumption must still be facilitated by related policies, regulations, and tools.

More and more Chinese consumers are getting sustainability-conscious nowadays. According to a report released by the China Chain store and Franchise Association , young people between ages 20 and 29 show the most interest and awareness in sustainable consumption whereas Chinese consumers of ages 30 to 49 have the strongest sustainable consumption ability. Sustainability-conscious Chinese consumers believe they should adopt a sustainable consumption in their daily life in domains such as transports, consumer goods and food. In the eyes of consumers, sustainable consumption is relatively diversified. When it comes to eco-friendly consumption in China, the five phrases that consumers think of most are waste classification (25.31%), recycling (23.78%), environmental protection (22.87%), low carbon emission (21.63%) and cooperative economy (20.60%). However, sustainability in China has a low proportion of consumption (20%). One of the main reasons is the lack of theoretical knowledge and policy implementation.

In the case of Foshan, there are a lot of modern stores that promote sustainability in different ways. There are restaurants that encourage customers to carry their own tablewares.

3. Leisure Activities Eco-tourism

What do Chinese people do with all this free time? The most popular activity is to travel to nearby destinations, followed by spending time on the internet, and finally going to the movies. Chinese people like to spend their free time outdoors as much as possible. Parents will take their children outside to sai tai yang (“soak in some sun”). Even board games which could also be played inside are often played at the park.

By 2022, more than 60% of households would be expected to engage in 'green living' activities such as tree-planting, wildlife protection, and cutting plastic waste.

China is experiencing an increase in leisure time and participation in sport and tourism. This is partly the result of a growing economy, which gives individuals and the government more disposable income to spend on sports and tourism. The Chinese government is conscious about the important role that tourism can play in reaching the goals for sustainable development in the future. This aspect must definitely be seen as a positive attitude by the Chinese government trying to solve the contemporary inequalities and environmental alarms of this country.

While tourism’s impact on societies and territories is impressively high and often dangerous, good policies and practices can transform it into a force promoting welfare and protection, reaching that idea of “sustainability for development” that the United Nations are seeking. As we have seen, in China, this direction towards sustainable tourism and development has been going on for years, taking different forms according to the needs of the context, allowing important (mainly public) investments and producing important results for the economic, ecological and social fields. Touristic projects contribute to rediscovering the relation with nature and in increasing the local identity; but they also contribute to distributing more uniformly services, culture and job opportunities within an ample country afflicted by important inequalities such as China.

In the case of Foshan, residents like to gather in the nearby parks for their leisure time. Playing Chinese chess, having picnics with family, going for a walk are the most popular options. There are a variety of greenaries in Foshan, which provides sufficient spaces for people to conduct the activities.

The Role of Government

Officially, the government of China has recognized the uppermost importance of sustainable development and has been taking responding measures regarding such environmental issues.

“For the sake of mankind itself and the survival of future generations, through many twists and turns and hardships, mankind has finally awakened from the concept of the opposition between environment and development.”

-------the official definition of sustainable development in Chinese Wikipedia

Being the No.1 greenhouse gases emitters, China's handling with climate change not only affects the livelihood, but also the global battle against climate change. In response, the Central government has implemented policies to curb emissions and stem further degradation, such as by signing the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate and pledging to be carbon neutral by 2060.

The climate change mitigation policy in China is a significant environmental protection strategy since the 2010s after rapid domestic urbanization. As the second-largest greenhouse gas emitter and the largest populated country in the world, China published a series of policies and laws to mitigate environmental impacts, such as reduce atmospheric pollution, transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and achieve carbon neutrality.

In the past 20 years, China has published 4 legislative laws and 5 executive plans as outlines regarding the climate change issues. Government departments and local governments also developed their own special plans and implementation methods based on the national outline. In 2015 China joined the Paris Agreement to globally constrain the temperature rise and greenhouse gas emission.
In September, 2020, China created the 14th FYP(Five Year Plan) . The key climate- and energy-related ideas in the FYP will be critical to China’s energy transition and global efforts to tackle climate change.
In April 2021, the United States and China decided to cooperate and tackle the global climate change. Series of international and domestic mitigation and adaption strategies was published based on the Paris Agreement.

Conclusion

"We should protect nature and preserve the environment like we protect our eyes, and endeavor to foster a new relationship where people and nature can both prosper and live in harmony."

-------- Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The biggest developing country, China, has been on its track to develop the consciousness of sustainability. Over the past few decades, the government has implemented a series of policies in response to the local environmental crises, which includes issues like air pollution, oil degradation that the country has been suffering.

As for individual citizens, more and more of them have joined the green living-styles. Especially among youngsters in big cities, more awareness of sustainability when conducting their personal behaviors. The environmental future of the country becomes more promising with theses efforts of the young adults.

Beijing’s strategic bet for its sustainable future is on achieving state-guided and funded technological breakthroughs in, enabling a green transformation at home and global tech leadership in all areas, from renewables to environmental protection equipment. China’s green ambitions will continue going forward: the forthcoming 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) is expected to drive decarbonization and indigenous tech innovation, however, without proposing overly ambitious climate actions.