Chinese Wind Energy Disad

2NC/1NR—Turns Warming

Only Chinese clean tech leadership solves global environmental sustainability and runaway warming---they’re uniquely suited to South-South collaboration that spreads clean tech globally through the developing world

The global environmental threats that loomed on the horizon in 1992 are now real and growing challenges. Climate change, for example, was then seen as a significant but still distant threat. Emissions, however, have continued to rise, largely in developing countries, as governments have sought to raise living standards and free people from poverty. China’s per capita emissions have risen fourfold, and today it is the world’s largest emitter. The window for keeping the rise in global temperatures below 2°C to avoid the worst impacts of climate change is now rapidly closing. Many believe it may already be shut.

In parallel to population and environmental changes, the global economic order has also been transformed. In 1992, China’s economy was one fifth the size of the United States’; it is now set to become the world’s largest within this decade. And where China has led, other emerging economies have followed. Both Brazil and India, for example, have overtaken the UK, which was until recently the world’s fifth largest economy*.

This rise of China and other emerging economies is shaping a new global political landscape – one that is not yet fully reflected in international institutions and processes. This transition is not only creating new centers of influence, but also tremendous economic, developmental and business opportunities.

This report – a collaborative effort between The Climate Group and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Policy and Management – was written with these profound changes, as well as China’s upcoming leadership changeover, in mind.

The report highlights what Chinese decision and policymakers already know: that 20 years of extraordinary economic growth have delivered major material and social benefits, but at considerable environmental cost. But it also underlines that both China’s future, and the world’s ability to undertake a ‘clean revolution’ to address global sustainability problems while ensuring long-term prosperity for all, are closely intertwined.

The key point is that the old paradigm of industrialized countries driving change and pulling the developing world behind, no longer holds true - if it ever really did. There is much other countries can learn from China’s growth over the last two decades. The country’s success is built on giving business long-term policy and investment certainty, providing active support for industries of the future and focusing on structural change rather than shortterm profits. All these are features central to a successful, long-term global strategy for sustainability – a fact recognized by the handful of companies around the world that have put sustainability at the heart of their business - but that are far from universally adopted. China could also take the lead in more specific areas. A few ideas come to mind:

— The new Chinese leadership could guide the creation of the international consensus and cooperation framework outlined in this report, helping break current distrust and negotiation deadlocks.

— With its trade surplus and huge reserves, China could become the major financier of green growth in the developing world. It could issue green infrastructure bonds that would dwarf the funding available at present, that would drive markets for the higher value-add green products that will be at the heart of China’s future growth.