THIS WEEK ON 
SCIENCE FRIDAY...

Science Friday > Archives > 1997 > October > October 31, 1997

Hour One: Global Warming Policy / China's Environment

Last week, President Clinton announced a new initiative for dealing with greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, one that involves treating the right to emit greenhouse gases as a tradeable commodity. Under the administration's plan, companies could take it on themselves to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. Companies that don't reduce their own emissions, however, could choose to buy emission rights from a company with emissions below their target levels, could pay to preserve forestland, or could pay to help a factory in a developing country reduce emissions.

Many industry officials and economists are hailing the proposed free market initiative as a sensible, affordable approach towards reducing emissions quickly. A similar program, part of the 1990 Clean Air Act, has worked to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions through the force of the free market.

Several companies, including American Electric Power, Pacificorp, and British Petroleum are working in conjunction with environmental groups to preserve some five million acres of South American forest land, an act that will keep millions of tons of carbon from entering the atmosphere - and that costs just a fraction of what pollution controls in the U.S. and Europe cost.

The current plan is supposed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels over a period of eleven to thirteen years, with mandatory limits imposed thereafter. Many foreign countries think that time frame is too gentle, and are calling for the U.S. to take a more aggressive stance in reducing emissions. In December, representatives from around the world will meet in Kyoto to discuss efforts to combat global climate change -- and the U.S. plans are likely to be a hot topic of debate.

On this segment of Science Friday, a look at the economics of global emissions policy... does the administration's plan make economic and scientific sense?

Plus....

Industry in China is expanding, and more and more of the citizens are beginning to demand products and standards of living that most Americans take for granted - cars, more electric power, plastics - putting pressure on the environment. China, with over a quarter of the world's population, plays a key role as the world tries to deal with global environmental issues like climate change, greenhouse gases, and ozone depletion. It's not the only offender, of course - other developing nations, such as India and Indonesia, are facing significant environmental problems of their own, as illustrated by the recent fires in Indonesia that covered large areas of Asia with smoky smog. China, however, is less open about exactly what its environmental problems are, and about what it intends to do about them.

Smoke from fires in Indonesia focussed attention on air quality in Asia. (Photo courtesty of NOAA)

Journalist Mark Hertsgaard has just returned from extensive traveling in China to look at the state of the environment. On this segment of Science Friday, we'll talk to him about what he found, and about whether the rest of the world's environmental efforts matter at all in the face of China's environmental policies.

Listen to this program in RealAudio!

Guests:

Dale Heydlauff
Vice President, Environmental Affairs
American Electric Power
Columbus, Ohio

Dan Dudek
Environmental Defense Fund
New York, NY

Mark Hertsgaard
Investigative Journalist
Author, "Blue Planet, Red Sky" (soon to be published by Broadway Books)
Takoma Park, Maryland

Books/Articles Discussed:

Related links:

The Emissions Marketing Association
How other emissions trading programs work

Preserving Brazil's Tropical Forests through Emissions Trading (An EDF report)

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

India's environment, as seen through the eyes of an Indian think tank

The National Environmental Protection Agency of the People's Republic of China

Shanghai Environment Online

A statement on environmental protection from the State Council of the People's Republic of China