Barbara Finamore - Will China Save the Planet?

This book is dedicated to the memory of my beloved parents, Roy Paul Finamore and Marie Gorman Finamore

Barbara Finamore

polity

Copyright Barbara Finamore 2018

The right of Barbara Finamore to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2018 by Polity Press

Polity Press
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Cambridge CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press
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Medford, MA 02155, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-3266-7

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Finamore, Barbara, author.
Title: Will China save the planet? / Barbara Finamore.
Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA, USA : Polity, 2018. | Series: Environmental futures | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018021605 (print) | LCCN 2018037960 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509532667 (Epub) | ISBN 9781509532636 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509532643 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Environmental policy--China. | Clean energy--China. | Energy policy--Environmental aspects--China. | China--Environmental conditions.
Classification: LCC GE190.C6 (ebook) | LCC GE190.C6 F56 2018 (print) | DDC 363.7/05610951--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021605

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I would first like to thank my editor at Polity Press, Louise Knight, who persuaded me to write this book, and my extraordinarily helpful assistant editor Nekane Tanaka Galdos.

I am deeply indebted to the Natural Resources Defense Councils leadership, particularly its president Rhea Suh, as well as Susan Casey-Lefkowitz and Jake Schmidt, all of whom gave me the time I needed; and to NRDCs members and supporters, who made this project possible. Bob Deans, Edwin Chen, and Jenny Powers provided essential guidance and support. But I could never have written this book without the inspiration of John Adams, Tom Cochran, and Jacob Scherr, who brought me to NRDC in 1981; of Frances Beinecke, who opened our Beijing office; and of everyone who has been a part of our dedicated China team for nearly a quarter of a century.

Many thanks to the colleagues who took time to review the manuscript and provide invaluable comments: Alvin Lin, Fang Jian, Han Chen, Freda Fung, Jingjing Qian, and Mona Yew. Lynne Curry and several anonymous reviewers provided crucial feedback.

Many other colleagues contributed key research or insights: Lauren Sidner, Yang Fuqiang, Wang Wanxing, Wang Yan, Wu Qi, Zhang Xiya, Hyoungmi Kim, Kevin Hsu, Brian Bartholomew, Noah Lerner, Collin Smith, Charlotte Steiner, and Winslow Robertson. I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of many other colleagues, including Irina Petrova, Lauren Gruber, Lisa Goffredi, Valerie Keane, Alex Liu, Apurva Muchhala, and Hiawatha Barno.

No words can express my profound gratitude to friends and family for their unstinting support, especially my children Rebecca, Patrick, and Michael Young; my daughter-in-law Megan Wolf Young; and my siblings Marie, Roy, and Michael Finamore. Most of all, I wish to thank my beloved husband of 35 years, Stephen Young, who first brought me to China in 1990.

Donald Trump famously called climate change a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese to make US manufacturing noncompetitive. But the evidence is staring us in the face: climate change is real and it is happening now. How else can we explain a 50-fold increase since 1980 in the number of places experiencing life-threatening or extreme heat; a surge in catastrophic hurricanes, flooding, and raging wildfires; North Pole temperatures that have soared 50 degrees Fahrenheit above normal; and an iceberg weighing one trillion tons breaking off Antarctica?