Environment: China Issues Warning on Climate and Growth

China's environment minister on Monday issued an unusually stark warning about the effects of unbridled development on the country's air, water and soil, saying the nation's current path could stifle long-term economic growth and feed social instability

Mr. Zhou's vow to weigh factors like climate change when approving new factories would be significant given that such policies were largely the domain of China's top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, which had been reluctant to sacrifice economic growth for environmental protection.

With its increasing fixation on social stability, the Communist Party may have come to realize the benefits of balancing economic growth with the public's demands for uncontaminated food and water. In recent weeks, there has been a cascade of damaging news about the environment, from dangerously high smog levels in the capital to a study that found 10 percent of domestically grown rice contaminated with heavy metals.

Official vows to rein in environmental abuse are frequently announced, but many laws and policies are ultimately circumvented or ignored at the local level, in large part because of a system that encourages officials to pursue economic growth over environmental sustainability.

Still, the governing Communist Party has demonstrated its ability to make significant changes. Last summer, Mr. Wen vowed to use an iron hand to improve his country's energy efficiency. By the fall, more than 2,000 steel mills, cement plants and other energy-hogging factories had been closed.

For more, see China Issues Warning on Climate and Growth by Andrew Jacobs, February 28, 2011 at NYTimes.com.