I was reading the DOD’s 2009 Annual Report to Congress on the Military Power of the People’s Republic of China, and I came across an interesting portion. It mentions that both Japan and South Korea are suffering form acid rain being generated by China’s coal fired power plants. I think this is a very interesting problem. China enjoys banging on the drum of sovereignty when its interests are threatened, but what about the sovereign right of other countries not to have your pollution dumped on them?
I realize that Japan and South Korea might not be in good situations to force China to change its behaviour, but I wonder what the consequences for China will be if it continues to produce problems for its neighbours. Clearly these countries will have something to say when the acid rain begins to cause noticeable problems, if it isn’t already. Unlike for climate change, it doesn’t seem likely that China will be able to point the finger at Japan and South Korea and accuse them of having gained earlier without having to deal with this problem.
This leads to some interesting considerations when thinking about how Japan and South Korea will react. Do they attempt to force China to clean up its act on its own? And if so, how do they manage that? Do they simply pay for the technology to clean up China’s coal power plants? Or maybe these questions aren’t even relevant. If the consequences of China’s coal usage are having direct impacts on its neighbours large enough for them to complain vocally, will China’s own population have forced a resolution before it reaches that point? Maybe Japan and South Korea will simply fund Chinese environmental NGOs in an effort to incite change from within. I can’t see China being happy with that sort of foreign medeling, but I think it’s going to be hard to convince the international community that it is out of line. They can harp on about sovereignty all they want, but if their sovereign emissions are causing large problems in other countries I don’t expect them to get much sympathy in the international community.
Japan is short on trees, and if the German experience is anything to go by, acid rain does a lot of damage to forests. It would be interesting and somewhat terrifying, if an airborne, sulfur-dioxide assault against Japan’s forests led to conflict – diplomatic or military – between China and Japan.
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Intercountry agreements like that are tough, no? Seems like the Coase theorem would be applicable here, but politically I think it's unworkable. In Ontario, we have many of the same problems, as much of the power in the mid-west is coal generated, and we share an airshed, with the prevailing winds blowing in our direction. We thus bear the brunt of the particulate, and other pollutants. (mentioned here, if I remember right)
If I remember correctly, there was much grandfathering in of older plants in the mid-west, which are thus cheaper to run since there are fewer pollutant controls, and thus the incentives are all wrong. Anyways, interesting that the same problems occur closer to home, and we may be a little closer to working them out, but not completely.
MikeG
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