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Article

29 Dec 2016

Author:
Ma Tianjie, Chinadialogue

2016: The changing narratives of China’s environmental story

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Although it appears that China’s environmental script is repeated year-after-year, some inherent narratives could be shifting.

…China's coal consumption had peaked around 2014 and that China's economic growth had, in fact, already decoupled from coal consumption[,]…[which] will have a fundamental impact on the country's air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution emissions... China's annual average levels of PM2.5 have shown a steady downward trend…. The “new normal” period of slowing economic growth has set in and a gradual reduction in water, soil and other kinds of pollution has followed…. While the decline in pollution is good news for China's tattered environment, clearing up the problems left by history will be an arduous task for China for some time to come, as Changzhou’s "poisoned soil" revealed.

…Since 2014, China has attracted attention for showing initiative and a positive attitude towards environmental issues such as climate change, the ivory trade and green finance…Officials, civil society and international parties will co-author the continuing narrative on China's environment. In 2016, when Chinese officials used the ambitious "13th Five-Year Plan" to set the tone of green growth over the next five years, people in Changzhou, Lianyungang and Chengdu were screaming about their own environmental problems…. [T]he interaction between these forces will determine how the ecological picture of this country is depicted.