The West Told to Stop the Blame Game on Pollution

Singapore, 25 June 2007 – The West should stop the hypocritical blame game and work collectively with developing countries to fix the global warming problems, Asian panellists in a session on sustainable growth said on the second day of the World Economic Forum on East Asia.

Commenting on a recent Dutch government-funded study that showed that China has overtaken the US as the world’s biggest polluter – producing the highest level of carbon dioxide emissions in 2006 – Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Malaysia’s Second Minister of Finance, said that singling out China was pointless. "It’s wrong, there should not be hypocrisy," he added.

Yakcop pointed out that factories in China contributing to the pollution are mostly owned by American and European MNCs that are benefiting from China’s cheap labour resources. China and other developing countries have little choice but to continue to welcome foreign investments.

"We can’t slow down because we‘ve got plenty of poverty," the Malaysian minister added, "The growth momentum has to be kept up; sustainable growth emphasis must be growth."

Chen Feng, Chairman of China Hainan Airlines, also turned the tables on the West, noting that the industrialization in the West, particularly in the United Kingdom, more than 100 years ago, created the present problem. He said Chinese citizens are paying a high price for the pollution caused by the iron and steel industries.

Chen recalled watching a television documentary on the destruction of Beijing’s Yuanmingyuan (Old Summer Palace) by fire 146 years ago when Anglo-French forces stormed the building. Denouncing the French as "bandits" for their role in the destruction, Chen said he supports the need for collective global action in tackling the serious environmental problem.

While agreeing that the West and the East are "all in this together," Ralph Peterson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, CH2M HILL Companies in the US, said the manner in which Asian countries are consuming energy is serious cause for concern.

He cited statistics that showed that while ASEAN countries account for 11% of the global output, they use 21% of its energy. China accounts for 5.5% of the global GDP but consumes 15% of the energy. China’s water consumption as a percentage of its GDP is four times the world average. Peterson said this disproportionate consumption pattern does not make for sustainable growth.

He feared that the environmental issue would produce backlash in western countries as more people suffer employment loss and economic dislocation as jobs continue to move overseas.

Masatoshi Wakabayashi, Minister of the Environment of Japan, said there is a need for a new global mechanism to achieve the G8 objective of reducing greenhouse emissions by half in 2050. He believed that the initiative of the US, announced ahead of the recent Heiligendamm summit, to call a meeting of major gas-emitting countries, was a "very significant" step forward in the global effort on environmental protection.

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