West can sneer all it wants, China is in the ecological driver’s seat

Recently cities around the world celebrated Earth Hour, a symbolic event where businesses and landmark buildings switched off their lights to raise awareness of the need to conserve electricity and mitigate the effects of climate change. Thousands of well-meaning environmentalists literally fell over themselves to join in this global festival of darkness.

It doesn’t matter that Earth Hour is almost universally ignored as a fatuous exercise in virtue-signalling – the act of grandstanding to widely announce one’s virtue to the world. This didn’t stop several commentators using the event to point out that China had only joined in half-heartedly, switching off the lights in the Birds Nest stadium in Beijing while most of the country carried on as normal.

This has long been the way that environmentalism has been presented. It encapsulates the ethical high ground of the West with China presented as an irresponsible environmental pariah. For Western advocates, the environmental debate focuses on restraint, limits and a fear of the future; for China, material and consumer growth is central to economic and social sustainability as a means to create a better future. For China, Earth Hour’s slogan “Consume Less” seems an insult to the many millions who have only just emerged from having nothing.

The real reason for China’s U-turn on climate change

Admittedly, there are very real environmental causes for concern in China. It is still the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world with dangerous levels of pollution and choking traffic congestion in major urban centres. For many in the West, the very notion of a voracious Chinese consumer society, of its rapid construction of new towns and cities, of manufacturing and servicing infrastructure and transport networks, is intrinsically anathema to environmental concerns.