Opinion | Why China needs to keep its economic recovery green and sustainable

Name: Chinese engineers from Huawei, China Mobile build world’s highest 5G base station on Mount Everest
Uploaded: 2020-07-03T03:00:06.000Z
Duration: 1 min 36 s
Description: Chinese engineers from Huawei, China Mobile build world’s highest 5G base station on Mount Everest

It is not easy to advance economic growth while protecting the environment but if China wavers in its climate goals, the long-term costs for it – and the world – would be overwhelming

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Smoke and steam rise from a coal processing plant in Hejin, in central China's Shanxi province, last November. Photo: AP

Deborah Lehr

Published: 11:00am, 3 Jul 2020Updated: 11:08am, 3 Jul 2020

China’s post Covid-19 economic relief programme understandably makes job creation and technological development the top priorities. The centrepiece of the effort is the “2 New + 1 Key” initiative, which promotes investment in digital and urban infrastructure as well as the implementation of 165 national-level major projects.

However, unlike last year when environmental protection was deemed a top priority, this year, it has taken a back seat. Instead, a more traditional stimulus programme involving at least US$2 trillion of mass construction will lead the recovery.

Balancing environmental concerns with economic growth can indeed be difficult, but it is possible – and essential. China learned the hard way in 2008 when its stimulus plan led to mass infrastructure development with limited oversight over the environmental cost.

China’s citizens paid the price with air pollution, undrinkable war and poisoned soil. Given this second chance, albeit in regrettable circumstances, China has the opportunity to learn from its past by committing to investment in infrastructure that also promotes a clean environment. China is capable of a green recovery.

The first of the two new initiatives is an effort by President Xi Jinping to build an infrastructure for the future that includes the extensive installation of 5G base stations to create a hi-tech network for widespread use of the internet.

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Chinese engineers from Huawei, China Mobile build world’s highest 5G base station on Mount Everest

This backbone will accommodate and support the use of emerging technologies with rapid computing speeds such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and much more. In turn, this supports the development of an ecosystem of new products and services based on these rapid computing speeds that, if harnessed, can support long-term green goals.

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