Kevin Rudd

Opinion | China can show the world what a green economic recovery looks like

China is banking on infrastructure to build its way to recovery. How it does so will decide whether it forges a green revival or a carbon-intensive future. Beijing has a chance to show it can be a responsible environmental steward

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Kevin Rudd

Published: 9:30am, 18 May 2020Updated: 9:51am, 18 May 2020

As one of the first countries to emerge from what may still just be the first wave of this coronavirus crisis, China also has an opportunity to lead the world in demonstrating what a green economic revival can look like.

Already, China’s emissions – like those across the rest of the world – have dropped sharply as a result of this crisis. In the four weeks after Lunar New Year, it is estimated that domestic emissions dropped by as much as 25 per cent, equivalent to around 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

This is roughly a third of what a country like Australia emits in an entire year. And while China’s emissions have since steadily increased and are likely to spike with pent-up demand, the real risk now is that they will return to an even steeper trajectory than they were on before the crisis struck.

So far, Beijing’s economic toolkit has been focused largely on simply getting factories back to work, helping small businesses keep their doors open, and supporting the poorest parts of its population to get through the crisis.

However, as the party leadership’s eyes turn to a larger stimulus package focused on forging a path towards a medium- and long-term recovery, whether the country is able to use this to usher in a green economic revival or lock itself in to a carbon-intensive recovery is the key question. Much of this will rest on the decisions taken in the coming weeks, including in the lead-up to the National People’s Congress annual session .

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Thankfully, there are some reasons to be optimistic. In March, the Politburo Standing Committee signalled that China’s economic recovery pathway must involve accelerated “new infrastructure construction”, adding a new term to the political lexicon.