week 3 ~ Miguel Delacruz

The National Rebranding of China

Recently, China’s government has taken steps to rebrand themselves from one of the most polluting countries in the world, to the spearhead in the fight against climate change. China’s industries have been notoriously effective in producing carbon emissions in the last few decades, and in fact, in 2006, China was the world’s biggest polluter, emitting the most greenhouse gases than any other country in the world. The recent governments realized the severe impacts of their industries and have been implementing policies to try and counter it since the 1970’s. However, things only got worse and China’s image became that of a dirty, polluted nation.

Finally in 2009, China has pledged to reduce its polluting and is now on a path to transform its past national aesthetic to be more green. Currently, China has its 13th Five Year Plan to reach their goal of reducing carbon emissions by around 65 percent of its 2005 levels by 2030. The plan consists of specific goals to achieve their 2009 pledge, such as capping energy consumption at 5 billion tons of coal equivalent. China also hasn’t been all talk. China invested $90 billion in industries supporting renewable sources of energy, and pledged $275 billion to clean the air and another $333 billion to counter water pollution.

The involvement of the government in China in remaking its image is similar to that of France’s under King Louis XIV’s reign. Using his creativity and power, the king promoted a luxurious and fashionable lifestyle as a product of France in order to make it a mercantile super power. Whatever he could think of that would improve the overall style of France, he would see to it that it would get done. Similar to how China is becoming the ‘green’ capital of the world today, the reign of King Louis XIV’s heavy government involvement allowed for France to become the fashion capital of the world.

Works cited/consulted:

1.     1. DeJean, Joan E. The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour. New York: Free, 2005. Print.

2.   2.   Albert, Eleanor, and Beina Xu. "China's Environmental Crisis." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2017

(smog fills the air in China, the most notoriously polluted nation since 2006)

http://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/china-bad-pollution-climate-change-4__880.jpg

*Question:

Technology, money, and an existing industry is required for a society to move from carbon energy into renewable energy, so is it possible for a developing nation to prosper and be green?