Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Green effort key to future of officials

This is China but could just as well be Brussels.

The central government is setting up an accountability system under which officials' career paths will be tied to their performance in environment protection and energy efficiency.

From People's Daily

From Ethical Corporation:

Chinese pollution - Internal displacement is the new game in town

The incentives are all wrong in China when it comes to the environment, hence this latest phenomenon....

...So they are trying to do things – carbon trading, eco-cities, shutting bad steel mills and chemical plants, issuing edicts, even shooting the odd official. But, China is still China.

So, now we are increasingly hearing about internal pollution displacement (a term we admit we have invented). When bad polluters are shut down in one province by Beijing’s fiat, so other provinces, hungry for investment and jobs, jump in to offer a bolthole....