Business 10th Edition by Ferrell,Geoffrey Hirt,Linda Ferrell

Exercise 15

China's Sustainability Initiatives
Over the past 10 years, China's sustainable energy initiatives have become significant. As a country that is home to much of the world's industrial production, China began experiencing an onslaught of detrimental consequences such as brownouts (when pollution becomes so saturated in the air that it inhibits vision), blackouts due to lack of adequate energy to supply demand, acid rain, and nonpotable water. Urbanization also became a contributing factor when people began migrating from rural areas to cities at a rate of 20 million annually. As people move into cities and grow into the middle class, they tend to purchase larger houses and more automobiles that demand the use of more energy.
To correct the negative environmental impact, China has begun many sustainable initiatives to diversify its energy sources from coal (80 percent of Chinese energy comes from coal) to cleaner alternatives. The government has eliminated inefficient industrial programs, raised the minimum efficiency standards for construction methods, and instituted automobile fuel economy standards. The Chinese government also began designing policies and programs by which to standardize initiatives and monitor their progress through green labeling practices. Investments in technology research related to biofuels, solar, wind farms, carbon capture, and more are a part of this corrective action. As a result, energy consumption has fallen more than 20 percent, and China has become a world leader in wind power capacity. 21
Why does a rising middle class potentially threaten the environment?