China and Japan need to strengthen joint efforts to protect the environment and work toward energy conservation

Deepening exchanges between China and Japan have presented brighter prospects for cooperation between Asia's two largest economies in the fields of energy conservation and environmental protection.

Ever since China adopted the reform and opening-up policy, it has attached utmost importance to environmental protection in the course of its economic growth.

It has also actively cooperated with Japan and other developed countries to bring home advanced technologies and expertise related to environmental protection.

Japan kicked off cooperation with China on environment projects in the late 1980s as part of an official development assistance (ODA) program to its less-developed neighbor.

The two countries jointly funded the establishment of the Sino-Japanese center on environmental protection in 1996, which is now a research agency directly under the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Supported by Japanese yen loans, Chongqing, Dalian and Guiyang launched a campaign in 1998 to develop themselves into model cities for Sino-Japanese environment cooperation. They have now shown remarkable progress in trimming air pollution levels.

Since 2001, loans aimed at helping China curb desertification, soil erosion, promoting afforestation programs and improving public health have formed about 70 percent of China-bound Japanese yen loans.

With Japanese aid, an environment information network has also been set up across 100 Chinese cities.

Japan's ODA to China consists of Japanese yen loans, gratis fund assistance and technological cooperation with the country.

The quantum of yen loans, however, started declining since 2002. The Japanese government announced in 2008 that it would stop all new yen loans to China.

Japan also cut off its gratis fund assistance, the other component of its ODA to China, at the end of 2006.

Currently, technological cooperation with China, which has been retained as part of the ODA, is playing a key role in pushing forward environmental cooperation between the two countries.

The Sino-Japanese center on environmental protection, jointly funded by the two nations, launched in 2008 a plan to promote the development of a cyclical economy.

As with bilateral relations, environmental cooperation between China and Japan has also encountered ups and downs over the years.

From 2001 to 2006, Sino-Japanese relations got stuck in the so-called "politically cold and economically hot" state.

During this period, Tokyo drastically cut down its ODA to China, the main funding source for bilateral environmental cooperation.

As a result, bilateral cooperation on environmental issues also dipped considerably. This began to change once leaders of both nations reached agreement in October 2006 to establish strategic reciprocity.

Following the milestone deal, the foreign ministers of both sides signed a joint declaration to further strengthen bilateral environment cooperation during Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to Japan in April 2007.

This was an important document that mapped out bilateral cooperation on environment after a 10-year hiatus. During Premier Wen's visit, another joint declaration was also signed between the two countries on bilateral cooperation in the realm of energy.

This momentum was further consolidated when the then Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda paid a visit to China in December 2007, during which a joint communiqu was inked on pushing forward bilateral cooperation in the sphere of environment and energy, and a joint declaration issued on bilateral scientific and technological cooperation on climate change.

The signing of the two documents were concrete steps taken by the two neighbors towards implementing the accord they reached in April the same year.

In May 2008, leaders of the two countries once again signed a joint declaration on joint efforts to deal with climate change, in which the two countries put bilateral environment cooperation at the forefront in tackling the global environment crisis.

As a result of improved Sino-Japanese ties, the governments of China and Japan have paid increasing attention to bilateral cooperation on environment projects. However, the two countries should further deepen cooperation in this aspect as global climate change, as well as such regional environmental issues, loom large.

To more effectively tackle impending environmental threats, China and Japan should set up a joint environment foundation as some scholars have proposed, which will aid bilateral cooperation on environmental issues.

Bilateral cooperation on environmental issues should also be extended to neighboring countries and regions, such as Mongolia and Central Asia, to enhance regional capability to deal with ever-worsening desertification, sandstorms and other pressing environmental concerns.

Given that Japan has accumulated rich experience and nurtured skilled professionals in environmental protection since the end of World War II, China should try to employ Japanese experts to work for some of its small and medium-size enterprises, local cities and rural areas that are hard hit by environmental pollution. This will help them learn professional skills.

In addition to bilateral cooperation and coordination in the international arena, China and Japan should also try to include bilateral environmental cooperation into efforts to tackle energy issues given that environmental deterioration is partly attributed to the use of traditional fossil fuels.

As neighbors, China and Japan have shared interests as far as the environment is concerned. Large-scale cooperation in this field is not only in their own people's interests but also contributes to global efforts to deal with the problem of climate change.

The author is a researcher with the Institute of Japanese Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

(China Daily 06/21/2010 page8)