For our blue sky
Ding Ying

IN June 2005, a public service announcement for car drivers started to appear on Chinese television. It told people, “For our blue sky, please drive one less day per month.” In August 2007, the announcement changed into: “For our Green Olympics, please drive one less day per week.” The State Council also issued a set of standard temperature controls for air conditioners, which stated that in summer the temperature in a building equipped with central conditioners should not be below 26 degrees Celsius; and in winter should not be above 20 degrees Celsius.
Efforts to reduce emissions can be seen in every Chinese family and every corner of the country. The changes show China’s firm stance on emission reduction and environment protection. The difference ordinary people can make was demonstrated when experts calculated that if every person in Beijing drove one day less per month, Beijing’s total vehicle emissions would decrease by more than 44,000 tons a year. If every driver in China did that, the country’s total carbon dioxide emissions would fall by 1.22 million tons every year, with 554 million liters of oil saved.
Since signing the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty designed to limit global greenhouse gas emissions, in 1998, the country has been making efforts to fulfill its promise to the treaty, by taking measures to save energy and reduce pollution discharges. In 2003, China confirmed its Scientific Outlook on Development, according to which, a goal of realizing sustainable development is stressed. Two years later, China brought up the concept of building a resource-saving and environment-friendly society.
In 2006, the Chinese Government set a goal to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by 20 percent and major pollutant discharges by 10 percent in the 11th Five-Year Plan, which runs from 2006-10. “China has taken a series of policies and measures to address climate change in the overall context of our national sustainable development strategy and outstanding achievements have been made,” said Xie Zhenhua, Vice Minister of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, at a forum sponsored by the Center for Clean Air Policy in Washington, D.C. in September 2007.
Xie introduced China’s achievements on emission reduction. He said China’s renewable energy had reached 166 million tons of standard coal equivalent in 2005, which equals a discharge reduction of 380 million tons of carbon dioxide. From 1980 to 2005, China’s forest protection and tree planting helped to decrease carbon dioxide emissions by over 5 billion tons. China has implemented birth control policies since the 1970s, leading to a population reduction of 300 million. Through this, China has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 1.3 billion tons every year, Xie said.
China also mapped out its goals on energy efficiency and pollution reduction in the General Work Plan for Energy Conservation and Pollutant Discharge Reduction, which was issued on June 4, 2007, stating China’s plan for saving energy and reducing major pollutant discharges by 10 percent by 2010. “We should make sure that the economy grows on the basis of energy and resource conservation and environmental protection,” said the plan. The State Council stressed that energy efficiency and pollutant discharge reduction should be set as indices for assessing economic and social development in all localities and the performance of government and company leaders.
That means company leaders will receive a negative performance assessment if they fail to reach the goals for energy efficiency and pollutant discharge reduction regardless of achievements in other fields. “Greater efforts for efficiency and discharge reduction are urgently needed to deal with global weather change and it is a responsibility we should shoulder,” according to the plan. Experts suggested that, based on China’s existing situation, two measures are practical. The first is to save energy and use the energy efficiently; and the second is to accelerate the development of clean energy and renewable energy resources.
However, being a developing country, China’s efforts remain limited when dealing with this global problem. The UN-sponsored Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012, and China, as a developing country and a signatory of the protocol, believes post-Kyoto regulations should be part of the UN process, said Chinese President Hu Jintao at this years’ G-8 summit. On China’s efforts to combat the effects of climate change, Hu said the government took the issue seriously and has adopted policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, even though its per capita carbon dioxide emissions are less than one-third that of developed countries.
Hu iterated China’s stance on sustainable development and its principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities.” “Developed countries should, acting in accordance with this principle, meet the emission reduction targets set in the Kyoto Protocol, provide assistance to developing countries and continue to take the lead in undertaking obligations to reduce emissions after 2012,” he said. Each country negotiated different targets. Developing countries do not have to cut back. Signatories have some flexibility in how they attain these emissions reductions.
Kyoto Protocol, which aims to curb the global warming process, came into force on February 16, 2005, with most of the industrialized countries ratifying it. The protocol will have legal force for its participants from the day it took effect after meeting two conditions-backing from at least 55 countries and support from nations representing at least 55 percent of developed countries’ carbon dioxide emissions. Developed countries’ attitudes to the treaty are different: Countries in the European Union (EU) have strong financial support and advanced environmental protection technologies. Clean energy now occupies a big proportion in EU countries’ energy structures. Thus the EU’s stance on emission reduction is steady and calls for drastic measures. Under a 2001 deal made by environment ministers in Germany, countries overshooting their targets in 2012 will have to make both the promised cuts and 30 percent more in a second period from 2013.
Meanwhile, big countries like Australia and the United States refuse to sign the treaty. The United States, the world’s biggest polluter, has accused the Kyoto Protocol of being too expensive and wrongly omitting developing nations. UN statistics show that a total of 141 nations have ratified the pact. China signed the treaty on May 29, 1998, and formally announced its approval in 2002. Since then, China has been making efforts to fulfill its mission of emission reduction based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
CDM in China
The Cleaning Development Mechanism (CDM) is a project-based mechanism defined by Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol. The core of the CDM is to allow developed country signatories, in cooperation with developing country signatories, to acquire certified emission reductions (CERs) generated by the projects implemented in developing countries. China is regarded as the best potential CDM market, occupying 40 to 50 percent of the total market in the world. China has set up a CDM management authority and promulgated the Interim Measures for Operation and Management of CDM Projects in China.
CDM projects were introduced to China in 2002. Up to September 21 of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) had approved 842 CDM projects, and there have been altogether 125 CDM projects successfully registered with the National CDM Board (the Board) as of October 30, 2007, and 23 CDM projects issued with CERs. The total volume has reached 20,182,867 tons. There are some general requirements for the projects. CDM project activities must conform to China’s laws and regulations, sustainable development strategy and policy, as well as the general requirements of national economic and social development. No new obligation should be created for China other than those under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.
Project activities should promote the transfer of environmentally sound technology to China, and funds from developed country signatories should be additional to their current official development assistance and their financial obligations under the convention. The implementation of CDM project activities should ensure transparent, efficient and traceable responsibilities. The priority areas for CDM projects in China are energy efficiency improvement, development and utilization of new and renewable energy, as well as recovery and utilization of methane.
The application and approval procedures of CDM projects are as follows: a) A project owner submits to NDRC a project application and documents as required by the above-mentioned Article 12. Relevant departments and local governments may facilitate such project application. b) NDRC asks relevant organizations for expert reviews of the applied project, and submits those project applications reviewed by the experts to the Board. c) The Board reviews the submitted projects and informs NDRC of the qualified projects. d) NDRC approves, jointly with the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, projects based on the conclusions made by the Board, and issues an approval letter accordingly. The project owner is informed of the decision.
Governments of developed countries can get all or part of CERs produced by projects to offset their obligations defined by Protocol. The CERs acquired by project developers in developed countries can be used to offset their domestic duties for emission reduction, or get profits by selling CERs in the market.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review Articles Exchange Item)

Sufferings of Indian Dalits
Mamoona Ali Kazmi

INDIA, which is propagating itself to be a true democracy with rich civil rights, is ignoring that its 160 million Dalits of untouchables still suffer from deplorable caste discrimination and, are deprived of even basic rights such as right to life and security. In addition to being target of physical and sexual violence, Dalits are often required to eat and drink from separate containers and restaurants, attend separate religious services, walk miles to get water and work in degrading conditions. India is truly a flawed democracy as it failed to implement the laws, which provide protection against such caste discriminations.
Dalits literally meaning “broken people” or “oppressed” in Hindi are the lowest members of Hindu caste system in India. The caste system is a Hindu hierarchical class structure in which Dalits are beyond caste. Dalits undertake occupations that the rest of Indian society found filthy and embarrassing and also receive ill-treatment from the members of the higher castes, particularly from Brahmins. For example Brahmins would have to bathe if a Dalit shadow fell on them, would not eat food prepared by Dalits, and would not drink from the same wells as Dalits. They are not allowed to defy caste system and punished otherwise.
Although article 17 of the Indian Constitution banned untouchability in 1950, Dalits still suffer widespread discrimination and mistreatment. Local law enforcement personnel often refuse to document, investigate and respond adequately to Dalits’ complaints. Upper caste members often threaten and assault Dalits who dare protest against their mistreatment. The traditional practices of segregation between upper castes and Dalits are continuing in India. Despite the system of quotas for government employment, they rarely rise above traditional Dalit occupations. The existence of quotas often fuels upper caste disdain for Dalits in the private sector, even the educated Dalits struggle to succeed. In many communities upper caste members still expect Dalits to perform their traditional occupations without pay.
Dalit children are subjected to human rights abuses. These children are common victims of bonded labour practices, even though bonded labour is outlawed in India. When Dalit families become indebted to money lenders, Dalit children are often forced to work off these debts. Due to the low wages these children are paid, they can rarely even earn enough money to pay back their debts and break free from their labour obligations. Additionally, Dalit girls are selected for the practice of Devdasi or marriage to temple deities. As a part of Devdasi these girls must serve in the temple and perform sexual services for temple workers.
Dalits are also the targets of hate crimes and violence. According to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, a total of 99,749 cases of crimes against lower castes were reported from July 2004 to August 2006, including 2,389 murders and 4,814 rapes. Many more cases go unreported.
Although India is obligated under several International Instruments to uphold Dalit rights, there is little enforcement to ensure that India meets its obligations under International Law. First, as a UN member state, India is bound to the provisions in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The articles I & II of UDHR state that” all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” and that the human rights protected in the UDHR belong to everyone” without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”. India is violating its obligations under the UDHR as it has failed to protect Dalits against discrimination, degradation and violence.
Second, India has also failed to meet its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which it ratified on 10 April 1979. Not only does the ICCPR protect against discrimination of “ any kind” including discrimination based on “ social origin” but it also protects against torture, degrading treatment, arbitrary arrest, detention, and promotes equality in the courts and equal protection of the law. In failing to respect and ensure Dalits rights, India is not complying with ICCPR. Third, India has failed to protect Dalit workers in accordance with its obligations under the International Labour Organization Convention (No 107) which it ratified on 29 September 1958. Under convention 107, India is obligated to protect the” institutions, persons, property and labour” of members of tribal or semi tribal populations.
Finally, Dalit children, who are forced into bonded labour, or the practice of Devdasi, are protected under the provisions in the Convention of Rights of the Child of 1989 (CRC), which it ratified on 11 December 1992. In Article 32, the CRC protects against “, Economic exploitation” and the performance of” any work that is likely to be hazardous... or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development”. Both the practices of child-bonded labour and the practice of Devdasi violates India’s commitment under the CRC.



India’s disappearing daughters
Sadaf Yunus

INDIA’S unwanted baby girls have been drowned in milk, burned alive in sealed mud pots, killed by pouring sand or tobacco juice into their nostrils, or fed milk laced with poisonous seeds, but these days it is much easier to kill them in the womb. These are some of the chilling ancedotes of how India’s traditional preference for baby boys has resulted in the extermination of generations of females with thousands of fetuses or new born babies being killed for no apparent reason rather than just being girls.
The gruesome practice in the Hindu-majority country, including stories of women forced to endure successive pregnancies to produce male children and of others forced to have up to four abortions in five years. Female infanticide is akin to serial killing, but female feticide has become more like a holocaust. A whole gender is getting exterminated. It is a silent and smoothly executed crime which leaves no waves in its wake. India has only 927 females for every 1,000 males - far lower than the worldwide average of 1,050 females. According to a UNICEF report, almost 7,000 girls are killed through abortions everyday. The British medical journal ‘ The Lancet ‘ has put the loss of females at over 10 million in the past two decades. With technology making it easier to find out the gender of a fetus in earlier stages of pregnancy, these numbers will only increase, with the passage of time. In India, sons are typically seen as breadwinners. According to Hindu tradition, a son is also supposed to light his parents’ funeral pyre. Girls are often viewed as a burden because of the matrimonial dowry demanded by a groom’s family.
The deep-seated discrimination makes many women more determined to have a boy because they do not want their daughters to suffer the domestic abuse and hardships that they themselves faced. The women feel “better to send her straight to heaven rather than make her endure this beating and kicking around.” The killing of girls has led to grave consequences in some Indian areas. In some regions, an acute shortage of women has resulted in men buying brides and sharing them with their brothers. Some instances came to light such as, of male fetuses dumped in dustbins by doctors who aborted them in order to make money after lying to the parents that the child was a girl.
The government of India introduced tough laws against tests to determine fatal gender for non-medical reasons, but rules are widely flouted by doctors in what activist say is a multimillion-dollar business. The tests are done secretly and are often hard to prove. Indian laws against dowry and feticide are excellent, but only on paper. In a gruesome discovery last month, dozens of tiny bones were found in the septic tank of a clinic belonging to a man posing as a doctor in Gurgaon, a wealthy suburb of the Indian capital. The suburb is part of a state with one of the country’s worst gender ratios - just 820 females for every 1,000 males - showing that the preference for sons is deeply rooted even among families with high income and education levels. A whole society that ruthlessly hunts down girl children, just shows that such malpractice has become a “national crisis “. According to the 2006 census, the national sex ratio was 927 girls to 1,000 boys, while in the worst affected northern state of Punjab, it was 798 girls to 1,000 boys. The ratio has fallen due to the availability of ultrasound sex-determination tests.