Download Interpretation on Connotation of Low-Carbon Development

EASTERN ACADEMIC FORUM
Interpretation on Connotation of Low-Carbon Development
WANG Li
Henan University of Economics and Law, Zhengzhou, Henan Province, 450002
[email protected]
Abstract: It is essential to define and interpret the connotation of low-carbon development in a timely,
clear and complete manner. With a view to seek the appropriate and simultaneous elevation of economic
value and ecological value of environmental resources, interpretation on the connotation of low-carbon
development is defined inevitably, based on the basic values and concepts of sustainable development.
Keywords: Low-carbon development, Connotation interpretation, Ecological value
1 Introduction
After the holding of Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009, developing "low-carbon
economy" has become the consensus of all countries across the world. Unfortunately, there has not been
complete interpretation on the connotation of low-carbon development yet up to now. Therefore, timely,
clear and complete definition and interpretation of the connotation of low-carbon development is
necessary.
2 The Principle of Definition of Low-carbon Development
2.1 Based on the context of global warming
The proposal of low-carbon development and relevant concepts is related to the development phase of
human society, and it can be attributed to the increasing international concern about a global
environmental issue, i.e. global warming. Since the Industrial Revolution rising in the West in the
middle of the 18th century, human beings have started to use fossil fuels in large quantities, resulting in
the gradual increase of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It was pointed out in the
fourth assessment report made by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that the average
surface temperature had increased by 0.3 -0.6 in the past century globally due to the greenhouse
effect caused by carbon dioxide and other gases; they believed with 90% credibility that the climate
changes in the recent 50 years had been caused by carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other
greenhouse gases produced by emission of human activities; they also predicted that the global average
temperature would rise by l.8 -4.0 in 2100. If further alleviating measures were not taken by all
countries, constant emission of greenhouse gases might lead to further global warming, or even
irreversible changes occurring to global climate system and ecological system.
The global warming has aroused intensive concern of international society and international
organizations, and all countries are actively exploring effective solutions. The U.K., as an island country
without abundant resources and pioneer of the first Industrial Revolution, fully realized the threat of
climate changes to energy security. On February 24, 2003, Blair, the Prime Minister at that time,
published an energy white paper entitled Our Energy Future -Creating a Low-carbon Economy
(DTI2003), being the first to put forward the necessity to construct low-carbon economy. He also
asserted that the development of low-carbon economy was not only feasible technologically, but also
reasonable economically. Based on this, concepts, such as low-carbon economy, low-carbon
development and low-carbon society, gradually become the frequently-used vocabularies from then on.
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2.2 Seeking appropriate and simultaneous elevation of economic value and ecological value of
environmental resources
Environmental resources have the dual attributes of economic value and ecological value, and the
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purpose of environmental protection is to elevate the ecological value of environmental resources,
followed by the pursuit of its economic value. However, the current actual situation is that the emphasis
placed on the ecological value has far lagged behind that on the economic value.
One of the reasons is the misguiding of economic theory. From the perspective of economics concerning
the categorization of goods, the economic value of environmental resource exhibits "private goods"
effect, and enterprises or consumers could obtain all of the economic value by making compensation of
equal value in the market; while the ecological value of environmental resources exhibits "public goods"
effect, and enterprises or consumers could acquire the total ecological value for free without the market
being involved. Therefore, in the market economic activities, the market rationality of "careful
calculation and meticulous budgeting" and "appropriate consumption" is conceived towards the
economic value of environmental resource, but the self-interest rationality of "reaping where one has not
sown" and "excessive consumption" is held towards the ecological value.
The second reason lies in the current allocation of resources and rights in the legal environment. It could
be known from the specific provisions and regulations in China that current rights allocation of
environmental resources of China is based on the maximum utilization of economic value of resources,
in which the allocation of property and rights is performed by taking environmental resources as private
goods, while the rights allocation of ecological value of resources is in a vacuum state. This rights
allocation will inevitably give rise to the pursuit of the maximization of economic value of
environmental resources, instead of the maximization of ecological value. Both of these two reasons
underlie the current situation in China that economic development is achieved at the expense of the
environment and non-sustainability. However, human beings need the sustainable development, which
entails seeking a development pattern with economic and environmental benefits promoted
simultaneously, i.e. the development pattern of low-carbon economy which not only requires
environmentally friendly economic development, but also, on this basis, seeks the appropriate
co-promotion of economic and environmental benefits.
3 Layered Interpretation of the Connotation of Low Carbon Development
As a brand new, forefront concept or idea involving a wide range of industries and fields, a unified
definition of low-carbon development has not be reached. It is believed that as a new concept guiding
economic and social development in today's world, low-carbon development should not only be defined
according to the inherent and original meaning of low carbon, but more importantly, its all-round
definition should be made from the perspective of green ecology with development view.
3.1 Interpretation of the original and inherent connotation of low-carbon development
The interpretation of the original and inherent meaning of low-carbon development should be
grounded in the the reason and background of the the emergence of low-carbon development, and its
definition should be made from the perspective of necessity.
3.1.1 The prerequisite for low-carbon development is to reduce the consumption and use of high-carbon
fossil energy.
Different forms of energies have different carbon contents. According to carbon content and carbon
emissions, energy can be divided into three categories: fossil energy, i.e., high-carbon energy, including
coal, petroleum and natural gas, of which coal has the highest content of carbon, followed by petroleum,
and natural gas is the lowest; bio-energy, i.e., carbon-neutral energy, mainly consisting straw and
firewood. Carbon contained in bio-energy is mainly from carbon dioxide absorbed and solidified from
the atmosphere through photosynthesis by plants; non-carbon energy, including hydraulic energy,
nuclear energy, wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, etc., which do not contain carbon
themselves and can be classified as zero-carbon energy. In many countries including China, high-carbon
energy is still the dominant consumer energy. Taking China for example, in its energy production and
consumption structure, coal, as the high-carbon energy, accounts for an absolute proportion, maintaining
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the high level of 68% -76% for many years. The prequisite for low-carbon development is to reduce the
consumption and use of the first category of high-carbon fossil energy, while actively developing and
using the carbon-neutral and zero-carbon energy.
3.1.2 The core of low-carbon development is low-carbon emissions.
The so-called "carbon" refers to carbon dioxide gases causing the current global climatic issues, i.e. six
greenhouse gases whose emission is limited according to "Kyoto Protocol", including carbon dioxide
(CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCS), perfluorocarbons (PFCS) and
sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). The so-called "low" is defined in relation to the high carbon emission
intensity caused by energy production and consumption system highly dependent on fossil fuels and the
corresponding low productivity. Low growth or negative growth of greenhouse gas emissions should be
realized, so as to achieve the ultimate objective of reducing carbon intensity to such an extent that
natural resources and environmental capacity can be effectively allocated and utilized.
At present, in the scientific research on international climate regime and climatic change, different
perspectives exist in understanding "low-carbon emission". The first perspective is from international
fairness. From this perspective, the state should undertake the obligation of reducing total emission.
Therefore, low-carbon emission should be equal to the absolute reduction in total emission of one
country; the second perspective is from the cost-efficiency principle based on the input and output of
resources. From this perspective, carbon, as a kind of input factor implicit in the energy and material
products, is used to measure the corresponding output generated by the unit consumption of carbon
resources by an economic entity, i.e., when the increase in greenhouse gas emission is less than that in
economic output, low-carbon emission is achieved; from the third perspective, the ratio of unit GDP to
carbon dioxide emission is taken as the reference. When the ratio decreases during a relatively long
period, low-carbon emission is achieved. For example, in the Copenhagen Conference, the different
understandings of low-carbon were embodied in emission reduction commitments of various countries.
3.2 Interpretation of the connotation of low-carbon development in terms of eco-development
The interpretation of the connotation of carbon development in terms of eco-development is based on
the pursuit of moderate common improvement of economic value and ecological value of environmental
resources, as well as the follow-up of the basic value and idea of sustainable development, and its
definition should be made from the perspective of necessity.
3.2.1 The essence of low-carbon development is a mode of development characterized by ecological
protection with the goal of realizing the sustainable development of economy, society and environment.
The mode of development characterized by ecological protection refers to a new-type economic
development mode guiding human activities with the ecological rule. This new economic approach is
relative to the mode of development characterized by economic protection, in which the linear growth of
GDP is the only goal of pursuit. This is the economic development mode of high resource consumption
and high emission in which environmental and ecological protection is totally ignored. For such a long
time, the mode of development characterized by economic protection has devastated the earth which
used to be beautiful and green, while the mode of development characterized by ecological protection
strives to guide economic and social activities of humans by employing the laws of economic
development. In this mode, not only is the economic development required to proceed in the manner of
generating no harm to the environment, but also moderate common improvement of economic interests
and environmental interest is required on this basis. Only by this means could the green growth of GDP
and the economic, social and environmental sustainability can be realized.
3.2.2 The realization route of low-carbon development involves technological innovation, industrial
restructuring, new energy development and other approaches.
Although low-carbon development, as a new concept first put forth in 2003, is still at its discovery and
exploration stage, the existing achievements show that the sound operation of low-carbon development
is not a problem which can be solved by one discipline or one field; it requires a comprehensive
application of multi-disciplinary, multi-field knowledge and skills, including technological innovation,
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new energy development, etc. This series of complex problems need the collaboration of many countries;
on the level of domestic industrial structure and consumption, the development of low-carbon industry
and low-carbon consumption mode entails the optimization of industrial structure and the transformation
of domestic consumption pattern; on the level of system security, it is necessary to formulate the laws on
low-carbon products, in order to guide and normalize the development and certification of low-carbon
products, and to regulate foreign investments in China CDM projects and so on through legislation.
Through the above description, it can be clearly seen that the realization of low-carbon development
involves multi-disciplinary, multi-field, and the comprehensive use of institution design, technological
innovation, industrial restructuring, new energy development, etc. is inevitable..
3.2.3 The core of low-carbon development is low emission, low consumption and low threat to
environmental ecology.
Needless to say, the current world is witnessing serious regional and global environmental problems,
and climate warming, ecological deterioration, freshwater resource crisis, etc. pose a threat on the
survival and the development safety of human beings and other species. The essence of environmental
problems is the ecological imbalance of the environment or the damage to the environment. There are
two main reasons; on one hand, pollutant discharge to the environment as a result of excessive
production and life of human beings; on the other hand, human beings' over-exploration, utilization and
consumption of every kind of natural resource and energy. Therefore, the fundamental approach to solve
environmental problems is to restore the damaged ecological balance; the first method is to reduce
discharge of pollutants to the environment or to appropriately discharge; the second is to reduce
exploration, utilization and consumption of natural resources and energy. In an ideal situation, through
the efforts made on technical operations, system design and economic restructuring, regional and global
ecological balance can be restored ultimately, and environmental and ecological security will be
maintained to the greatest extent, thus solving environmental problems. This ideal state is the ultimate
goal of low-carbon development. Consequently, the core of low-carbon development is to reduce
resource consumption and emission of various pollutants, and to lower the environmental and ecological
hazards to the maximum extent.
4 Conclusion
"Development" refers to the evolutionary process of things from low-level to high-level state. Based on
the above analysis, low-carbon development is an ecological conservation-based development model in
essence, in which resource and energy consumption and emission of various pollutants are reduced, to
lower environmental and ecological hazards to the maximum extent, thus realizing the sustainable
development of economy, society, and environment through multiple means. Although the low-carbon
development is the outcome of global warming, the international ecological and environmental crisis
that has aroused intensive concern of the international community, in essence, low-carbon development
has no difference from the ecological economy and green economy, all of which are the inevitable fate
of development of human economic society from the perspective of ecological civilization.
References
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Advances in Earth Science, 2007(7):25-29. (in Chinese)
[2]. Wang Rong, Legislation Research on Resource Circulation and Sharing. Beijing: Law Press,
2006:28(in Chinese)
[3]. Pan Jiahua, How to Develop China's Low-carbon Economy, published in Green Leaf, No.5 in
2009(5):12-13.(in Chinese)
[4]. Cai Shouqiou, editor in chief, Jurisprudential Course on Environment and Resources. Wuhan:
Wuhan University Press, 2000 :386. (in Chinese)
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