China as a new shaper of international development: the environmental implications
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China as a new shaper of international development: the environmental implications Frauke Urban • Giles Mohan • Sarah Cook
Received: 9 September 2012 / Accepted: 11 October 2012 / Published online: 6 November 2012 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012
Abstract The emergence of China as a global player challenges the pre-existing dominance of the OECD countries and will continue to be a crucial force for global change in coming decades. The implications of China’s rise will be most significant for low- and middle-income countries, but the outcomes will also affect China’s relations with traditional donors and the understanding of the process of development. While these issues are increasingly explored at the political and economic level, very little analysis is available for the environmental impacts that China has on low- and middle-income countries. It is well understood that China plays a major role in relation to climate change, energy use and natural resource use at the global level; however, the perspective of China’s environmental impacts on low- and middle-income countries is underexplored. This Special Issue, therefore, elaborates the rise of China from the environmental perspective and assesses the impacts of China’s rise on low- and middle-income countries for international research, policy and practice in the field of environment and development. The findings draw on insights relevant for energy, water, forestry and land issues in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Keywords
China Environment Development Global player Developing countries
F. Urban (&) Centre for Development, Environment and Policy (CeDEP), School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, London, UK e-mail: [email protected] G. Mohan Development Policy and Practice Group, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK e-mail: [email protected] S. Cook United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), Geneva, Switzerland e-mail: [email protected]
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1 China as a rising power and new shaper of international development: environmental implications in Africa, Asia and Latin America The emergence of China as a global player challenges the pre-existing dominance of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries (Humphrey and Messner 2006; Ikenberry 2008). China is likely to continue to be a crucial force for global change in coming decades in terms of political, economic, social and environmental issues. The implications of China’s rise are expected to be most significant for low- and middle-income countries, but the outcomes will also affect China’s relations with traditional donors and the understanding of the process of international development (Gu et al. 2008; Humphrey and Messner 2006; Kaplinsky and Messner 2008). While the issues of China as a rising power and new shaper of international development are increasingly explored at the political and economic level, very little analysis is available for the environmental impacts that China has on
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