In the four months since China’s President Xi Jinping pledged that the country would be carbon neutral by 2060, its climate researchers have been busy making road maps. A long-awaited carbon market is finally about to kick off, and companies have begun announcing plans to zero out their emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases. But local governments and industries are also finding ways to skirt Xi’s environmental agenda.
The surprise decision to move ahead with the Poyang dam came two months before a law protecting the Yangtze comes into effect, spurring speculation among activists that the Jiangxi government wants to get construction started before the new rules ban such projects. In its notice seeking public feedback, the Jiangxi government couched the project in slogans associated with Xi’s green push. It said the dam would “adjust the interactions between the lake and the river in a scientific way” and “protect the environment.”
The controversy around the project epitomizes a common problem China’s central government faces when it tries to implement ambitious reforms. Far away from Beijing, it’s easy for local officials to pay lip service to new directives while continuing to pursue policies that generate short-term economic growth for their regions at the expense of the environment. Without the right incentives and fiscal support, Xi’s 2060 pledge risks becoming a burden for local governments already struggling with mounting debt.