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Riding a bicycle in Beijing is and what it used to be. Three decades | :00:07. | :00:12. | |
of unbroken economic growth has transformed an agricultural | :00:12. | :00:18. | |
backwater into the world paramount industrial power. But this | :00:18. | :00:24. | |
extraordinary growth has come at a price. China has become the biggest | :00:24. | :00:28. | |
emitter of carbon dioxide on the planet. And I have got something of | :00:28. | :00:36. | |
a personal interest in China's CO2 emissions. Because five years ago, | :00:36. | :00:41. | |
my family and I were ordered by my bosses at the BBC to undertake an | :00:41. | :00:47. | |
extraordinary experiment. We were told to spend an entire year doing | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
everything we could to try and cut our carbon emissions. I became the | :00:53. | :00:57. | |
BBC's Ethical Man. We changed the way we heated and powered our home | :00:57. | :01:05. | |
and we got rid of our car. They was difficult at first. Stop it, Justin. | :01:05. | :01:09. | |
But we got used to it. We stopped flying and we took the train | :01:09. | :01:17. | |
instead. But whatever we did, people said the same thing. "Don't | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
bother because China's emissions are rising so quickly". But now | :01:22. | :01:32. | |
:01:32. | :01:53. | ||
I have come to China to find out whether the world's most polluting | :01:53. | :02:01. | |
nation can clean up its act. First off, I have got a meeting | :02:01. | :02:09. | |
with one of the architects of China's economic policy. | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
TRANSLATION: When China's leader, Deng Xiaoping, was reforming the | :02:13. | :02:17. | |
economy 30 years ago he said it doesn't matter what colour the cat | :02:17. | :02:22. | |
is, as long as it catches mice, and China is becoming a black cat. It | :02:23. | :02:27. | |
is the world's biggest energy producer, the second-biggest energy | :02:27. | :02:31. | |
consumer and the biggest emitter of CO2. China is the biggest victim of | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
this pollution so the big challenge for China is to change from being | :02:35. | :02:41. | |
the world's biggest black cat to the world's biggest green cat. | :02:41. | :02:46. | |
Professor Hu Angang says China aims to be nothing less than the world's | :02:46. | :02:52. | |
first green superpower. TRANSLATION: China should not just | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
participate in the global green revolution. China needs to lead the | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
revolution. How do we do that? The answer is to transform our | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
development model and become an innovator and that is what the | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
Chinese government plans to. We will witness a new green revolution | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
under the leadership of China. is the unjust and aspirations. | :03:14. | :03:20. | |
Transforming China from a black to a green cat is now official | :03:20. | :03:25. | |
government policy -- isms just an aspiration. I have come to | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
Tiananmen Square for the biggest event in the Chinese political | :03:30. | :03:37. | |
calendar. The National People's Congress. Delegates from across the | :03:37. | :03:41. | |
country come to Beijing... many decked out in their traditional | :03:41. | :03:47. | |
costumes. Have they come here to the Great Hall of the people for | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
approving the Government's plan for this entire country's economy for | :03:51. | :03:57. | |
the next five years. This is, of course, political theatre. The plan | :03:57. | :04:07. | |
will be approved. Nevertheless, this is an important event. This is | :04:07. | :04:17. | |
:04:17. | :04:24. | ||
when China's leaders make their He is saying that the growing | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
prosperity remains at the heart of China's plans over the next five | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
years but he says growth must be sustainable, he is talking about | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
cutting pollution and protecting the environment. He is talking | :04:36. | :04:45. | |
about a five-year plan for China's Energy consumption and CO2 | :04:45. | :04:54. | |
emissions should the reduced by 16- We will effectively conserve | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
resources and protect the environment. We will actively | :04:57. | :05:06. | |
Not the sort of thing you would expect to hear from the Chinese | :05:06. | :05:10. | |
Premier. But one of China's strengths is its ability to plan | :05:10. | :05:20. | |
:05:20. | :05:21. | ||
Its leaders know that in the future, securing the energy China needs | :05:21. | :05:25. | |
from fossil fuels is going to become increasingly difficult and | :05:25. | :05:33. | |
The problem is, the Chinese government has other even more | :05:33. | :05:43. | |
:05:43. | :05:47. | ||
These are the remains of break a wall even more ancient than the | :05:47. | :05:51. | |
Great Wall of China and one thing has remained constant in the three | :05:51. | :05:56. | |
millennia since this wall was built and that is the enduring poverty of | :05:56. | :06:04. | |
China's leaders know that they need to continue to improve living | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
standards across the country if they are to hold on to power so the | :06:08. | :06:13. | |
key question is... whether it is possible to do this and to clean up | :06:13. | :06:20. | |
They are quite a few people who believe it is and they are willing | :06:20. | :06:28. | |
to back up that belief with their I have come here to one of the | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
smartest hotels in Beijing to meet a group of businessmen who believe | :06:31. | :06:39. | |
that China offers unique opportunities for cream businesses. | :06:39. | :06:49. | |
:06:49. | :07:01. | ||
So, I have been invited out to the A it shouldn't be a story of | :07:01. | :07:05. | |
suffering and sacrifice, it should be a story of success, love, | :07:05. | :07:15. | |
:07:15. | :07:21. | ||
We have chose to be here because we see this as a place where the | :07:21. | :07:28. | |
challenge and the opportunity is. China has emissions standards that | :07:28. | :07:38. | |
:07:38. | :07:38. | ||
are higher than in the United It is going to be the biggest | :07:38. | :07:48. | |
:07:48. | :07:51. | ||
You go to a conference in China, maybe 5% of the content is icebergs | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
melting, yes, yes, but then they go, what are we going to do, how much | :07:55. | :08:00. | |
have you got, how are we going to sell it? But in the West, 90% of | :08:00. | :08:04. | |
the conference is about melting ice caps and did it not more than last | :08:04. | :08:13. | |
year, it is not even part of the debate. It is all about necessity, | :08:13. | :08:16. | |
they are not blessed with large energy resources to keep going in | :08:16. | :08:26. | |
the future. It is all a question about sustained development. Of the | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
crucial question is for you, can you make money during Green | :08:30. | :08:39. | |
business in China? The estimate for China will be about $2 billion per | :08:39. | :08:46. | |
year. Within that, we have a deal where we will take a 5% cut, that | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
is $10 million per year for us potentially. There is definitely | :08:49. | :08:53. | |
money to be made here and definitely making money is the only | :08:53. | :09:03. | |
:09:03. | :09:08. | ||
I have come here to China to find out if this could become the | :09:08. | :09:18. | |
:09:18. | :09:25. | ||
Hundreds of millions of people in China struggled just to make enough | :09:25. | :09:31. | |
money to survive. They have left villages to work in China's vast | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
energy intensive manufacturing centres making goods, most of which | :09:35. | :09:45. | |
:09:45. | :09:48. | ||
So one of Daniel's projects involves lending money to some of | :09:48. | :09:52. | |
the poorest people in Chinese society because there are ways in | :09:52. | :09:57. | |
which places like rural China can be lifted out of poverty without | :09:57. | :10:05. | |
damaging the environment, one of which involves these things. Now | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
the key to this process is how shall I put it... pig waste and I | :10:10. | :10:20. | |
:10:20. | :10:24. | ||
have got a bit of experience with The farmer, Mr Ram, has got me | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
mucking out his pigs. It's a new venture for him. Before this, he | :10:30. | :10:39. | |
:10:40. | :10:42. | ||
just grew crops. So this stuff... This is pretty much like human poo. | :10:42. | :10:48. | |
And they collect it all in a big chamber underneath the pen and when | :10:48. | :10:58. | |
:10:58. | :11:00. | ||
it rots down, they collect the methane gas. That's how it works. | :11:00. | :11:07. | |
(gags) Oh, it's not very nice work, is it! | :11:07. | :11:17. | |
:11:17. | :11:18. | ||
More? I think I've got it all! Thank you very much. And so, the | :11:19. | :11:25. | |
grass comes down through this pipe and down to the stove. Look at that. | :11:25. | :11:29. | |
Good and clean gas. He doesn't just get free gas, | :11:29. | :11:39. | |
:11:39. | :11:39. | ||
though. He also gets to sell the pigs. TRANSLATION: Before, I earned | :11:39. | :11:43. | |
a little more than $300 a year. Since I started raising pigs, I now | :11:43. | :11:49. | |
earn close to $3,000. And I'm going to be able to knock down this old | :11:49. | :11:58. | |
house and build myself a new one. And it isn't just the pigs. Mr Ram | :11:58. | :12:04. | |
also gets paid to cut his carbon emissions. Now, because he isn't | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
burning this stuff, coal, any more, he's saving a lot of carbon. And | :12:08. | :12:14. | |
the idea is that projects like this will be able to earn an income from | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
the carbon they've saved. They will get what are known as carbon | :12:18. | :12:23. | |
credits that can be sold on the world carbon market. In fact, the | :12:23. | :12:26. | |
income he gets from cutting his carbon dioxide emissions helps to | :12:26. | :12:32. | |
pay off the loan he took to build the pen. Now, he earns as much as | :12:32. | :12:39. | |
his son who works in a factory. The Chinese government has supported | :12:40. | :12:44. | |
low carbon projects in many villages in China. But by Chinese | :12:44. | :12:50. | |
standards, these projects are small beer. China already has the world's | :12:50. | :13:00. | |
:13:00. | :13:01. | ||
largest market for these things - electric bikes. And is a world | :13:01. | :13:07. | |
leader in solar power. Seven of the world's top ten solar companies are | :13:07. | :13:12. | |
Chinese. Last year, China overtook America to become the world's | :13:12. | :13:18. | |
biggest generator of wind energy. It's been installing a new wind | :13:18. | :13:23. | |
turbine every hour. In short, green technology is already big business | :13:23. | :13:28. | |
in China. These are effectively the biggest solar panels in the world. | :13:28. | :13:34. | |
They form the entire outer wall of the headquarters of the world's | :13:34. | :13:44. | |
:13:44. | :13:45. | ||
leading solar panel manufacturer, Sun Tech. Look at this place. Sun | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
Tech started ten years ago and is already $2 million. It made me | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
realise that when I was trying to be ethical, I should have thought | :13:55. | :14:00. | |
of a bigger scale. What do you put the success down to? Big production | :14:00. | :14:10. | |
:14:10. | :14:10. | ||
and you know, with design, a Re liable and high-performance product. | :14:11. | :14:15. | |
And, like China's other manufacturing businesses, he also | :14:15. | :14:23. | |
benefits from low labour costs. But if incomes are going to rise, as | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
China's leaders hope, then just making things very cheaply won't be | :14:26. | :14:33. | |
enough. It will have to develop genuinely new products. 5% of Sun | :14:33. | :14:36. | |
Tech's total revenue goes on research and development, but most | :14:36. | :14:45. | |
of it is spent outside of China. Well, we have four centres around | :14:45. | :14:52. | |
the world. One in Australia and we also have a research centre in | :14:52. | :14:59. | |
Germany and one in Japan and also one in China. But the weight of | :14:59. | :15:07. | |
your innovation comes from abrord. Three of your -- abroad. Throw of | :15:07. | :15:11. | |
your four innovation centres comes from outside of China? Yes. | :15:11. | :15:16. | |
China really is going to lead the world in green technology, it | :15:16. | :15:26. | |
:15:26. | :15:39. | ||
These toilets right in the shadow of the Imperial Palace are pretty | :15:39. | :15:44. | |
innovative. They done use any water. They use the fluids that they | :15:45. | :15:49. | |
receive to clear the bowl. Now, the company that backed these says that | :15:49. | :15:54. | |
this is an original idea. But dig a little bit deeper and you discover | :15:54. | :15:58. | |
that the first waterless toilets were developed in Canada. But | :15:58. | :16:05. | |
according to a leading academic, China has a problem. It lacks a key | :16:05. | :16:14. | |
ingredient of an innovative society, deviance. Professor Pi is a | :16:14. | :16:24. | |
:16:24. | :16:24. | ||
Professor of deviance. So what is a professor of deviance? Deviance is | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
about breaking rules. TRANSLATION: Traditional Chinese society | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
emphasises rules. There is relatively little space for | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
innovation. That's because the Chinese education system is | :16:37. | :16:42. | |
examine-or yenated and leaves little chance for Chinese -- | :16:42. | :16:47. | |
orientated and leaves little chance for Chinese students to have | :16:48. | :16:51. | |
innovation. They spend most of their time reciting lessons. This | :16:51. | :16:56. | |
is an important issue. For our economic development, we need | :16:56. | :16:59. | |
innovation. But our traditional culture and our political structure | :17:00. | :17:04. | |
absolutely don't encourage innovation. If this system doesn't | :17:04. | :17:10. | |
reform, then our economy will not breakthrough the next barrier. -- | :17:10. | :17:15. | |
break through the next barrier. Though, there are increasingly | :17:15. | :17:18. | |
large numbers of people within Chinese society who are breaking | :17:18. | :17:24. | |
the rules. Aggie was a pop singer but she gave up her singing career | :17:24. | :17:28. | |
to become a full time vegan campaigner. For the people in the | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
West, it's easier to give them information because you can do a | :17:31. | :17:41. | |
:17:41. | :17:45. | ||
lot of things. You don't have a lot of restrictions. In China, it's | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
like, more difficult to give them the information and they have less | :17:48. | :17:52. | |
access to the information. Officials have repeatedly refused | :17:52. | :17:57. | |
her permission to hold vegan campaigning events. Independent | :17:57. | :18:01. | |
campaigning is not allowed in China. Gagging the revolutionaries seems | :18:01. | :18:08. | |
an unusual way to lead a revolution. And the truth is that people who go | :18:08. | :18:17. | |
against the grain, like Agi, are still the excemention in China. | :18:17. | :18:20. | |
China's government has already unleashed a different kind of | :18:20. | :18:25. | |
revolution, a consumer revolution. And it is encouraging people to | :18:25. | :18:34. | |
pursue the kind of freedoms that Jason Yi enjoys. Jason is taking me | :18:34. | :18:40. | |
for a spin around his dad's Formula 3 track in Beijing. This is where | :18:40. | :18:44. | |
the petrol heads of the city come to put their prized cars through | :18:44. | :18:54. | |
:18:54. | :18:55. | ||
their paces. Jason drives a turbo charged Suburu with 410 horsepower, | :18:55. | :19:02. | |
and he's just 15. Don't worry about me, though. Jason has been driving | :19:02. | :19:09. | |
since he was eight. So, Jason, would you ever consider getting rid | :19:09. | :19:17. | |
of your petrol car and getting an electric car? I will, but they're | :19:17. | :19:21. | |
not making them good enough yet. I love my car. We've been together | :19:21. | :19:25. | |
for seven years already. Jason's dad is, as you might have guessed, | :19:25. | :19:32. | |
one of the new social class in China, the super rich. This isn't | :19:32. | :19:38. | |
consist an. The government is now talking about green growth, | :19:38. | :19:43. | |
sustainable growth. The vast industry is not consistent with | :19:43. | :19:48. | |
sustainable growth, is it? GDP is still so important in China. 8% of | :19:48. | :19:55. | |
the GDP growth per year. It is a top priority to maintain the | :19:55. | :20:01. | |
stabilities in the economies. But in the design market, the pressure | :20:01. | :20:05. | |
will go beyond this because everybody is looking for a better | :20:05. | :20:12. | |
life with bigger cars and expensive cars and there's no consciousness | :20:12. | :20:19. | |
of the fumes. China may sincerely want to be a green rather than a | :20:19. | :20:24. | |
black cat. But it isn't actually proposing to cut its emissions. Its | :20:24. | :20:28. | |
targets are about making industry more carbon and energy efficient. | :20:28. | :20:34. | |
And if you look at China's forecasts, you see that despite the | :20:34. | :20:39. | |
new targets, experts like Professor Hu estimate that emissions are set | :20:39. | :20:43. | |
to double before they finally begin to fall away after 2030. China may | :20:44. | :20:49. |