Download Course Title: General Education Foundation Course Tutorial Group

Course Title: General Education Foundation Course
Tutorial Group: 19E
Tutor: Li Puni Polly
Assignment: Essay 2
Student Name: Lee Ka Wai
HKIEd Student Number: 11060689
Essay topic: 10
The concept of sustainable development was introduced in the 1987 by the World
Commission on Environment and Development of the United Nation. In this essay,
the definition and model of sustainable development are introduced. Then, cases in
China and Hong Kong on sustainable development are discussed. Furthermore,
sustainable development of China and Hong Kong are discussed at a bigger picture
respectively. Towards the end, a conclusion is made on whether fundamental
disagreements over sustainable development could be resolved.
Sustainable development is defined as development "meets the needs of present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"
(WCED, 1987, p.43). "Sustainable development is about integration: developing in a
way that benefits the widest possible range of sectors, across borders and even
between generations" (Strange & Bayley, 2008, p. 24). According to the definitions,
sustainable development implies a balance between human satisfactions on basic
needs in life and the environmental protection.
There are different models to explain the concept of sustainable development. The
'Three pillars of sustainability' is commonly used. Sustainable development includes
three main pillars, which are environment, economy and society (United Nations,
2012). In environmental aspect, people have to take care of environment when
developing the society to avoid exceeding nature's carrying capacity. In economic
aspect, people have to adopt an efficient production method that consider and
balance both the production and environmental cost. In social aspect, people have to
accomplish a society with fair re-distribution of resources to achieve social economy.
Sustainable development is achieved by integrating the economic, social and
environmental dimensions in a comprehensive manner. However, there are
fundamental disagreements over how best to bring sustainable development about,
especially in environmental conservation issues. Take China as an example, China
proposed the scientific outlook on development in 2003. The scientific outlook on
development has five basic requirements, which are putting people first,
comprehensive, balanced and sustainable (The People's Republic of China, 2012). In
the past ten years, China has implemented new policies on the development of
economy, society and environment.
China is a developing country that takes the 'world factory' role in producing and
exporting goods, mainly secondary goods. The large production and exportation
provide great annual Gross Domestic Production (GDP) growth in China in recent
years. According to the World Bank (n.d.), China's annual GDP growth started to be
over 8% from 2000 and the growth rate is 9.3% in 2011. The high annual GDP growth
represent a rapid economic development in China. Under the economic
development in China, inequalities and environmental pollution problems are
aroused.
China is famous for being the 'world factory' as mentioned. However, it is also
famous for the existence of sweatshops. Workers' wages and freedom are always
exploited by factories' owners. Workers have to work for long hours but with low
income that called as 'cheap labour'. Foxconn is a major manufacturer of electric
products for company like Apple. In 2010, eighteen Foxconn employees in Shenzhen
committed suicide by fell from building and caused fourteen deaths. Foxconn's
management way, working and living conditions provided were reported to be
dehumanize. These aroused world's awareness on issue of sweatshops especially in
the principle of equity. Under the principle of equity in sustainable development,
everyone has their rights of being given equal chances of development to satisfy
basic needs in life. The dehumanized management way of Foxconn has violated the
equity principle of sustainable development and the aim of putting people first in
China's scientific outlook. Under the public pressure, labour rights are highlighted
and follow-up works on workers suicide issue were done by Foxconn including
increase in workers' basic salary and limitation in workers' overtime work. Also, more
support on psychological needs started to provided to workers to help improving
their psychological health. The equity condition of Foxconn's workers are believed to
be improved at least with higher income and less suicide cases. Besides exploiting
workers, Foxconn involved in pollution problems including air pollution and water
pollution (IPE, n.d.).
Apart from Foxconn, many other factories in China involved in exploiting workers and
emitting pollutants. Though major pollutants discharged recorded decreases
comparing to 2010 according to report on the State of the Environment in China
(2011), industrial source is still the main source of pollution in China in air pollution.
In 2011, 90% of the sulfur dioxide emission and over 70% of the nitrogen oxide
emission of waste gas in 2011 is from industrial source. For water pollution, some
factories discharge untreated waste water with heavy metal illegally to nearby water
sources. These show that the principle of conservation of sustainable development is
not attained.
Besides China, many other developing countries face the same problems in balancing
the principle of equity, economy and environment conversation. Sweatshops and
pollution problems are common in developing countries like India and Africa.
The nature of the disagreements mentioned are focusing on the difficulties in
balancing the equity, economy and environment aspects. In order to resolve the
disagreements, cooperation between different stakeholders are needed. Enterprises
have responsibility to provide an equity working environment by respecting labour
rights, to protect the environment during production and to bare social responsibility
but not only focusing on their own benefits. Governments have the responsibility to
regulate and monitor the enterprises and to re-distribute income (or social resources)
by different methods like taxation and subsidies. Law or policies on protecting labour
and environment can be imposed; for example, minimum wage and maximum work
hours for workers, and taxation on pollution emission. General public, NGOs and
mass media take the responsibility in investigating and monitoring the enterprises.
Public pressures on enterprises can help to attain equity and conservation just like
Foxconn's case.
In Hong Kong, there are not many factories which lead to huge pollution problems
but Hong Kong is facing an serious and imminent solid waste problem. In 2008, it is
estimated that over eight billion plastic shopping bags are disposed at landfills every
year and a majority of respondents in a two-month public opinion survey conducted
in 2007 agreed that there was room to reduce the use of plastic shopping bags
(Environmental Protection Department, n.d.). With broad-based public support, the
government implemented producer responsibility schemes (environmental levy
scheme) on plastic shopping bags. Registered retailers are not allowed to provide
free plastic shopping bags from 7 July 2009. Furthermore, those retailers have to
charge the customers an environmental levy ($0.5) for each plastic shopping bags the
customers ask for. The levy provide a direct economic incentive to encourage the
public to build up a habit of using reusable shopping bags in order to reduce the
indiscriminate use of plastic shopping bags to achieve sustainable consumption.
The implementation objective of the levy is based on the conservation aspect. By
reducing the consumption of plastic bags, amount of solid waste can be reduced. As
the disposed plastic bags, which are not dissolvable but giving out toxic substances
when brunt, lead to pollution problems, the reduction in plastic bags consumption
can helps in conserving Hong Kong environment. In social aspect, a majority of
people support the imposition of the Scheme in the public conservation in 2007. In
economic aspect, retailers, which are under the levy scheme, were worried that the
levy implementation will decrease their benefit by less people going to purchase
goods in their shop. For plastic bags producing company, disagreements and worries
on the effect of the scheme on their living were raised as it was believed that less
plastic bags orders will be made. Though there are disagreement in economic aspect,
the Scheme finally imposed and has run for nearly four years. In this case, the
environmental aspect is taken above the economic benefit in order to attain
sustainable consumption, which means people should reuse, reduce, replace, reuse
and recycle products, and a sustainable development in waste disposal.
To plan a more comprehensive proposed Scheme, which concerns and balance the
benefits and costs of different stakeholders including the environment, the Hong
Kong government conducted a two-month public opinion survey before introducing
the Scheme to the Legislative Council. A plan, which balances the environmental,
social and economic aspects, can help the society become more sustainable.
Looking at a whole country or region, both China and Hong Kong has worked on
achieving sustainable development. In China, its rapid annual GDP growth proved the
continuous economic development among the country. In environmental aspect,
China's environment especially air, water and land are facing serious dangers under
the fast economic development. Chinese government has three major measures in
reducing the pollutants. They are industrial restructuring, promoting pollution
control projects and managing the emission level. Under these measures, China's
major pollutants record decreases in 2011 compare to 2010 (MEP, 2011). In social
aspect, inequalities in China exist in many situation including government policies. To
protect labour rights, minimum wage is imposed in different regions ; for example,
the minimum wage in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone is 573 yuan per month.
Unfortunately, the enforcement on the minimum wage in China is lax that made the
law almost meaningless. This shows that the Chinese government has to pay more
attention in regulation after implementation of laws and policies. Apart from labour
right, human right issues in China has a long discussion. People in China do not have
the freedom of speech and freedom of assembly that they cannot pursue the esteem
needs which is to access to basic human rights and respect. Also, both the One-child
policy and Household registration system are violating the equity principle of
sustainable development. One-child policy exploit the chances for people to have
their own babies and leads to gender imbalance in China that numbers of male is
much more than female. The Household registration system restrict the mobility of
population based on the different between peasant and non-peasant. However, the
system is unfair to the peasant as they cannot enjoy the social benefits like subsidies
and protections when they worked as migrant workers in urban areas. Also, the
system is proved to be a burden on the opportunities for peasant children to receive
education.
From the above, China is under a economic development progress with improving
awareness and protection in the environment. But still, issues in the social aspect of
China is not highly concerned by the government. As sustainable development has to
be attained by comprehensively integrating the economic, environmental and social
aspects, the Chinese government have to focus more on the social issues and change
the current situations by abandoning policies and/or implementing new policies.
Hong Kong, as an International Financial Centre, has a comparatively more
developed economy to China. The economic situation and development in Hong
Kong is stable with year-on-year growth in GDP (Hong Kong Economy, n.d.). In
environmental aspect, Hong Kong has well developed statutory and non-statutory
environmental standards and guidelines in monitoring the air and water quality, and
noise and waste pollution. Apart from the implemented standards and guidelines,
the Environmental Protection Department of Hong Kong continues to plan and
search for new ways to conserve the environment. Recently, the Hong Kong
government has started a public consultation on a new producer responsibility
scheme on glass beverage bottles that the aim and objective of it is similar to the
levy on plastic bags. Besides, environmental assessment and planning is needed in
Hong Kong before large construction like reclamation and building bridges (e.g. Hong
Kong- Zhuhai-Macau Bridge). Environmental protection is taken a high priority in the
society. In social aspect, human rights are respected in Hong Kong that people can
pursue their esteem needs. Also, Hong Kong has different welfare policies under the
welfare system to re-distribute the social resources to help the needy. Hence, the
basic physiological needs of Hong Kong residents are met. Although there are
discussions on the incomprehensive welfare system in Hong Kong, more planning
and researches are done by the government to search and plan for more welfare
policies.
As mentioned above, Hong Kong has a stable economy with developed
environmental protection measurements and welfare systems. The Hong Kong
government needs to continue in planning for new policies according to the needs of
the society in order to maintain a sustainability in the region.
All in all, fundamental disagreements over how best to bring sustainable
development exist in all countries and issues due to the different viewpoints of
people. Therefore, the disagreements cannot be totally resolved but eased by
balancing the benefits and costs of different stakeholders. Though there are
disagreements on attaining sustainability, the objectives of sustainable development
is ideal. In order to attain a balanced society with sustainable development,
cooperation between different stakeholders is needed.
References
Environmental Protection Department. (n.d.). Environmental Levy Scheme on Plastic
Shopping Bags. Retrieved 28 Mar 2013 from http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/psb/
en/index.html
Hong Kong Economy. (n.d.). Hong Kong Economic Trends- Gross Domestic Product
and its major components. Retrieved 28 Mar 2013 from http://www.hkeconomy
.gov.hk/en/pdf/domestic_eng.pdf
Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE). (n.d.). Pollution Map. Retrieved 28
Mar 2013 from http://www.ipe.org.cn/pollution/corporation.aspx?page=3
Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of China (MEP). (2011).
Report on the State of the Environment in China 2011. Retrieved 28 Mar 2013
from http://english.mep.gov.cn/standards_reports/soe/soe2011/201301/
P020130110401763529102.pdf
Strange, T. & Bayley, A. (2008). Sustainable development: linking economy, society,
environment. Paris, France: OECD library
The People's Republic of China. (2012). The People's Republic of China on Sustainable
Development. Retrieved 28 Mar 2013 from http://www.china-un.org/eng/china
andun/economicdevelopment/sfz/P020120 608816288649663.pdf
The World Bank. (n.d.). GDP growth (annual %). Retrieved 28 Mar 2013 from
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG
United Nations. (2012). Future We Want. Retrieved 28 Mar 2013 from
http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/futurewewant.html
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED). (1987). Our Common
future. Oxford: Oxford University Press