China's quest for resources is stretching the planet's ecological limits. But whose fault is it?

China is rapidly buying up the world's resources. The new global superpower is exploring oil fields in Africa and Central Asia, drilling for gas in Burma, building hydropower dams in the Mekong region, prospecting for minerals in the Congo and cutting down forests in Indonesia. China's hunger for raw materials is pushing up the price of oil and other resources, and stretching the ecological limits of the planet.

China is joining the party at a time when other countries and companies already control most of the world's resources. China's response has been to explore sites which other actors have considered too risky. Chinese companies are developing oil fields, mines and dams in areas that are geographically remote, politically unstable and ecologically fragile, often ignoring the environmental and human rights impacts of their investments.

A Chinese company is building a large dam on the Kafue River in Zambia that puts important wetlands, including two national parks, at risk. The dam will generate power for nearby mines, which produce copper and cobalt for China's industry. When Western financiers hesitated to fund the Kafue River project because of environmental concerns, the Chinese developer immediately stepped in, and urged Zambian authorities to cut the environmental assessment process short.

A backlash against the social and environmental impacts of Chinese investments has already begun. Workers have protested the poor labour conditions in Chinese mines in Zambia. Rebel groups have targeted Chinese oil installations in Nigeria and Ethiopia. Environmental groups in Burma and Sudan have asked Chinese dam-builders to stay away from their rivers. And the government of Sierra Leone has outlawed timber exports because of the ravaging impacts of Chinese logging.

Like any long-term investor, Chinese companies have an interest in avoiding human rights abuses and environmental destruction in their host countries. The Chinese government has issued guidelines for Chinese companies to protect the rights of workers, local communities and the environment. Chinese companies have started to adopt environmental standards, but have yet to effectively implement them.

THE WORLD'S FACTORY

The responsibility for China's global environmental footprint does not end in Beijing and Shanghai, however. A large part of the minerals and timber that China extracts around the world ends up in furniture, computers and toys in our homes. An estimated 70 percent of China's timber imports are re-exported in products for the world market. And the copper from China's mines in Zambia may well provide the wiring in our television sets.

China has become the world's factory, but its own per-capita consumption is still modest. The carbon-dioxide emissions of average Chinese citizens are only a quarter of the U.S. levels. Most Chinese don't drive cars, and already now, the fuel economy of Chinese cars is higher than the standard that the U.S. Energy Bill has set for 2020.

The carbon balance is telling. Goods that were consumed in other countries accounted for 31 percent of China's carbon-dioxide emissions in 2004. In the United States, our own carbon-dioxide emissions were up to 30 percent higher if we included the emissions of goods consumed here but produced outside the country. China's role as the world's factory allows us to outsource much of our dirty work.

Chinese companies need to strengthen the environmental standards of their overseas investments to protect workers, communities and ecosystems in their host countries. Global textile, furniture and computer companies - which manufacture many of their products in China - should also consider the environmental impacts of their supply chain, including the origin of their raw materials.

Yet environmental standards alone will not do the trick. China, India, Brazil and other countries will continue to grow, and hundreds of millions of people are eager to join the American way of life. Their rapidly growing environmental footprint demonstrates that our lifestyle cannot be multiplied within the world's ecological limits.

We need to speak up for the rivers, forests and local communities that China's global resource spree is putting at risk. But we can only do so credibly if we cut back on our own wasteful consumption and adopt smarter energy, transport, planning and industrial policies at home. We can only expect China to protect the global environment if we reduce our own oversized footprint on the planet.

Peter Bosshard will discuss China's global environmental footprint at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club on Feb. 13. Visit the International Rivers website for more information about the group's China programme.

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