China signals an interest in being a good global environmental citizen and in becoming an environmentally friendly, resource-efficient society. These views are reaffirmed regularly by the Communist party of China, the president, and the prime minister, the National People's Congress, and at provincial levels. Over the 12th five-year plan (2011-15), the government will likely spend about a half trillion dollars on environmental problems. Future improvement will depend upon better environmental governance with transparency and greater participation of China's people in decisions; full enforcement of laws, technology access, and choices; plus improved monitoring and management at all levels. This decade will be a time for transformative change on the environment and sustainable development, with challenges even greater than in the recent past. Therefore it is important for the future of both China and the world that other nations cooperate with China on meeting its environmental objectives. This article examines the potential for trilateral cooperation among China, Canada, and the United States.Although there has been tremendous improvement in China's national environmental policies and significant progress on clean drinking water, reduction of sulphur dioxide emissions, reforestation, and other topics, the economy, with its high growth rates, demand for new jobs, and regional disparities stiU outpaces environmental improvements. And, with each passing year, the country's fuU participation in global environmental affairs becomes more essential.China wul put its own development interests first in dealing with the international community on environment. It seeks advice and cooperation on these topics buaterally, via agreements signed with many countries through international organizations and by other means, such as its foreign direct investment policies. The level of engagement is sophisticated but has had varying degrees of success. In addition, as China increases its investment and activities abroad, the environment is becoming an increasingly important matter.The US is probably the most important buateral priority in China's environmental cooperation. This is engagement between giants, each of which has massive investment capabuities and is an essential player on almost every conceivable environmental concern. Canada has played a useful and occasionaUy a lead role in environmental initiatives with China. Many European Union countries have worked hard to buud major environment programs with China and to promote their own environmental goods and services in what is likely to be world's largest market for environmental technologies during the coming decades. The UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, and Italy have taken distinctive approaches. Japanese cooperation with China has included a Sino- Japanese environmental friendship centre.1There have been ups and downs in these buateral relationships. Sometimes trade or other general political issues interfere. China also tends to base cooperation on continental and developmental interests. This may become even more important in the future. The European Union has held some sway at this level. For example, China has adopted EU standards for automobile fuel economy and efficiency and the EU's largest overseas biodiversity protection initiative is with China.2So far the US and Canada have tended to pursue environmental cooperation with China quite independently. Trilateral cooperation has not been a major objective. The two questions examined in this article are whether there are significant opportunities for such cooperation and what the potential advantages to each country might be. Clearly trilateral cooperation would not replace bilateral objectives or broader multilateral cooperation through the UN or bodies such as the World Trade Organization. It would have to demonstrate distinctive value-added for each of the partners. The main body of the article discusses nine specific cases where China-CanadaUS cooperation might have greater benefits than bilateral arrangements alone. …
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Jan 12, 2023
Haruhi Abe 
Open Access
