Swiss seal Chinese water deal but urge CO2 cuts

Work went on around the clock to finish the Three Gorges dam project Keystone

Environment Minister Moritz Leuenberger has ended an official visit to China with a call for the country to play its part in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

During his trip, Leuenberger signed an accord to help the Chinese fight the threat of floods in the Yangtze river basin.

“It’s really easy to play [the role of] a Switzerland that gives lessons, is above all suspicion, that condemns human rights violations, the situation in Tibet and the construction of the Three Gorges dam,” commented Leuenberger.

“But we too in Switzerland had to move people, had to immerse villages. Pointing the finger at others has backfired on us sometimes.”

In making a visit to the Three Gorges on Friday last week, Leuenberger knew only too well that he was laying himself open to some awkward questions.

But if he insisted on going there, it is because the environment and energy minister is convinced “that we have to work together, benefit from common interests and talk to each other”.

“Meaningful dialogue”

“It is much more constructive than to criticise all the time and it also helps to have a meaningful dialogue on human rights,” he said.

During his first official visit to China, Leuenberger on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding that strengthens Sino-Swiss cooperation in water management and hazard prevention.

In a statement, he said Switzerland had enjoyed “fruitful cooperation” with China in the field of natural hazard risk management since 2001.

Flooding of the Yangtze have killed 500,000 local people over the past century. The Three Gorges dam, which came into full operation this year, aims to limit the risks of flooding.

“Before the construction of the dam, 23 million people were permanently under threat,” notes Andreas Götz, a vice-director of the Federal Environment Office and an expert on the Yangtze.

“All these people are now protected. The result is therefore to a large extent positive despite the forced displacement of about one million people.”

Mutual interests

What advantages can Switzerland gain from such cooperation? “The interests are mutual. Switzerland has a long experience in water management and it should share this with China,” said Leuenberger.

Götz believes that the watercourses of the two countries have much in common and so exchanging views can also be to Switzerland’s benefit.

“And the turbines of the Three Gorges were made by Swiss companies,” noted Leuenberger.

Götz emphasised that “if Swiss companies are in a position to offer modern and lasting solutions to manage the waters of the Yangtze basin, they will have their opportunities. In any case Swiss industry is mentioned in the memorandum.”

Leuenberger made the point that climate change concerned everyone and the Three Gorges dam contributed to promoting renewable energy. The dam produced enough electricity to supply ten per cent of the Chinese population and that meant that China could close ten per cent of its coal-fired power stations.

“And we want China to reduce its C02 emissions,” he said.

Clear signal

This was the message at the end of his speech on Monday at the third Yangtze Forum in Shanghai. It sent a clear signal ahead the climate conference that is due to be held in Copenhagen in December, when a successor to the Kyoto agreement will be discussed.

“Worldwide efforts against global warming can only be successful if large states such as the United States, India, Brazil and China help to bring about a breakthrough for a post-Kyoto agreement.”

“The whole world hopes that China will also commit to making a contribution towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions at the climate conference in Copenhagen,” he said.

For Leuenberger the forum was a one-off chance to encourage, rather than pressure China, to change its climate policy and accept binding target reductions.

“Is a little exaggerated to say it is applying pressure,” he commented, “but if I have the opportunity to speak at a congress like this in China with my Chinese counterpart attending, then I have to seize it”.

As for the reticence of the Chinese, who accuse the industrialised countries of causing climate deterioration and don’t see why they should pay the bill, it is “perhaps justified”.

But the situation requires urgent action, all the more so since the developing countries are the first to suffer from the effects of global warming, he noted.

swissinfo, Alain Arnaud in Shanghai

The River Yangtze

As the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world after the Amazon and the Nile, the Yangtze has a basin that is 43 times the size of Switzerland and is home to around 400 million people.

Completed this year, the Three Gorges dam aims to regulate the flow of the Yangtze to curb its deadly floods.

It also makes the river navigable to Chongqing, whose economy could be boosted significantly as a result of the new accessibility. It may help give work to the 1.2 million people uprooted by the artificial lake, which is 600km long.

Pollution of the river, which was declared practically dead around six years ago, remains a major problem.

Swiss climate policy

The Swiss government defends the principle of common responsibility adapted to each country as far as climate change is concerned.

The principle that the polluter pays foresees the necessary measures to fight global warming, financed according to how much C02 emissions are produced by individual countries.

Those which have an efficient climate policy will be penalised less than others and those developing countries which emit little greenhouse gas will be exempt.