Shell, Nestle and Motorola's dirty secret

Greenpeace has a new report out this week about big companies, including Nestle, Samsung, Motorola, Shell and Kraft Foods, that are failing to comply with China's environmental disclosure regulations. What's great about the report (called "Silent Giants") is that it only asks if companies (both foreign and Chinese) are complying with Chinese regulations - it's not demanding they adhere to a higher international standard. In particular, Greenpeace investigated companies' compliance with a 2008 regulation that said companies blacklisted by local governments in China for spewing pollutants into the environment must disclose precisely what they are spewing. What Greenpeace found was "[n]one of the 25 factories belonging to the 18 companies that were required to disclose environmental information for exceeding discharge standards disclosed information within the stipulated time limit." Interestingly, all of the eight multinationals cited in the report regularly disclose information about emissions at their plants OUTSIDE China. What do you think?

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This morning's papers carry a fascinating story: a senior Chinese official has suggested that the people who benefit from its ultra-cheap factories and lack of environmental protection (ie, Western countries) should be held responsible for the pollution they leave behind. Li Gao, director of China's Department of Climate Change, said at conference sponsored by the Pew Center for Global Climate Change: "About 15 percent to 25 percent of China's emissions come from the products which we make for the world, which should not be taken by us." I have to admit that I am so out of the China-climate change debate that I didn't even know China had a Department of Climate Change, and I have never heard of Li Gao, but it's an interesting remark. Negotiators are grumbling that this is unworkable, a "logistical nightmare", but China has a point. That said, it's also interesting because it comes at a time when Pan Yue, the country's most outspoken environmental champion, has reportedly been pushed aside in favor of Beijing's push for growth. The China Environmental Law Blog, a much better authority on this issue than I, has an intelligent post on this issue here, echoing the view that the proposal is impractical, certainly not ahead of the United Nations Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December. To me, the larger question is: is this a line of argument that China is going to take in other areas? For example, it might say, Western countries, you accuse us of labor and human rights violations? Let's have a look at how your country's factories, or the factories that supply your retailers, are treating their employees in China, and then let's talk.