\u201c\u5176\u76ee\u7684\u662f\u4e3a\u4e2d\u56fd\u5728\u5e94\u5bf9\u5f53\u5730\u6c61\u67d3\u548c\u6574\u4f53\u6c14\u5019\u53d8\u5316\u65b9\u9762\u7684\u52aa\u529b\u5e26\u6765\u8d44\u91d1\u548c\u5408\u6cd5\u6027\uff0c\u800c\u8fd9\u4e9b\u52aa\u529b\u5f80\u5f80\u662f\u5fae\u5f31\u7684\u3002\u201d<\/p>\n
China is using Canadian think tank to fund and bolster its green image, critics say<\/strong><\/p>\n ‘Its purpose is to bring in money and legitimacy to China’s often feeble attempts at combating local pollution and climate change overall’<\/p>\n Author of the article:Tom Blackwell Funded by the federal government, a Canadian think tank has for four years been acting as the international secretariat for a Chinese environmental agency headed by one of Beijing\u2019s most powerful Communist Party leaders.<\/p>\n Its little-known role adds to an unusual, longstanding and controversial collaboration between Canada and the Chinese government-founded agency. Touted as an advisory body for policy makers in Beijing, the council is accused by critics of being part of China\u2019s vast global influence machine.<\/p>\n Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development helps carry out Canadian-led projects for the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), manages its international donations and appoints advisers, according to the council\u2019s website.<\/p>\n The institute started doing the work in 2019, months after China detained two Canadians in apparent retaliation for the arrest of a Huawei executive in Vancouver, plunging relations between the nations into a prolonged deep freeze.<\/p>\n It took over the secretariat job from B.C.\u2019s Simon Fraser University, which had run the office since 1992.<\/p>\n The Canadian government spearheads the project and has provided about $1.5 million a year in funding under both Conservative and Liberal prime ministers for 30 years \u2014 similar to China\u2019s own contribution, said an Environment and Climate Change Canada spokesman.<\/p>\n Proponents say it\u2019s important to engage with the advisory organization given that China is key to combating climate change. It has the world\u2019s highest output of carbon emissions, the numbers rising sharply since the 1990s and not expected to plateau until 2030.<\/p>\n But some analysts charge that the council uses foreign environmentalists and governments \u2014 and their cash \u2014 to bolster the country\u2019s green image. The group\u2019s chair is Ding Xuexiang, China\u2019s vice premier, a former director of President Xi Jinping\u2019s office and member of the party\u2019s powerful Politburo standing committee.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is, above all, a political institution and its purpose is to bring in money and legitimacy to China\u2019s often feeble attempts at combating local pollution and climate change overall,\u201d Czech sinologist Filip Jirous said in an email interview. \u201cBy making foreigners and foreign organizations invest in this political venture, they effectively silence them.\u201d<\/p>\n Conservative MPs called earlier this month for Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to resign as executive vice chair of the council, a position also held by previous Liberal and Tory ministers. Guilbeault is scheduled to meet with the council on a trip to China this week.<\/p>\n Founded under former Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney, the Manitoba-headquartered institute defended its work with the council, arguing the Chinese agency is making a real contribution to the climate-change battle.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the world faces the interrelated crises of climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss \u2014 threats that cross all borders and require urgent international cooperation \u2014 CCICED has been a meaningful forum for global sustainable development efforts,\u201d the institute said in a statement to the National Post.<\/p>\n Samuel Lafontaine, an Environment Canada spokesman, also called the relationship valuable.<\/p>\n \u201cExistential global environmental challenges cannot be effectively addressed without China\u2019s contribution, given its size, population and carbon-intensive economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Critics, however, see little reason for Canada to essentially help run and finance a Chinese state agency.<\/p>\n It might have made sense decades ago for Ottawa to fund the council as an inducement for Beijing to do the right thing environmentally, but there is \u201cno way\u201d the world\u2019s second-largest economy needs the aid today, said David Mulroney, Canada\u2019s ambassador to Beijing from 2009 to 2012.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the whole world is paying a price for China\u2019s \u201caddiction\u201d to burning coal, he said. The country continues to build coal-fired generating plants, though they are the biggest emitters of climate-altering carbon.<\/p>\n \u201cCanada\u2019s funding is, I believe, a rather pathetic way of keeping our foot in the door in Beijing,\u201d said Mulroney. \u201cUnfortunately, it also helps sustain the fiction that China is somehow unable to act in its own self-interest, much less in ours.\u201d<\/p>\n While it undoubtedly does some good work on green issues, the CCICED is also the leading organization in China\u2019s campaign to essentially co-opt environmentalists around the world, wrote Jirous in a report last fall for the Washington, D.C.-based Jamestown Foundation. He detailed how some of its top officials have backgrounds in agencies involved in projecting China\u2019s influence globally.<\/p>\n Western environmentalists who work with Chinese groups like the CCICED tend to blunt or avoid sharp criticism of China, his report documented. Greenpeace, on the other hand, has no apparent ties of that sort and seems more than willing to criticize, Jirous wrote.<\/p>\n The International Institute for Sustainable Development says it took on the secretariat role for the Chinese agency after a competitive bidding process run by Environment and Climate Change Canada. But none of the federal money it gets ends up in the coffers of China\u2019s Ministry of Ecology and Environment or any Chinese entities, said a spokeswoman.<\/p>\n Neither China nor Canada is a standout in the preeminent environmental issue of the day \u2014 the drive to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that climate scientists say are heating the Earth to dangerous levels. Both countries earn a \u201chighly insufficient\u201d rating from the Climate Action Tracker group.<\/p>\n China does have the distinction of being by far the world\u2019s largest generator of carbon dioxide emissions, with the United States second \u2014 but first per capita \u2014 and Canada 11th, according to 2021 data on the Statista website. Though Beijing has invested heavily in renewable energy and electric vehicles, it continues to add new coal-fired generating plants.<\/p>\n But Caroline Brouillette of Climate Action Network Canada defended this country\u2019s work with the council, saying politicians and pundits often use China as a convenient punching bag for climate change, while ignoring their own country\u2019s lack of response.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot solve the climate crisis without international cooperation \u2014 which means continuing engagement, even when tensions are high,\u201d said Brouillette. \u201cCCICED has played an important role in fostering this diplomatic dialogue with China over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n https:\/\/nationalpost.com\/news\/canada\/canadian-think-tank-bolsters-china-green-image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201c\u5176\u76ee\u7684\u662f\u4e3a\u4e2d\u56fd\u5728\u5e94\u5bf9\u5f53\u5730\u6c61\u67d3\u548c\u6574\u4f53\u6c14\u5019\u53d8\u5316\u65b9\u9762\u7684\u52aa\u529b\u5e26\u6765\u8d44\u91d1\u548c\u5408\u6cd5\u6027\uff0c\u800c\u8fd9\u4e9b\u52aa\u529b\u5f80\u5f80\u662f\u5fae\u5f31\u7684\u3002\u201d China is using Canadian think tank to fund and bolster its green image, critics say ‘Its purpo…
\nPublished Aug 29, 2023 <\/p>\n
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