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Energy, the Environment, and Energy, the Environment, and Migration in East AsiaMigration in East Asia

SOSC 228

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1. KEY POINTS1. KEY POINTS1. Growing demand for energy as a strategic problem

for East Asia2. Efforts to solve energy problems lead to major

environmental problems throughout the region, due to nuclear plants, coal production and burning, deforestation and loss of arable land.

3. Environmental issues have a strong transnational component.

4. Environmental movement primarily grass roots movement, promoting democratization, but also leads to governments becoming more sensitive over time to problems of environment.

5. External pressures have some, but limited, utility in resolving environmental problems in East Asia. Key pressures must come from within the region.

6. Migration as interregional, intra-regional and internal due to war, brain drains, development, and regional economic variations.

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2. Energy and Security in East Asia2. Energy and Security in East Asia Rapid growth and limited supplies add political and

security dimension to search for natural resources. Sea lanes for the shipping of oil become important

security focal point. This makes Indonesian instability and possibility of Aceh separatism a threat to the entire region.

For Calder, the root of Asia’s energy security problem is China’s shift from oil exporter to major oil importer and its continued economic growth in automobiles, industry, air transport.

Energy competition creates conflict over control of South China Sea and Senkaku Islands where Japan and China have competing claims.

Insuring energy supplies key force behind Japanese aid patterns—especially towards China—and its concept of “comprehensive security.”

Need to protect sea lanes could lead to greater Japanese investment in “blue water” navy, while energy hunger pushes China in same direction.

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3. Nuclear Energy3. Nuclear Energy

Alternative is nuclear energy, with Japan getting 30%, South Korea getting 40% of their energy from nuclear plants.

China (and Taiwan) plan to increase the role of nuclear energy in its power production.

East Asia comprising 14% of global nuclear capacity as of 1996, but projected to reach 48% by 2010.

All this despite Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

NIMBY – Not in My Back Yard

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4. Links between Energy and 4. Links between Energy and EnvironmentEnvironment

Japan’s lack of natural resources makes it the strongest advocate of nuclear energy, but it confronts problems in managing its nuclear plants.

Hunger for energy in East Asia, particularly China, leads to the reliance on burning coal which in turn creates major CO2 problems for the environment.

Efforts to supply electricity through dams leads to environmental protests by indigenous peoples in many parts of the region.

Brings major funding agencies of infrastructure projects, such as the World Bank and the Asia Development Bank, into conflict with local environmental groups and other global NGOs.

Locally, deforestation in order to supply fuel for energy leads to soil erosion, flooding, and other disasters.

The Three Gorges Dam has been one of the most contentious issues in Chinese politics

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5. Environmental Issues Emerge 5. Environmental Issues Emerge in East Asiain East Asia

Despite “development at any cost” strategy of many regional governments, deteriorating environment pushed the issue onto many governmental agendas.

Deforestation, traffic congestion, loss of arable land, uncontrolled extraction of mining and forests, death of coral reefs, water, air, nuclear plants.

After 1972, Stockholm Conference on the Environment, many ASEAN governments established ministries or bureaus of Environmental Protection.

Government officials responded to grass roots pressures, confronting economic elites who want to ravage the environment.

Key issue is also one of resource management as part of developmental agenda.

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6. Nature of the Environmental 6. Nature of the Environmental Movement in AsiaMovement in Asia

Based on study by Alvin So, some movements such in the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea were “populist movements,” closely linked to efforts to promote grass roots activism, democratization, economic or livelihood issues, and begin a debate about sustainable development.

In Japan, environmental movement in 1950s, responding to mercury poisoning, critical for the initial political awakening that followed the end of WWII.

In Thailand, government and business elite dominated the issue, presenting a socially responsible corporate image, preventing it from becoming an issue related to public politics.

In Hong Kong, movement aimed mostly at raising public consciousness and as a “post-materialist perspective.” Non-confrontational, consensus building movement, rather than mass or populist movement.

Environmental movements closely linked to Asian culture and traditional rituals, linking native religious and cultural symbols with the environmental movement.

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6. Nature of the Environmental 6. Nature of the Environmental Movement in Asia Movement in Asia (con’t)(con’t)

Has allowed grass roots movements to challenge the authoritarian nature of these governments.

Weak enforcement for many environmental rules due to the nature of the political systems—key case of China, where local governments have difficulty making the polluters pay.

In Malaysia, strong resistance by government, arrests environmental protestors in 1989, but also cracks down on deforestation carried out by 9 sultans

In Indonesia, classic case of “resource cronyism” as Suharto buddy, Bob Hassan become forest magnate.

China case also shows that over time, consciousness raising among bureaucrats, working within international regimes, and popular protests lead to increased assertiveness and legal reforms on this issue.

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7. Environmentalism as a 7. Environmentalism as a Transnational IssueTransnational Issue

Japan’s concerns about China’s environmental degradation and its impact on Japan through acid rain has led Japan to target its aid to China at China’s environment.

Hong Kong’s anti-nuclear movement was transnational movement as Hong Kong people struggled against the Daya Bay nuclear plant and expressed strong resistance to China.

The haze that grew out of the forest fires in Indonesia became a region wide phenomenon affecting Philipines, Malaysia, Borneo, Singapore and had major implications for tourism and business. But difficult for ASEAN countries to pressure Indonesia.

In 1970s and 1980s, many MNCs, particularly those in mining and forestry, responsible for increasing environmental problems in East Asia.

Role of regional NGOs and the local NGOs’ ability to link with major environmental actors like Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF, limited by accusations of “neo-colonialism” by Asian governments.

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8. The Role of External Pressure8. The Role of External Pressure

a. Japan’s leadership on Environmental Issues

Japan’s decision in the 1980s to use its power as a major donor to press countries in the region to address their environmental problems.

Japan responding to domestic and international need to find a global role in East Asia, began to take a stronger lead in 1989.

Environment became one of 4 key factors affecting the level of ODA it would give to a country.

In 1992, pledged to increase its bilateral and multila

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8. The Role of External Pressure 8. The Role of External Pressure (con’t)(con’t)

b. International NGOs Pitched their “green agenda” to the WB and

ADB and introduced a “green conditionality” into these organizations’ agendas.

U.S. based NGOs pressure U.S. Congress to toughen its bilateral aid policies and its pressures on multilateral donors.

But concerns of Western NGOs and local people not always the same, and negative response from regional governments to outside pressure—what they call “green imperialism—leads regional NGOs to ask foreign NGOs to back off.

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Oil Oil ImportsImports

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Japan’s Bilateral & Multilateral Aid in Japan’s Bilateral & Multilateral Aid in the Environmental Sector, 1990-95the Environmental Sector, 1990-95