Media365
The truth is that Western approaches to climate change prevention or alleviation have been half-hearted and muddled from the start. They have relied largely on uncoordinated private-sector initiatives while China has adopted a more coordinated and effective approach.
There is a strong analogy here with the provision of physical infrastructure – which includes transport, energy and communications – where China’s gleaming new facilities contrast with sometimes rusting, outdated and overburdened structures in market economies. Both situations offer lessons in comparative capitalism.
The reason is that when it comes to the need for huge and long-term capital investments with uncertain returns financially, though not socially, market economies tend to fall short. The free market simply does not deliver the goods at the scale required.
The shortcomings of relying on the free market to channel resources where they are most needed became even clearer during the UN climate conference in Brazil. Reuters led its November 15 report from Belem with this: “With the United States absent from the UN annual international climate summit for the first time in three decades, China is stepping into the limelight as a leader in the fight against global warming.”
