China’s Entrepreneurs Are Ready, But Is Their Government?

Reporting from Copenhagen

It is a human rights issue. It is a development issue. It is more than only an environment issue. This is China’s view of climate change, as explained by He Yafei, China’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs.

One phrase that has been reiterated uniformly from the Chinese and the G77 is that developed countries have a “historical responsibility” to help developing countries adapt to and mitigate climate change through financial mechanisms and technology transfer. But demands for technology transfer, especially when they run into private intellectual property rights, have made or broken many a treaty.

“Technology transfer should not be used as an excuse for them [developed countries] not to deliver on their promise,” China's He said as the first week of international climate talks wrapped up in Copenhagen.

“Intellectual property rights, its protection has been improved for it in developing countries including China. ... But that doesn’t give developed countries any reason to do less than what they have committed in terms of technology transfer.”

Regardless of the Chinese government’s stance, the Chinese entrepreneurs of the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology (SEE) are poised to develop and transfer climate adaptation technology themselves.

The SEE is currently among the largest and most influential green business NGOs in China. Half of its activities are dedicated to conservation, and the other half, on a member-funded budget of 10 million Yuan, goes to finance work by like-minded entrepreneurs.

Two SEE member entrepreneurs, Wang Shi and Feng Lun, have already risen to the challenge, and they have the capacity to help fund more like them.

Feng Lun is CEO of Vantone, a real estate company in China. But real estate is only how he made his money. Feng is now funding a pilot project for drought resistant maize 500 km North of Beijing. The project works to involve and educate local people in ecological conservation and the harvest is a source of income for them. He is also piloting a new type of conical, sustainable, energy efficient urban structure for heavily populated areas to aid in China’s increasing urbanization.

Wang Shi is chairman of Vanke, a pre-fab construction firm. The pre-fab pattern Wang purchased from Japan, and altered to be more environmentally sustainable, for China’s current and future needs. Then he re-patented it with his improvements. But like Google, Wang (middle in photo) has made his altered pattern freely available for other firms in China to use.

The main reasoning, he explains, is that when Google allowed their platform to be used and adapted by others it only made it more popular, building the brand reputation. The secondary reason is that it’s better for the environment. Seventy percent of the world’s timber is imported into China, primarily for use in construction of residences. Wang’s pattern altered the amount of timber used, and he is converting it to steel. By 2012, he will be using steel in more than one-tenth of his building sites, and he hopes to to reach 100% by 2014. Without subsidies for training and upscaling, though it will take longer, Wang says. Steel is also more expensive than wood, and rather than charge consumers, Vanke is swallowing the extra cost, for now.

Last weekend, the SEE in conjunction with three other environmentally minded entrepreneurial groups in China issued a statement saying that they could deal with binding carbon reduction emission targets for China if it meant a binding agreement was achieved in Copenhagen.