Recommendations for Climate Mitigation in China: A Community-Based Employment and Development Program

Recommendation # 1: A Community-Based Employment and Development Program

Program Recommendation # 2: A Clean-Tech Funding and Consulting Program for Small and Mid-sized Companies

President Xi’s bold commitment to make China carbon-neutral by 2060 during the UN Climate summit in 2020 raised hopes that the world’s largest carbon emitting country will finally take the necessary steps to drastically reduce their pollution habits. Despite this, China continues to introduce new coal capacity to cover the increasing energy needs that a growing industrial base and consumption demand. In wanting to achieve economic stability and sufficient employment across the country while decreasing emissions, China’s government is facing a challenging balancing act between central and local government needs, spurring economic opportunity versus closing down polluting industries like coal, chemicals, steel, cement, etc.

Even before COVID-19, employment growth in urban areas had dropped from over 4% a year earlier in the decade to only 2.5 % in the past few years. Nearly 17 million jobs in industry and construction have been lost since 2014 and the often-touted hope that service jobs will absorb laid off workers has not materialized. Growth has even been slowing in the service sector, while at the same time a growing skills mismatch becomes clearer; this is evidenced by the fact that just under 40% of the labour force have completed secondary school and slightly less than 20% have received a college education.

In addition, there is a disconnect between central government environment policy and local government’s needs to keep social peace through economic and employment. Many communities and regions have developed and continue to rely on economic activity and employment around the natural resource of coal. While the national government has put a reduction of coal in the energy mix on its agenda, regional and local governments struggle to make that happen without massive layoffs in structurally weak regions. They keep falling back on coal-based activity for lack of alternative resources while roll-out of environmentally cleaner technologies progresses slowly. The lack of immediate obvious alternatives to bolster local growth means regional governments have to make use of the resources available, arguing by using coal environmentally and efficiently, they contribute to China’s green transition.

In recent years the government has realized the need to support regions and provinces in keeping and growing employment opportunities while reforming the overall industry structure. As early as 2016, Premier Li Keqiang said that the government would set up more than 100 billion RMB in funding for the job transfers (such as the chemical industry). In 2020, the State Council’s Note on Stabilizing Employment called for setting up an improved mechanism to stimulate employment by strengthening financial support for enterprises so as to stabilize work places; they seek to provide on-the-job training to reskill the workforce, lower fees for insurances, offer more flexibility with work time, provide compensation for layoffs, and reimburse delayed wages. Recent government policies call for higher quality employment, which goes hand-in-hand with the aim to reform the industry structure and create a pathway for a stronger tertiary industry including data centres for e-commerce or upgraded and cleaner industrial production.

However, it remains questionable whether the tertiary – often urban – sector can absorb a large number of unemployed workers because many will come from closures and restructurings within heavy industry and coal in structurally weak regions. A 40- to 50-year-old chemical operator in China’s Northeastern provinces is unlikely to find employment in the service industry due to lack of alternative jobs and a matching skill set. Often, these workers are also not particularly mobile, thus restricting access to alternative employment even further.

We suggest two programs that hold the potential to support the clean-tech, green job transition in the mid-term: a community-based employment and development program and a clean-tech funding and consulting program for small and mid-sized companies.

Recommendation # 1: A Community- Based Employment and Development Program

Following a strictly national development strategy may be less fruitful to help reduce heavy industry and improve green employment, but complementing it with a local development process that better connects communities with expertise and research for alternative opportunities.

In order to assist regions dependent on coal to transition away from unclean energy and mitigate the long-term impact of de-industrialization, a local co-creation process within which all relevant stakeholders of a community should replace top-down development policy. Together, community leaders, government actors, local business leaders, and the releasing company set out to define the impact of a factory closure on the whole of the community. Representatives of all groups undergo a process of design thinking to turn the identified issues into ideas for solutions. The group defines the tools and help that is needed to transform the community. Studies have shown that the process of designing new business ideas that benefit the community in participation with the locals are more powerful.

The process would consider three major areas of development:

Existing economic activities and community needs to define business areas;
Enabling factors such as space needed, financing needed, partnerships needed, regulatory support needed;
And capacity building through training, partnerships/participation, and business model development.

Such an approach should be driven by the affected community together with the downsizing employing unit and backed by government subsidies or financing programs. The impact should be measured by the number of workers finding new employment and being reskilled

Program Recommendation # 2: A Clean-tech Funding and Consulting Program for Small and Mid-sized Companies

Many small- and medium-sized companies (e.g., in the chemical sector) continue to operate production processes that are polluting and not energy efficient. For some of these companies operating on a very small profit margin, the upfront investment to transition from polluting processes to cleaner processes or to innovative, more sustainable products are too large to make. Others are simply overwhelmed by the plethora of environmental regulations, resulting in a paralysis that keeps them from starting a transition.

One solution could be a peer-to-peer consulting process led by a group of representatives from companies who have successfully embarked on a clean-tech transition and organized by relevant industry associations. This group of experts could help small- and mid-sized heavy industry companies make a transition by defining the steps from easy-to-implement first changes to difficult-to-implement overhauls, designing a concrete plan and timeline for the transition, and spelling out the necessary financing and skills needs that would allow for such progress. The expert group in line with the industry association and relevant regulators would monitor progress and provide needed knowledge and expertise whenever needed. The plan could be used as a document to gain necessary financing from government to invest in the changes. Progress would be measured by the number of companies having embarked on a transition from old to new technology, comprehensiveness of transition plan, and rate of emission abatement.

Contact

Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security

Email (for English): english@mail.gov.cn

Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China

Contact (for Chinese): http://59.252.101.55:8090/bzxx/pages/Proscenium/LetterContent.jsp

Email (For English): english@mail.gov.cn

Premier Keqiang Li, The State Council

Contact (for English): http://topic.media.gov.cn/topicdata/en/2020/index.html

Email (for English): premier@mail.gov.cn

Sources

https://www.ft.com/content/cfff7a9a-2262-11ea-b8a1-584213ee7b2b

https://www.ft.com/content/cdcd8a02-81b5-48f1-a4a5-60a93a6ffa1e (accessed Jan 21, 2021)

https://www.ft.com/content/9656e36c-ba59-43e9-bf1c-c0f105813436

http://www.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2017-08/16/c_129682195.htm

http://www.gov.cn/guowuyuan/2016-03/16/content_5054173.htm

https://china.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202001/03/WS5e0f09daa31099ab995f5432.html
(accessed January 3, 2020).

Author’s own conversations with industry leaders

MIT D-lab co-design summits: https://d-lab.mit.edu/innovation-practice/global-workshops/co-design-summits

Author’s own contributed research in Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies (SPURS) at MIT. “Recommendations for urban integration policy in Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, Argentina”, October 2019

This Post was submitted by Climate Scorecard Country Manager Annette Wiedenbach

Image: Getty Images

热点聚焦：中国减缓气候变化的建议：基于社区的就业和发展计划

习近平主席在2020年联合国气候变化峰会上大胆承诺，中国将在2060年实现碳中和。全世界终于看到这个世界上最大的碳排放国终将采取必要手段以大幅减少碳排放。然而，中国仍在继续增加煤炭产能，以满足不断增长的工业基础和消费所导致的持续走高的能源需求。实际上，为了减少碳排放的同时保证全国经济和就业稳定，中国政府正面临如何平衡中央与地方政府不同需求的难题，在经济刺激与关闭煤炭、化工、钢铁、水泥等污染行业间左右为难。

事实上早在新冠疫情之前，城市的年就业增长率已经从十年前的4％下降到过去几年的2.5％。2014年至今，制造业和建筑业已经失去了近1700万个岗位，大家一直期望的服务业能够吸收下岗工人的预期并未实现，相反，服务业本身的增长还一直在放缓。与此同时，技能和岗位不匹配的现象也日益突出，只有不到40％的劳动力完成了中学教育，20％不到的劳动力完成了大学本科教育。

此外，中央政府的环境政策与地方政府期望通过经济和就业维持社会稳定的需求之间存在脱节。许多地区已经适应并长期依赖煤炭经济来解决就业。中央政府已将减少能源组合中的煤炭消费列入议程，而地方政府只能勉强配合，同时谨慎避免因此出现的大规模裁员。因为替代资源的匮乏，而环境清洁技术的推广进展缓慢，这些地方只能继续仰赖煤炭产业。由于缺乏立竿见影的替代方案以促进地方经济增长，因此地方政府只能利用现有资源，提倡环保、高效地使用煤炭来为中国的绿色转型做贡献。

近年来，政府已经意识到改革整体产业结构的同时，保持并增加所在地区和省份就业机会的必要性。2016年李克强总理就表示，政府将编制超过1000亿元人民币的预算，用于如化工等行业岗位转移支持。2020年《国务院关于进一步做好稳就业工作的通知》里，要求建立完善的就业机制，加大援企稳岗力度，加强对企业金融支持，并提供在职培训以降低劳动力成本，减少保险费用，且提供更灵活的工作时间，以及规范企业裁员行为。目前的政府政策要求产业结构改革和高质量就业机会齐头并进，为包括电子商务数据中心在内的第三产业或升级绿色工业生产铺平道路。

但是，第三产业（通常指城镇地区）能否吸收大量的失业人员仍存有疑问，因为大量的劳动力来自于那产业结构脆弱地区的重工业和煤炭业的关闭和重组。由于缺乏替代性岗位和相称的技能，一般的中国东北各省的40至50岁的化工企业员工不太可能找得到服务行业工作。而且通常那些劳动力也不太愿意跨地区流动，这进一步削弱了他们找到替代性职业的机会。

据此，我们发起两份支持清洁技术、绿色岗位过渡的中期计划：基于社区需求和条件的就业和发展计划，和针对中小型公司的清洁技术资助和咨询计划。

建议1：基于社区需求和条件的就业和发展计划

目前来看，严格执行国家发展战略并不一定能减少重工业和改善绿色就业，那么如果根据地方发展进程，将社区与专业知识和研究联系起来呢？没准可以找到其它机会。

要帮助依赖煤炭或非清洁工业的地区告别煤炭时代并减轻去工业化的长期影响，可以考虑让本地所有利益攸关方共同参与制定规则，取代自上而下的发展政策，具体实例可参照阿根廷的相关经验。政府、企业负责人与社区地负责人一起评估工厂关闭对整个社区的影响。所有小组的代表一同商议，甄别问题，寻找解决方案。该小组还将罗列改革所需的工具和资源。研究表明，允许社区参与设计、量身定制当地的新商业理念比单纯自上而下的推行社区治理方式更实用。

该计划主要考虑以下三个发展方向：

根据现有的经济活动和本地需求来定义业务领域
激活相关要素，例如所需空间、资金、合作关系、监管支持等
通过培训、合作关系/参与、商业模式发展构建综合能力

这种模式应由受影响的社区和计划裁员的用人单位共同推动，并以政府补贴或融资计划为后盾。最终效果应根据找到新工作并重新掌握新技能的工人数量来衡量。

计划建议2：针对中小型公司的清洁技术资助和咨询计划

许多中小型公司，例如化工领域，持续运营污染严重且不节能的生产流程。对其中那些利润微薄的公司而言，从污染流程过渡到清洁或创新、且更具持续性的产品过程的前期投资实在无力承担。另外一些公司则疲于应付各种环境法规，已不堪重负，根本无法开始转型。

可操作的解决方案是由行业协会组织，请成功开展清洁技术转型的公司代表参与的对等咨询。专家们可以从定义简单的首次转变到艰巨的全面改革的步骤，到设计过渡的具体计划和时间表，阐明所需的金融和技术支持来帮助中小型重工业公司转型。也就是说，专家组、行业协会和监管机构将监督进度，同时提供所需的知识和专业技能。具体的转型计划可作为支持文件，用于从政府申请转型资金。至于进度衡量指标，则可以把已过渡到新技术的公司数量、详尽的转型计划和减排量等纳入考核范围。

联系方式:

人力资源和社会保障部

(For English) english@mail.gov.cn

Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China

中华人民共和国生态与环境部

(英文)) english@mail.gov.cn

(中文): http://59.252.101.55:8090/bzxx/pages/Proscenium/LetterContent.jsp

english@mail.gov.cn

中华人民共和国国务院

李克强总理

http://topic.media.gov.cn/topicdata/en/2020/index.html

premier@mail.gov.cn