China plots course for green growth amid a boom built on dirty industry

Smog down a main street of Linfen, in China's Shanxi province. Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images Whisper it, but could China be about to turn an environmental corner after more than three decades of filthy economic growth? Hopes for a cleaner future are rising ahead of a national blueprint to tackle pollution, waste and champion renewable technology.
The five-year plan, due in March, is being hailed as the greenest strategy document in the country's history. Sceptics warn that one environmental threat – industrial pollution – may be replaced by another – excess consumption.
The five-year economic plan, once an arcane exercise in communist fiat, has big implications for the outside world. It could affect the colour of the sky, the planet's temperature and the welfare of billions of people beyond the jurisdiction of the country's mandarins.Read More