<![CDATA[Why one of China's poorest places has highest 'material footprint' per person]>

Scientists have found a surprising pattern in China's "material footprint" that may shed new light on its economic boom.

Material footprint is an indicator that accounts for the raw materials " fossil fuels, biomass, metals and other substances such as sand and gravel sourced from China and overseas " that are used to satisfy domestic consumption and capital investment.

In the first study of China's material footprint by region, a team led by Zhu Bing, professor of chemical engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a member of the International Resource Panel of the United Nations Environment Programme, found that capital investment in the poorer provinces may have helped maintain China's rapid economic development.

One of their discoveries revealed that in some poorer western provinces the per capita material footprint was larger than in the more heavily industrialised and wealthier east, and in some cases matched levels in Western countries.

An iPhone that weighs 194 grams might have a material footprint that is much greater, the study said. Photo: Winson Wong alt=An iPhone that weighs 194 grams might have a material footprint that is much greater, the study said. Photo: Winson Wong

In a paper that appeared on Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), they said that in northwestern Qinghai province, the estimated 2010 material footprint of 36 tonnes per person was the same as the United States average.

In theory, persons living in a developed area should have more materials at their disposal than those in a poor area. Much of Qinghai sits on the Tibetan Plateau, where gross domestic product per head in 2018 was about 11 per cent of that in the US, according to government figures. The researchers wanted to know why the material footprint in Qinghai matched parts of the US.

Zhu said one explanation came from the nature of the footprint. Materials used in Qinghai were mostly sand and gravel for construction projects and those were capital investments. In the US, the food and fossil fuels that contributed a large proportion of its material footprint were mainly for consumption.

The large footprint in western areas such as Qinghai and Ningxia Hui autonomous region may have been the result of development policy. Coastal areas in the east and south were more developed than the landlocked regions to the north and west, which led the central government to launch a series of programmes, such as the China Western Development Strategy, from the year 2000 onward, to address regional imbalances.

These projects included building railways, motorways, natural gas pipelines, high voltage power lines, factories and mines. They were driven by heavy capital investment and gave materials consumption a boost in sparsely populated areas.

Development strategies play a key part in China's booming economy, researchers believe. Photo: Reuters alt=Development strategies play a key part in China's booming economy, researchers believe. Photo: Reuters

In 2010, for instance, GDP growth in Qinghai and Ningxia reached 15.3 and 13.5 per cent respectively, much higher than those of the coastal cities, while per capita GDP in these sparse areas more than doubled over the last decade.

Some researchers believed that these policies helped China to maintain its rapid economic development for nearly four decades. Thanks to these projects, living standards and business opportunities in less developed areas improved and the whole of China benefited.

Ample natural resources including coal, minerals, and natural gas were moved long distances from west to east at low cost to sustain the Chinese manufacturing boom in places such as Shanghai.

The possibility of other countries copying China's economic miracle has led to heated debate. India, Central Asia and South America are looking to Beijing's infrastructure-driven model to stimulate their domestic economies.

Apart from India, many major developing countries have signed up to China's flagship Belt and Road Initiative and made agreements with Chinese companies to build hydro power stations, railway systems and power and communications networks.

Such a strategy would drive up the material consumption in these countries, which at present are mostly net material exporters.

There were concerns, mostly in Western countries, that the triumph of the Chinese development model would disrupt global material flows and further degrade the environment. At present, about 90 billion tonnes of resources are extracted annually, according to the International Resource Panel.

This figure may double by 2060, if not more, according to some estimates. Whether an already fragile ecological system could support this will become a pressing question.

A heavy material footprint in sparsely populated parts of China is accounted for by heavy capital investment, researchers say. Photo: Xinhua alt=A heavy material footprint in sparsely populated parts of China is accounted for by heavy capital investment, researchers say. Photo: Xinhua

Economic development in China needed further improvement, according to Zhu's study, especially a shift from high-speed to high-quality development.

For instance, the researchers found there could be a lag between the increase in material consumption and the improvement of incomes and living standards. Lots of materials were not fully used, and reckless exploitation of natural resources caused severe environmental problems.

"Decoupling is a word we heard more frequently in the United Nations," said Zhu. "It means an effort to increase GDP while reducing material footprint.

"It could be a challenge for China and also to the [rest of the] world," he said.

Western economies had their share of the responsibility. According to an earlier study on material footprints, also published in PNAS, achievements in decoupling in developed countries were smaller than reported or non-existent.

This was because developed countries were outsourcing their material demand to developing countries. They tended not to extract the materials themselves but import products and goods, leaving pollutants where the production took place.

An iPhone 11, for instance, weighed 194 grams (6.84 ounces), but its material footprint may be much greater, Zhu said.

That footprint includes not only mines for minerals and metals, but also the sand and gravel used in the construction of factories that produced the phone, as well as the plants that powered their manufacture. It also involved the roads, trucks and ships that took the products to the consumer.

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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