Science, Technology, and Public Policy

"But adopting federalism would help to ease one of modern China's most fundamental governance problems: The fact that local officials often implement central policies halfheartedly, if at all. Caught in a system that gives them plenty of responsibilities but no accountability to constituents, China's local officials emphasize short-term economic growth over compliance with directives like antipollution and social welfare targets. The result is that environmental and social policies are often badly implemented. If provincial and local officials had a greater voice in developing policy, they would have a greater stake in the outcome of these policies."

"Although the country has successfully imported model environmental policies, it has yet to develop the complex institutional infrastructure needed to make them work, especially an independent judiciary, a capable bureaucracy, and effective co-operation between central and local governments."

"Two recent Supreme Court decisions, including one concerning a Florida water-management district, threaten to undermine state and federal officials' ability to manage America's water resources. Instead of fighting it out through the courts, the governor should work with neighboring states and the federal government to use economic measures to ensure more efficient use of water resources."

"China's major cities have long been notorious for their high levels of air and water pollution, but such visible signs of threats to human health are thrusting environmental hazards into the public eye like never before. The Chinese government has taken some steps to address public concern at these hazards, but if either history or the experience of other countries is any guide, Beijing needs to take public opinion seriously to avoid future environmental crises."

"Beijing needs to learn, as other nations have, that popular participation is necessary to force entrenched business and bureaucratic interests to help clean up the environment. Until this happens, the US embassy's air quality monitor will continue to say what Chinese officials will not: China and its capital are gasping for air."

"The bottom line is that the United States must invest now in the development and implementation of new energy technologies. We need a new menu of energy options, which means: stable funding for energy R&D; strong incentives to pull new technologies into the market place; and effective mechanisms to ensure that technologies have a chance to compete."

Kelly Sims Gallagher and John P. Holdren weigh in on climate change on PostGlobal, a Newsweek- and Washington Post-sponsored online forum hosted by David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria.

Coal-based power plants are—and will continue to be—the backbone of India’s energy engine. They currently account for about 69 out of 128-gigawatt installed capacity of utilities, and projections by the Planning Commission indicate that coal will fuel the power sector for at least the next three decades.