Solution #1
China could implement a population policy to regulate the number of births of newborn babies in the country. China has a large population in the world and hence, it has an effect on the country’s emissions. As the population affluence has a strong correlation with climate change, the Chinese Government implemented an one-child policy for all states within the country itself. Through this, they hope to control the population growth as China has grown exponentially over the past years. China officials also estimate a substantial decrease in the number of carbon dioxide emissions due to a population decline.
Challenge #1
Such a policy is difficult to enforce as the whole country is very vast and space is far and wide. The government may require more resources (manpower) to ensure its citizens abide by the regulations. In addition to this, illiterate citizens living in the countryside as farmers may not be aware of such policies and/or may not understand the need to curb their child-rearing practices which would challenge the implementation of such a policy. Furthermore, China is known to be a collectivistic country due to it having Asian Values. This indirectly leads to the ‘schema’ of having a large extended family.
Solution #2
The government can terminate or minimize the use of energy-inefficient coal technologies. As mentioned in the ‘Causes’ section, China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of coal. Henceforth, majority of their energy sources would come from the burning of coal in power plants and so on. One solution for this would be to research on more energy-efficient solutions in order to maximize the energy output with less input. Another solution is to ensure they use other forms of cleaner but sustainable energy (e.g. solar energy, wind energy).
Challenge #2
The government will probably face opposition while they are trying to implement such policies. Firstly, many companies and livelihoods will be affected should the government make an abrupt switch from using coal as an energy source to other forms. Next, people are often habituated to ‘usual practices’ ; meaning that they are often unwilling to change their routines unless they see an underlying or pressing need to. Such a big-scale change would need the element of time as it would take a long time to convert the power plants into energy-efficient or clean-energy plants. Rather, the government could start slow -starting by removing old and dirty power plants before ensuring new developing plants are energy-efficient etc.