Greenpeace Beijing

The group had the pleasure of meeting with members of Greenpeace's China team in Beijing. They face unique working conditions. Unlike in many other countries in which Greenpeace operates, in China Greenpeace cannot borrow power from the public to push for policy change.

The success thus far has a lot to do with individual relationships with government officials—-typically younger ones that are much more concerned about the environment than older bureaucrats, for whom environmentalism is a very recent consideration.

They noted that Chinese policymakers have a hard time with detailed rulemaking on technical and environmental issues, which is a new challenge for them.

The Greenpeace staff said implementation of policy in China is very problematic due to the power of provincial governments: A policy change in Beijing is no guarantee of results on the ground.  

With regard to strategy, Greenpeace in Beijing is focused on promoting renewables, because it is relatively pleased with the government's emphasis on improving energy efficiency.