I've been in Beijing, China this week on route to the Global Young Greens Conference and World Social Forum Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya and has been blown away this Bustling metropolis of 15 million people. China has been high in the media's focus for the last few years with many calling it an 'emergent superpower,' and commenting on its rapidly growing economy. With gross domestic product growth rates of around 8% for the last three decades it has seen it's economy balloon and a voracious demand for resources, oil especially. Walking around Beijing I have been struck by the contradictions, vast sky scrappers and huge Western-style malls selling expensive international products amongst true poverty, beggars and crumbling apartment blocks. The city is obviously in the midst of fantastic change and is undertaking a massive building craze with cranes dotting the skyline building new towers, new ring roads and extending the subway system in time for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Often this has come at the risk of traditional buildings and communities. The hutongs or narrow alleyways, often opening on to traditional courtyard houses wind through suburbs and are vibrant communities where often families have lived for centuries are under threat from this building boom.

I have been shocked by the share scale of traffic on the roads, with some 8 or more lanes on each side then large cycle lanes on the sides. The air quality is terrible with many people wearing masks and the car fumes remind me of Queen or Vivian Streets. 1000 extra vehicles join the roads each day yet the city has a great metro and bus system which about 50-60% of Beijing's people use. It's been great to see that Beijing has trolley buses as well, yet unfortunately much of the electricity is powered by coal with perhaps another 550 coal-fired power stations planned to be built. The streets are clean yet waste is a massive problem with 400 million tonnes expected by 2020 (that's as much as the world produced in 1997) and around 50 000 hectares of land around the cities are rendered useless by the garbage.

China has acknowledged the threat of climate change which could cause 'dire consequences' especially in agricultural production and has undertaken to have 10% of electricity powered by renewable energy by 2010 and in its 11th 5 year plan is attempting to become 20% more energy efficient, yet it has seen a near 1% increase in the first half of this year. Often developed countries have demanded that the less developed counties do more about climate change as an excuse for not acting themselves but we have to acknowledge that we have had centuries of industrialisation behind us and have polluted and emitted a massive amount in the past. We need the developing countries to do more but first we have to set a positive example and work internationally with fair and equatable agreements to limit greenhouse gas emissions.