There seems to be a willingness in the West to pressure China to comply to stricter pollution regulations and to demonstrate leadership in that respect. As mentionned in previous threads, some efforts have been undertaken in China in order to "experiment" on small scale projects (sustainable urbanisation, alternative energies) alternative ways of developping as a country. It might be worthwhile to remember why we ended up in this situation in the first place.

At the same time more and more of the manufacturing and polluting industries of the developped countries have been moved to China where cheap labor and loose environmental regulations prevail. In other words, for the sake of production costs the west has exported some (most) of its pollution problems to China. The problem in China is therefore not merely a Chinese problem, it is a worldwide problem and how much additional cost is the west prepared to pay for its over-dependence and consumption of manufactured goods?

In my view the problem of pollution is linked to our production frenzy which in turns depends on our consumption cravings...with every government over the world trying to increase their GDP growth, I don't see how pollution problems will be tackled.

Lao Tse used to say that "only who knows what is enough will have enough"...the question of what is enough today, on how much we can afford as a specie on this planet is of critical importance and should not be left entirely regulated by imperfect market forces...

The energy challenge is indeed a truly global challenge. Shifting the problems from the developed world to the developing world (including China) will not stop the climate change for example. Al Gore produced a movie on climate change, Bill Clinton today made a speech in The Netherlands on climate change and some other global problems. It's time to stop fingerpointing at each other about who is responsible to start make a change. It's time to start doing something.
This is not a responsibility governments can take on their own. They need large corporations to understand that globally we need to take action. Large corporations like Shell need to see that this will bring real benefits in the longer term. And not only to the corporations that are serious and take the lead, for the entire world. But even MNC's and governments can't do it alone. Societies need to be convinced to support change, which may have a significant impact on the distribution of wealth in our world. And even the absolute level of wealth...
Slowly the global energy debate gets a place on the agenda of world leaders and even companies. In The Netherlands last week 25 large companies (including KLM, Shell etc) pleaded for a better framework and more incentives from the government for the development of alternative energy resources. One could clasify it as protectionism, but the thruth is that a level playing is needed to allow companies to invest in cleaner and more sustainable energy sources. It's not the one or the other, we need to do something all together. I hope some real leadership will emerge that can drive these developments quicker. And it doesn't matter whether the leadership will stand up in the industry, emerge from governments or even from lobby groups, as long as it will emerge quickly...
China is not a country that will deny the problems and doesn't want to do anything about it. Chinese leadership is very strong and for alternative solutions to be successful I would even think that Chinese involvement would be crucial. And the Chinese are also best placed to determine how to tackle the global problems within their boundaries. So do include and involve the Chinese and other emerging markets and developing countries in the debate.