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Peter Bosshard (2013), “Holding Chinese Investors to Account: Environmental Impacts  中国投資家、環境への影響、責任問われる”, The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 11, Issue 17 No. 1.With toxins in the air and dead pigs in the rivers, environmental destruction has become a huge topic in China. The government has closed down hundreds of polluting factories, banks have refused lending for polluters, and protests have derailed numerous destructive projects. For Chinese companies, environmental risks have become business risks.The same is true internationally. Chinese banks, mining and hydropower companies have faced protests and lost contracts when their projects destroyed the environment. China Southern Power Grid pulled out of Cambodia after concerns emerged about the social impacts of its dam projects, and China Power Investment lost a multi-billion dollar contract for the Myitsone Dam in Burma.Rendition of the Myitsone Dam, BurmaAs a result, Chinese investors have started worrying about their long-term acceptance in host countries, and the government, about the country’s soft power.Since 2006, the Chinese government has issued a series of appeals and recommendations calling on companies to respect the environment, community interests and workers’ rights when investing abroad. It has for example requested that investors apply Chinese laws if host country laws are insufficient and that their projects comply with the international treaties that China has signed.New environmental guidelinesTwo recent guidelines mark China’s commitment to improve the environmental track record of its overseas projects. In February 2012, the China Banking Regulatory Commission updated the Green Credit Guidelines that regulate the environmental performance of Chinese banks. They now stipulate that banks “shall strengthen the environmental and social risk management for overseas projects” and follow “appropriate international practices or international norms” in such projects.In February 2013, the Ministries of Commerce and Environmental Protection issued their long-awaited Guidelines on Environmental Protection in Foreign Investment and Cooperation. Their goal is to guide Chinese companies “to identify and preempt environmental risks in a timely manner, lead our companies to actively fulfill their social responsibility in environmental protection, build a good foreign image of Chinese companies and support the sustainable development of host countries.”The new guidelines stipulate that environmental strategies and management plans be developed, environmental impact assessments and mitigation plans for sensitive projects be prepared, environmental information be disclosed to the interested public, and environmental aspects be considered in the supply chain. As my colleague Grace Mang has commented, the guidelines have not been designed to stop projects, but to mitigate damages and improve projects that go forward. Had they been in place earlier, they might, for example, have convinced Sinohydro to redesign the Kamchay Dam, which flooded parts of Bokor National Park in Cambodia.In substance the new guidelines are similar to the environmental recommendations of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The OECD guidelines are the most important international norms for foreign investors and cover a broad range of topics from human rights to labor relations and corruption. They are wider in scope than the Chinese guidelines, but unlike China, the OECD does not have any specific guidelines for banks and the environment.Brazil, Argentina and numerous other non OECD-countries have endorsed the OECD guidelines for their own companies. In contrast, China is not keen to follow norms that rich countries prepared without its involvement. The new guidelines add to the profusion of international norms, but Chinese enterprises may well take recommendations from their own government more seriously than OECD norms.Read more at The Asia-Pacific JournalArticles on related subjectsPeter Bosshard, China’s Overseas Dam Builders: from Rogue Players to Responsible Actors?Peter Bosshard, Lessons from China’s Three Gorges DamMasano Atsuko, The Immense Cost of Japanese Dams and Dam-Related Landslides and EarthquakesGeoffrey Gunn and Brian McCartan, Chinese Dams and the Great Mekong Floods of 2008Milton Osborne, The Water Politics of China and Southeast Asia: Rivers, Dams, Cargo Boats and the EnvironmentKenneth Pomeranz, The Great Himalayan Watershed: Water Shortages, Mega-Projects and Environmental Politics in China, India, and Southeast AsiaMichael Richardson, Dams in China Turn the Mekong Into a River of Discord: Rivers Know No Borders, But Dams Do