Ma Jun An interactive map to track and end pollution in China TED

Choking smog, polluted waters,
climate change.

This has been the environmental cost

of the tremendous growth in China
over the past 40 years.

At the same time,

hundreds of millions of people
have put themselves out of poverty.

As an environmentalist in China,
I have witnessed all of this firsthand.

The challenge we’re facing is:

Can we clean up as fast and as broadly

as the massive development
degrading our air, water and climate?

China has one point four billion people,

still a fast-growing economy,

and is responsible for the biggest share
of the current greenhouse gas emissions.

China knows its global responsibility

and has pledged
to be carbon-neutral by 2060.

It means more than 10 billion metric tons
of carbon emissions

must be stopped or be neutralized.

How can we possibly do it?

The pressing global climate situation
requires each of us not just to do it,

but to do it faster.

I believe there’s a chance
for us to succeed,

as I know a tool

that I have seen worked to help reduce
the enormous environmental pollution.

It is the power of transparency,

pollution information made public using
mobile internet and other IT technologies

may empower millions of citizens
to speed change

by holding corporations
and government agencies accountable.

I personally got involved
in the transparency drive

for water pollution control.

Years ago, beside Lake Tai,

the third largest freshwater
lake in China,

I saw a group of fishermen using long
ladles to scoop out the algae bloom.

One fisherman said to me,
“When I was young, on a hot day like this,

I would have jumped
into the lake for a [swim].”

“But now,” he said, “the fish are gone
and we’re paid to scoop out the algae.”

Pointing to those factories
not far from the shoreline,

he said the lake would not be clean
until they stop dumping.

Years of research made me understand
how hard it is to check the dumping.

With weak enforcement,

the cost of violations was often too low,

and those who cut corners
became more competitive in the market.

This region happens to be
one of the biggest centers

of the global supply chain
for electronic gadgets and for clothes.

But those multinational
brands sourcing locally

were not very helpful at the beginning.

Many would argue, “In China,
I don’t know who is polluting,

so I would buy from the cheapest.”

This is going to add further pressure
on those local suppliers

to race down to the bottom
for their contracts.

But I told them I have a map

that can help them figure out
who is polluting.

From 2006,

we began to compile
corporate monitoring data

data into a database
known as the Blue Map.

We started with only two thousand
records of violations,

but through years of promotion
of enforcement and transparency,

that number has topped two million.

The missing dots

in the global supply chain’s
environmental management

began to be connected when a
group of [electronic] and textile brands

started comparing their list of suppliers
with our list of violators.

Let me explain how it works.

This is the Blue Map
for the Yangtze River Delta,

which covers the Lake Tai region.

Each individual factory –

and there are tens of thousands of them –

is color coded.

Blue and green for “good,”
red and yellow for “bad.”

The color codes are derived
from the violations on record

and the confirmed public reporting.

And we have put more
than four million of such dots

on the digital map,

all color coded.

Still, how can a map make change?

This is one of the largest
dyehouse suppliers.

It used to have multiple
violation records,

but insisted if they treat the waste
but not their neighbors’,

they would lose their business.

But then five brands, starting from Gap,

all told this company
it would lose their business

if it would not treat the waste properly.

Realizing that the sourcing
code has changed,

the company spent millions of dollars

to bring more than 12 million metric tons

of textile wastewater
contaminated by dyes and chemicals

up to standards,

and then made further investments
to cut the volume of wastewater.

We did the same thing,

along with our local partners,
such as Green Jiangnan,

with the electronic industry suppliers

that manufacture parts for Apple, Dell,
Huawei and other major brands.

Here is one of the largest
[electronic] suppliers,

dredging the local canal to remove
the heavy metals dumped in it.

Victories like this build upon each other

to enable the supply chain management
to reach further upstream

through the supply chain,

from garment factories to fabric mills
to dyehouses to the dye manufacturers.

Today, the color codes
can mean the difference

between a company that secures a loan
from a major bank,

like the Postal Bank of China,

and one that does not.

The application of the Blue Map data,
in green supply chain and green finance,

has motivated more
than fourteen thousand companies

to address their violations
or make disclosure.

The scope of environmental transparency
got further extended in China

during its epic fighting
against the severe smog,

which used to expose hundreds
of millions of people to health hazards.

In response to the public
demand for disclosure,

corporate online monitoring data were made
open every hour or every two hours.

The first of its kind in the world.

At the same time, people were acquiring
cell phones across China,

so we developed a cell phone app

to enable people to access the air
and water quality data.

But the most unique function
of the Blue Map app

is for our users to access
the records of emitters,

then share through social media,
tagging the official account.

Such kind of a microreporting

has motivated some of the largest
emitters to change behavior.

This is one of them,

a listed steel plant which used to breach
the standards repeatedly.

The microreporting filed by the local
Blue Map users and NGOs

has got a local agency to weigh in
and require this company to clean up.

Eventually, the steel plant spent
more than one billion dollars

to make a very deep cut
in its air emissions,

a contribution to the significant
improvement of air quality

in a vast airshed,
which includes my city, Beijing.

Despite all the successes,

I have to acknowledge our mission
is far from being accomplished.

There are still more than two million
records of violations in the Blue Map.

Today, we face massive tension

between environmental protection
and economic recovery,

brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic

as well as the looming
climate catastrophe.

There’s a strong temptation,
In local regions and cities,

to relax environmental regulations,

which has resulted already in a rather
big rebound of the carbon emissions.

So China’s 2060 carbon neutrality pledge
came at a critical moment.

But the implementation of it
wouldn’t be easy.

Remember the steel plant that already
spent one billion dollars to clean up?

Now the new task is for us
to review with it how to tackle

the 10 million metric tons
of carbon emission.

And this is just zero point one percent

of the carbon emissions that we need
to stop or neutralize in China.

Again, we must tap
into the power of transparency.

My team and I have launched
a Blue Map for Zero Carbon,

a database that needs to bring
China’s long-term national commitment

down to where that 10 billion tons
of carbon are actually emitted.

This is how a zero-carbon map looks like.

Each province and city is color-coded
based on its level of emission.

With trend analysis,

tracking when and at what level
the carbon will peak and stop growing.

As you can see, the cities of Beijing,
Shanghai, are on track,

while others like Tangshan, like Yinchuan,
still have a long way to go.

To generate peer pressure and incentives,
we’re working with our partner,

the Chinese Academy
of Environmental Science,

in assessing the local climate ambition,

performance and carbon-decoupling
trends of major provinces,

cities and energy
and raw-material companies.

One clear gap we identified

is the lack of capacity
in measuring and reporting.

Along with other partners,

we developed a digital carbon
accounting platform.

So far, more than five thousand companies
have been motivated by brands and banks

to calculate and report
their carbon emissions or local emissions.

But my dream is to empower
millions of more businesses,

to measure and to report
and to reduce their emissions.

Bear in mind many of them
are part of this global supply chain.

If you know the product you consume
day in and day out,

often has 70 percent or more,

and sometimes to up to 90 percent,
of their carbon footprint

in the supply chain,

would you join our efforts
in motivating the big brands

and banks and investors

to green their global sourcing
and investment?

And it’s not just carbon.

Today, we further expand the Blue Map

to cover waste and plastics
and even biodiversity

so as to empower more people to join

this unprecedented global race to zero.

The prize for winning this ongoing race
is nothing less than a better world

for this generation
and for the generations to come.

For mankind and for all
the plants and animals

that call this planet their home.

Thank you.