Environmental Assessment of Cross-Border Development: China and the Third Pole

Abstract

This paper examines China’s role in the regulatory framework for environmental assessment in the ‘Third Pole’ sub-region of South Asia: the Tibetan Plateau and related mountain ranges, in particular the Himalayas. To date development has been limited, partly as a result of poverty, conflict and relative inaccessibility. However, recent collaboration between China and Pakistan, improved communication between India and China, Chinese development of Tibet, and the export of Chinese development to other countries in the subregion financed by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, is likely to change things dramatically. Major infrastructure development, such as railways and hydroelectric dams, will place the environment under considerable pressure in the future. Given the crossborder focus of this development, the paper examines transboundary solutions to environmental protection, in particular transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) under international law and the development of a new environmental safeguards policy.