The journal of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics published this article in 2009, two years before the APP (Asia-Pacific Partnership) was disbanded. The APP linked Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, Canada and the United States with the aim “to reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions through voluntary public-private partnerships and a focus on cleaner technology” (302). The abstract summarizes that China’s main concern is maintaining the same level of economic output with climate agreements, thus bringing to the fore the importance of APP over United Nations guidelines. According to the article China’s foreign policy is dominated by its domestic policy, which stresses economic development, poverty allocation, and social stability. With the goal of quadrupling China’s GDP by the year 2020, China also hopes to only double its energy consumption, which will rely heavily on fossil fuel consumption. However as GDP increases with increased fossil fuel consumption, China circa 2009 was beginning to feel the heavy effects of industrial effects on climate. A possible one-meter rise in sea level may threaten the eastern Chinese coast, which the article highlights could threaten 60% of China’s economic output. Thus climate change and pollution have become direct factors to Chinese domestic policy, and must be balanced when considering future economic growth.

Overall the article sought to explain whether or not the APP is beneficial to UN goals or detrimental—thus whether or not the APP will work in conjunction with the United Nations. To answer this question the article needed economic, environmental and organizational data, from public and private records. The author mixed a multitude of empirical data into his prose; however, I believe if he had chosen fewer sources and gone with more depth and conveyed this data in a numerical, the data would be more understandable (i.e. beyond stating facts). Overall the article discussed a lot of data but was shallow in its analysis of the data. This is not to say the article wasn’t well written, but the data that it produced was presented in a sporadic fashion. Without much context this article is difficult to understand, and I needed to research a couple of its sources to clarify where it came from.

Heggelund, Gørild M., and Inga Fritzen Buan. “China in the Asia–Pacific Partnership: consequences for UN climate change mitigation efforts?” International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 9, no. 3 (2009): 301-17. doi:10.1007/s10784-009-9099-5.