پیشرفت، نفوذ و دیدگاه های نظریه های emergy در چین، در حمایت از توسعه سازگار با محیط زیست اقتصاد و تجارت منصفانه

Emergy Accounting and Synthesis, developed by Howard Odum in the 1980s, accounts for both the work of nature and that of humans as part of it in generating products and services. Since the 1990s, when Odum's system theories and emergy approach were introduced to China, a great attention was paid to them, since they appeared to Chinese scholars very important, comprehensive, and rich with application opportunities to China's economic development and environmental management. Until now more than 150 papers related to emergy theories were published in Chinese scientific journals, more than 20 dissertations presented in all Chinese Universities, and a large number of emergy-based papers were authored by Chinese scholars in international journals. Also, several reports dealing with emergy evaluation of different provinces of China were presented to local governments for decision-making. Emergy theories were applied to valuation of ecosystems and eco-industrial parks, as well as to studies of benefits/cost analysis and feasibility of ecological engineering. Meanwhile, a series of monographs and translated books related to emergy theories were published in China, some of which are used as text books in Chinese universities and institutes. Compared with the great potential of emergy application, there are many new fields that should be addressed in China, including: assessing the environmental impact of processes based on matching of high-quality and low-quality resources, establishing new frameworks and systems for environmental accounting, evaluating natural capital and services and applying research results to the process of decision-making, and finally studying the patterns and the available development options of China regional eco-economic systems.

For over a century, theorists have sought ways of relating resource availability and constraints to the dynamics of economic–environmental systems, often using energy as a common metric. These had limited success because different kinds of available energy are not equivalent in their ability to do work (not just mechanical work is to be considered), and therefore failed in their ability to link work potential, environmental support, and wealth generated in the economy. In the last two decades a new science-based evaluation system has become available to represent both environmental values and economic values based on a common measure. Emergy (spelled with an “m”), developed by Howard Odum in the 1980s (Odum, 1988 and Odum, 1996), was suggested as a measure of wealth and value based on environmental resource use. Emergy accounts for aspects that are usually not accounted for by other evaluation methods. It helps evaluating not only non-renewable resources but also the free services that a system receives from the environment (e.g., the photosynthetic activity driven by the solar radiation, the dilution of pollutants by the wind, the water cycling by biosphere driving forces, etc.) as well as human labor, societal services, and information. The latter are flows that carry negligible amounts of energy but are supported by a huge indirect flow of material and energy resources. Actually, the emergy approach helps understanding that a large and complex network of driving forces is necessary to support each particular economic activity in our societies. In addition, the emergy method is very helpful for the study of system on the larger scales of the biosphere, from hurricanes to global trade. The emergy method provides a powerful and comprehensive tool for better understanding of the dynamic interaction between human-dominated processes and resources and services provided for free by nature (Brown and Ulgiati, 2004).

The interest for emergy synthesis is growing among Chinese scholars. In spite of some computational difficulties related to the lack of comprehensive regional and national emergy databases for China, the growing number of studies in many fields of activity are likely to improve the knowledge and the available data upon which a policy-making process can be reliably based. China is looking for new ways which will help avoid several economic and environmental mistakes that affected western developed countries. In particular, China absolutely needs to develop its economy without lowering the quality of its environment. Such an achievement can only occur if the environmental support to economic growth is fully recognized and suitable feedback is provided to reinforce the Chinese resource base according to Lotka-Odum's Maximum Empower Principle. Chinese development also requires international economic and political stability, which can certainly be more easily reached if an equitable international trade is implemented. The emergy synthesis approach shows significant potentiality to become a fundamental tool for environmentally sound and equitable technical and economic development.