龍象共舞? 中國與印度之環境外交

Abstract

氣候變遷與永續發展兩個挑戰已經開始影響中國與印度的發展。兩國的優先目標都是發展國內的基礎建設以支持經濟成長，而兩國均面對在國內期待與國際規範中尋找環保平衡點的難題。對於中國與印度兩個理性行為者來說，合作的重要媒介是兩國官僚交流管道。身為世界第一與第二的人口大國，兩國正處於一個能提供前所未有的生活品質的快速現代化的時期。儘管存在著政治與行政上的差異，兩國的任何政策選擇都將對全球發展趨勢產生影響。身為發展中國家的楷模，兩國所採取的政策將成為其他尋求改善生活國家的模式。中國與印度的政策選項是在經濟與社會/環保中交互影響而產生。中印關係並非沒有障礙，兩國在五十年前因邊界爭端發生戰爭至今仍有心結，甚至仍存在相互敵視的安全觀，但這些都沒有阻止兩國在環境議題上合作。本文採用PUTNAM 的雙層賽局理論來探討中印之間在國際環境議題上的合作。本文所提出的問題為：什麼原因使最不被看好的兩國能夠合作？兩國如何進行環境外交？環境議題上的合作是否能引起兩國在其他問題上的合作？及哪些政府單位在此過程中扮演角色？兩國在多方會談，尤其是聯合國氣候變化綱領公約談判中精心協調的立場放棄差異而藉由合作確保兩國人民福祉。他們在七十七國集團與新國際集團(金磚四國)中扮演的重要角色也預告展現了權力從工業國家移轉到開發中國家的新秩序。

The dual challenges of climate change and sustainable development are beginning to influence the development trajectory of China and India. Both the countries subscribe to a primary agenda of creating the internal infrastructure for continued economic growth and the challenge facing the two countries is to strike a balance between domestic expectations and global conformity to environmental norms. As ‘rational’ actors, for China and India, the important medium conducting this process of cooperation are bureaucratic channels that display a dynamic of their own. With the world’s largest populationsrespectively, the two countries are going through a phase of rapid modernization to ensure that their domestic constituencies are able to afford a quality of life they have never experienced. Their different political and administrative systems notwithstanding, the two countries are currently at the cusp of history where the choices they make are going to influence the global developmental trends. As exemplars to the developing world, the policies China and India adopt are to be considered templates that trickle down to other parts of the world seeking to transform their livelihoods. The policy choices China and India adopt are decided at the intersection of economic capacity and the socio-environmental impact the adoption of such a policy course entails. China-India relations are not without their obstacles – a simmering boundary dispute, a conflict five decades ago that still generates bitterness, mutually antagonistic security perceptions, and a glaring lack of institutional complementarities all converge on creating an ‘otherness’ to their bilateral equations. These differences do not prevent the two countries from cooperating with each other in addressing the issue of climate change with a sense of purpose that has led to the heralding of a new facet to their relationship –one of trust and mutual benefit. This study adopts Robert Putnam’s two-level game in seeking the essence of the international environment cooperation between China and India. Questions motivating this study are: What prompts the two unlikely partners to cooperate? How do the two countries conduct their environmental diplomacy? Are there any emergent patterns of cooperation and will it lead to cooperation in other spheres? And, Who are the agencies/actors involved in this process? The carefully coordinated positions the two countries adopt at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is evidence of their willingness to surmount their differences and work together to ensure a common vision for their people. Woven into this discourse is their leadership role within the developing world (G77) and the central role they play in creating new international institutional arrangements (ex. BRIC and BASIC) that are harbingers to a new order reflecting a power shift from the industrialized north to the developing south. Environmental diplomacy between China and India is a research opportunity to deconstruct the layers of cooperation, discourses, methodologies, domestic variables and institutional perceptions.