The RICs have been least successful along the ecological and technological dimensions of sustainable development. These countries also face new environmental challenges from urbanization and industrial growth. They need to improve their energy efficiency, develop nonfossil energy resources where possible, clamp down on air and water pollution, and encourage new technologies that minimize or prevent pollution. Only Singapore and South Korea, for example, are members of the United Nations. Hong Kong is a colony of the United Kingdom until 1997, when it will become part of China.
China also claims Taiwan.
The NIC record is seriously flawed, however. The growth that these countries achieved came at the expense of severe environmental degradation, just as it had in the United States and Japan. Industrial air and water pollution in Taiwan, for example, has been so severe that it has damaged crop yields and poses risks to human health. In 1989, a group of environmentalists and academics released a major report on balancing Taiwan's economic growth and environmental protection. Taiwan is now in a time of transition with respect to environmental management.