China Environmental News Digest

China's green progress leaves US red-faced

2011-04-13T10:41:00.001+08:00

China's green progress leaves US red-faced Guardian.co.ukChina pushes ahead with an emissions trading scheme, while American initiatives remain sunk in Congressional quicksand

Importing Coal, China Burns It as Others Stop

2010-11-22T14:22:00.000+08:00

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL Even as developed countries close or limit the construction of coal-fired power plants out of concern over pollution and climate-warming emissions, coal has found a rapidly expanding market elsewhere: Asia, particularly China. At ports in Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Colombia and South Africa, ships are lining up to load coal for furnaces in

Amid Trade Tensions, U.S. Creates More Clean Tech Research Partnerships With China

2010-09-15T15:01:00.000+08:00

By DARIUS DIXON of ClimateWire The number of clean energy partnerships between the United States and China reached a new peak when the U.S. Energy Department announced two new consortia aimed at tackling clean vehicles and 'clean' coal technology earlier this month. Along with a substantial funding pool totaling $100 million, split evenly among the two countries, the new

2010-05-12T14:07:00.001+08:00

China environmentalist alleges brutal jail treatment By Robert Saiget (AFP) – 19 hours ago BEIJING — A top Chinese environmentalist said Tuesday he was beaten and suffered brutal treatment while serving a three-year jail term imposed after he spoke out about rampant pollution in a major lake.Wu Lihong also told AFP that authorities tried to force him to confess to bogus extortion charges. He

2010-04-26T14:06:00.001+08:00

All the tees in China: Golf boom threatens rainforest With its 1,000-year-old trees, Hainan was a rare conservation success.

2010-04-01T15:04:00.001+08:00

March 31, 2010, 7:37 PM HKT Via WSJ.COM An Environmentalist's View on China's Drought As China's worst drought in a century wreaks havoc across southwestern China, one of Beijing's leading environmentalists arrived in Hong Kong to push for stronger rules forcing listed

2010-03-31T14:18:00.001+08:00

Should the U.S. compete or work with China on clean energy?Amid recent studies suggesting the United States is losing the clean energy edge to China, the U.S. Department of Energy is helping fund a joint research center.On Monday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $37.5 million in U.S. funding over the next five years for the U.S.-China Clean Energy Research Center, to be located at existing

2010-02-03T14:10:00.001+08:00

The international expansion of Chinese dam builders Select ratingPoorOkayGoodGreatAwesome Jacqui Dixon CSR Adia Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Historically, Western countries have provided the technology for the bulk of China's hydropower dams. The first turbines to be installed on a river in China was under the Qing Dynasty in 1909, by German company Siemens.

2010-01-27T14:13:00.001+08:00

January 27, 2010 On New Environmental Scoreboard, U.S. and China Plummet While Iceland Leads By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL via Nytimes.com A new ranking of the world's nations by environmental performance puts some of the globe's largest economies far down the list, with the United States sinking to 61st and China to 121st. In the previous version of the Environmental Performance Index,

2009-12-23T13:16:00.001+08:00

Major environmental events in 2009 in China Source: Global Times [16:44 December 22 2009]Comments The environment was a hot topic in China in 2009. Here is a roundup of major events that happened. 1. Corruption in water pollution treatment project Seven provinces embezzled 403 million yuan ($59 million) from the funds for water pollution treatment project involving 13 provinces,

2009-12-16T14:01:00.001+08:00

It had to go somewhere: (some) Chinese E-waste flowing into North Korea. posted by Adam on December 16, 2009 @ 10:04 am As I've argued elsewhere on this blog, climate change – despite its popularity as an environmental cause in the developed world – really doesn't have much of a constituency in China. And among the most important reasons for that lack of popular interest is the persistence

2009-12-09T15:12:00.001+08:00

Why the Best Legacy of Copenhagen Could Be a Stronger China by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 12. 8.09 Via Treehugger.com The slight prospects for a deal at Copenhagen are already being pinned largely on the US and China. But with Obama's hands tied behind his back partly by the US Congress, with China already demonstrating leadership on renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts,

2009-11-30T13:43:00.001+08:00

Lessons from China's Three Gorges Dam Peter Bosshard Via Japanfocus.org The world's largest hydropower project has reached its final dimensions. Peter Bosshard draws conclusions from the Three Gorges experience. Fifteen years after construction started, the water level of the Three Gorges reservoir is scheduled to reach its final height of 175 meters this fall. After 27 million cubic meters of

2009-11-26T15:14:00.001+08:00

China Beachhead: More Government Support for Chinese Clean-Energy Exports By Keith Johnson Via Wsj.com From China today, another reminder of the role governments are playing in the global green-energy push. China's Export-Import Bank signed a $2.9 billion deal to boost exports of China Energy Conservation Investment

2009-11-20T17:02:00.001+08:00

November 19, 2009, 2:06 PM ET Via Wsj Blog How Much of China's Emissions Mess Is Really Ours? There's plenty of interesting stuff in the latest paper in Nature Geosciences about the growth in global greenhouse-gas emissions—that the growth is overwhelmingly concentrated in

2009-11-18T14:54:00.001+08:00

Going Green in China, Case by Case By MICHAEL FORSYTHE Via Nytimes.com ORDOS REGION, CHINA — This region of Inner Mongolia, home to one of the biggest deserts in China, is being transformed into the site of a pine forest that will stretch across its low hills as far as the eye can see. The local government's tree-planting program is part of a plan to "assume our green

2009-11-11T14:08:00.001+08:00

China Wants to Take "a Leadership Role" On Climate: An Interview with WWF's Yang Fuqiang, Part 2 by Alex Pasternack, New York, NY on 11. 9.09 When it comes to China's efforts to curtail greenhouse gases, Dr. Yang Fuqiang, director of global climate solutions at the World Wildlife Fund, has an optimal vantage point. He began his career as a researcher at the National

2009-11-05T13:56:00.001+08:00

Hummer Is a 'Garbage Brand' China's top climate-change negotiator makes a case that his country is gearing up for the December summit in Copenhagen. By Melinda Liu | Newsweek Web Exclusive Nov 3, 2009 In September at the United Nations, Chinese President

2009-10-29T13:32:00.001+08:00

Ma Jun: the call of rivers www.chinaview.cn 2009-10-28 18:14:28 By Gong Yidong BEIJING, Oct. 28 (Xinhua) -- When Ma Jun stood on the banks of the mighty and yet polluted Yangtze River in 1994, he had vague idea that one day he would devote himself to a Mission Impossible: saving China's dying rivers.

2009-10-27T14:03:00.001+08:00

George Monbiot on China and climate change October 26, 2009 Via GreenPeace Environmental activist and journalist, George Monbiot, talks to Greenpeace China about China and climate change. Beijing, China — China would be a lot more proactive on climate change if the West stepped up and took their share of the

2009-10-27T13:52:00.001+08:00

China's Water Needs Create Opportunities The Qinghe Wastewater Plant in Beijing. China's water shortage, especially in the northern part of the country, is driving a need for wastewater recycling. By HILLARY BRENHOUSE Via Nytimes.com MONTREAL — The staggering economic growth in China has come at a heavy cost, paid in severe contamination of the country's air, soil and

2009-10-26T16:41:00.001+08:00

Tower of Power By Austin Ramzy Monday, Nov. 02, 2009 Big fanA worker prepares for the installation of giant rotor blades atop a wind-turbine tower in China's Gansu province Ariana Lindquist / The New York Times / Redux In China, one doesn't have to look far to

Has China Really Gotten Serious About Climate Change?

2009-09-25T16:01:00.000+08:00

A thick smog settles over Beijing. Paula Bronstein / Getty Via Time.com By Bill Powell Thursday, Sep. 24, 2009 To get a sense of how far the Chinese leadership has come on the issue of climate change in a relatively short period, consider a conference held two years

E-Waste: There’s an App for That

2009-09-24T15:41:00.000+08:00

The iPhone is coming to China -- and so is a lot of technological trash. BY ADAM MINTER | SEPTEMBER 23, 2009 Before year's end, Apple and China Unicom will finally launch the iPhone in China, leaving hundreds of thousands of affluent Chinese cell-phone users with an increasingly pressing question: What should

Three river delta areas sinking, report claims

2009-09-24T14:24:00.001+08:00

By Wang Qian (China Daily) Updated: 2009-09-23 07:40 Three river deltas in China are sinking due to global warming and excessive extraction of underground water, leaving millions of people with an increasing risk of floods, a recent scientific report showed. The Pearl, Yangtze and Yellow river deltas in China are among the 33 major deltas studied, with 24 of them found to be sinking,