Energy and Climate Change

July 18, 2009 - July 19, 2009

Beijing, China

Hosts:
Tsinghua University Student Green Association
Peking University CDM Club
China Youth Climate Action Network

To learn more, visit the official Web site:

http://www.iysecc.org/en/index.html

Executive Summary

The International Youth Summit on Energy and Climate Change (IYSECC) will bring together 300 Chinese and international students from over 35 universities around the world. It is the first international youth conference in the field of energy and climate change to be held in China. As part of the Energy Crossroads “Our-Opportunity” 2009 global summit series, it is the first international youth conference to be organized in the field of energy and climate change in China. The forum will be held on July 18-19, 2009 at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

IYSECC has received formal support from the Chinese Development and Reform Commission. Our advisory board members include:

• Su Wei, Director of Department of Climate Change, NDRC
• Jiang Jiasi, Chairperson of Peking University Environment Fund
• He Jiankun, Director of School of Public Policy & Management, Tsinghua University

Our confirmed speakers include:

• Jiang Kejun, Director, Energy System Research Office, Energy Research Institute, NDRC
• Qin Dahe, Former Director, the China Meteorological Administration
• Liu Xiaowei, Deputy Director of External Affairs, Shell

In addition, representatives from the Climate Group, WWF, Vestas and McKinsey will also share their thoughts at the Summit.
Our media partner include:

1. CCTV Energy Channel
2. China5E.com
3. China Environment News

As the co-host, Energy Channel of CCTV.com will provide our sponsor media support during the whole process, including:

1. Report of enterprises during the conference. The interview will be broadcasted on CCTV.com and available for one
2. year.
3. Conference live on CCTV.com
4. Report of the conference broadcasted in CCTV channels.
5. On-line promotion. Sponsors will be able to choose put advertisements on the website of Energy Channel of
6. CCTV.com.
7. Special interview of enterprises in CCTV’s studio: the interview can be broadcasted on CCTV.com or CCTV channels.

IYSECC is an ideal opportunity to further your commitment to social responsibility and build up the brand image among the best and brightest youth in the field of energy and climate change!

We invite you to participate in the conference as a keynote speaker, sponsor, panelist, workshop facilitator, to receive branding and advertising opportunities throughout the Summit. Please see the following page for sponsorship opportunities. IYSECC looks forward to working with you to bring together youth from China and around the world to take action on climate change and energy.

Disruptive Green Innovation

New Ventures China 2009 Forum

July 24th, 2009
Beijing, China

For more information and to register:

http://www.new-ventures.org.cn/forum2009/intro_en.html

INVITATION

The World Resources Institute and the DAO Institute of Environment and Development cordially invite you to the New Ventures China Disruptive Green Innovation Forum on July 24th, 2009.

The global financial crisis has transformed the life values of people. These days, most people are simply focused on their economic survival as they feverously scrutinize the latest fluctuations in the real estate and stock markets. For too many, concern for the most pressing environmental issues like climate change has become relegated to an easily forgotten newspaper story. This “I care only about my economic well-being” mentality is dangerous as the old Chinese adage teaches us – “with the skin gone, what can the hair adhere to - nothing can exist without its base.” Our survival is dependent on only one base - the environment.

For those of us who are as concerned about our economic well-being as much as the environment - where is the skin and where is the hair? Yes - money should be earned but only in a way that benefits the environment and society. We believe the answer lies on the fate of innovative small Chinese green business - whether these firms, in the aftermath of the financial crisis, can deliver desperately needed environmental and social benefits to China by becoming excellent businesses and profitable investment opportunities.

The New Ventures China Disruptive Green Innovation Forum is set to help further answer this question. At this unique event, six outstanding innovative green Chinese firms will engage with leaders from the environment, businesses and investor communities on how their firms can be drivers of a sustainable economic development model for China. As important, they will demonstrate their business and investment value, as well as new job creation potential.

We look forward to seeing you at this important event!
———————————————————————————————————————–

Disruptive Green Innovation Forum Agenda

Key Note Address

• “In the Aftermath of the Financial Crisis: Why Green Matters Even More”
• Jonathan Lash, President of the World Resources Institute

Featured Companies

• Greening the Brown: advanced industrial waste-treatment systems that reduce energy and water use
• Conserving the Money Tree: environmentally-friendly wood manufacturing systems and products that reduce hardwood forest harvest
• Profitable Technology Rejuvenation: technologies that extend the lives of hi-tech office equipment and reduce e-waste disposal
• More Profit with the Wind: advanced automated control system solutions that improve the operational efficiency and reliability of wind-power turbines
• Building Sunshine: thin-film solar cells and panels for building superstructures
• Wealth in Weeds: organic fertilizers and cosmetic products derived from an invasive plant species

On the Streets of China, Electric Bikes Are Swarming
June 14, 2009
By Austin Ramzy

In China, electric bicycles are leaving cars in the dust. Last year, Chinese bought 21 million e-bikes, compared with 9.4 million autos. While China now has about 25 million cars on the road, it has four times as many e-bikes. [Compare these staggering figures to more modest numbers from the United States, where more bicycles (2.6 million) were sold than cars and trucks (2.5 million) during the first quarter of 2009.] Thanks to government encouragement and a population well versed in riding two wheels to work, the country has become the world’s leading market for the cheap, green vehicles, helping to offset some of the harmful effects of the country’s automobile boom. Indeed, as engineers around the world scramble to create eco-friendly, plug-in electric cars, China is already ahead of the game.

But is the popularity of the e-bike in the world’s most populous country necessarily a good thing?

Read about the pros (i.e. increased mobility) and cons (i.e. lead pollution) here.

The Modern Predicament

The amount of material needed to sustain the modern world is somewhat ridiculous– and what better way to understand how much substance we buy is there than looking at the trash we produce? For example, in 2005, the United States produced 246 million tons of trash.

This is an extremely large amount of trash to visualize and sociologists tell us that the human mind cannot meaningfully grasp numbers higher than a few thousand. A better way to put it into perspective: A blue whale, the largest animal in the world, weighs about 160 tons. Therefore, 246 million tons of trash is equal to 1.64 million blue whales of trash. Just the heart of a blue whale is the size of a car.

Chris Jordan is an artist that is focused on displaying the extent of American consumerism. I think that through his work, we can develop a more concrete image of the incredible amount of things we use. His Web site can be found here. He says:

The pervasiveness of our consumerism holds a seductive kind of mob mentality. Collectively we are committing a vast and unsustainable act of taking, but we each are anonymous and no one is in charge or accountable for the consequences. I fear that in this process we are doing irreparable harm to our planet and to our individual spirits.

Trash encompasses unwanted food, cans, computers, boxes, etc. The implications of throwing out trash might bring a sense of guilt sometimes because you’re not recycling. But here’s a thought: Trash kills. Not quickly and violently, but slowly, dismissively, and subtly.

For around $1.50 USD, about 60,000 local workers including children risk their lives and limbs to scramble for anything out of your old computer. In Guiyu, Guangdong, picking through electronic waste has replaced rice production. The city is an electronic slaughterhouse. For example, some workers go to the local river where they make small fires to heat an extremely toxic mixture called Aqua Regia (Latin for “king’s water”), which is composed of 75% hydrochloric acid and 25% nitric acid. This process is extremely harmful to both humans and the environment. The residents of Guiyu cannot drink local water, and many villagers have become sick and weak. China takes in about 72% of the world’s electronic waste, which is about 35 million tons. Most of this waste is toxic and dangerous and long-term effects are still unclear.

A New Framework for Trash Disposal: Environmental Justice

The U.S. goes through at least 426,000 cell phones everyday (Chris Jordan art) in addition to countless other electronic supplies. How can we re-conceptualize this amount of stuff in a way that is more human, more ethical, and more pragmatic? Let’s look at the philosophy of John Rawls. He says, “In justice as fairness, men agree to share one another’s fate.” Rawls emphasizes that legitimacy is more of a technicality than a moral standard, and that justice is the maximal moral standard. Although it is “legal” for companies to throw electronic waste in Guiyu because the locals get paid for compensation, this is not necessarily just.

The environmental justice movement emerged in the early 1980s as a concept in the United States. Dr. Robert Ballard, a prominent environmental justice advocate says:

The environmental justice movement has basically redefined what environmentalism is all about. It basically says that the environment is everything: where we live, work, play, go to school, as well as the physical and natural world. And so we can’t separate the physical environment from the cultural environment. We have to talk about making sure that justice is integrated throughout all of the stuff that we do.

Before the rise of environmental justice, the trend of the environmental movement has been neglectful of difference and pluralism, especially in the United States. As Wolff notes, “the genius of American politics is its ability to treat matters of principle as though they were conflicts of interest.” (quoted from here). Scholsberg writes:

In addition to the lack of both diversity and attention to environmental inequalities, the form that mainstream environmental organizing has taken has angered grassroots activists attentive to resource and environmental justice issues. Specifically, critiques have addressed the centralization and hierarchical structure, the lack of democratic and community participation, and the general evolution of the major groups into professionalized interest groups practically indistinguishable from their adversaries.  (Read as a Google Book)

Environmental justice shifts the focus from the environment as a commodity to be preserved to a more holistic understanding of the environment as an interactive forum that is part of experience, whether it be for humans, animals or plants.

New legal precedents should be set in the realm of trash disposal to be environmentally just, so cities in the deathly condition of Guiyu do not exist.  As Keith Lewis, of the Serpent River First Nation in Ontario and an object of the history of nuclear waste in the United States says, “There is nothing moral about tempting a starving man with money.”

More sites on Guiyu:
Guiyu, Largest E-waste Site on Earth (Video) – China-pix
China’s electronic waste village – Photo Essays – Time
Guiyu: A Grim Recycling Landscape – Recycling Today
Where computers go to die – and kill – Salon

More on environmental justice:
Environmental Justice and the New Pluralism (Google Book) – David Scholsberg
Environmantal Justice (Google Book)– Peter S. Wenz
Environmental Justice: An Interview with Robert Ballard – Earth First! Journal

Chinese car designer Tang Hua unveiled this peculiar electric concept car, named “Detroit Fish,” at the North American International Auto Show in 2008. Photo by GmanViz.

Step aside, Japan. Don’t even try, Detroit. China has plans to corner the electric car market.

From the New York Times:

Chinese leaders have adopted a plan aimed at turning the country into one of the leading producers of hybrid and all-electric vehicles within three years, and making it the world leader in electric cars and buses after that.

As it stands now…

Japan and the United States currently lead the world in gas-powered vechicle technology. Japan, additionally, ranks first in hybrids, which run on both electricity and gasoline, with cars like the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight.

What is China’s plan for electric car domination?

China’s hoping to leapfrog its competitors by adopting new technology and raising its “annual production capacity to 500,000 hybrid or all-electric cars and buses by the end of 2011, from 2,100 last year.”

Plus, the government plans to dole out rewards to encourage the purchase of hybrid or all-electric cars. Taxi fleets and local government agencies in 13 Chinese cities can earn up to $8,800 in subsidies for each vehicle they purhcase. And consumers may also soon receive tax credits if they buy “alternative energy” vehicles.

By boosting production (and purchase) of electric and hyprid cars, China aims to stimulate its economy, reduce urban air pollution and decrease its dependence on oil.

To read about advantages and obstacles of China going electric, click here.

PACE (Professional Association for China’s Environment) is hosting the 2009 Wuhan International Conference on the Environment (WICE, 2009) from June 27-30, 2009 in Wuhan, which is the first experimental city for the development of a “Resource-Saving and Environmentally-Friendly” Eco-Society in China. The aims of this conference are to serve as an interdisciplinary scientific forum to present the most recent advances in environmental science and technology, and to foster integration of the latest scientific development into practical applications for the improvement of the environment.

Conference Presentation Topics/Sessions:

• Environmental Science and Human Health
• Environmental Pollution and Protection
• Ecosystem Assessment and Restoration
• Air, Ocean, Lake and River Monitoring and Modeling
• Eco-Cities and Sustainable Development Policy

PACE will organize and lead the “Eco-Cities and Sustainable Development Policy” session. The PACE session will be chaired by Ms. Jennifer Xu and Dr. Jinnan Wang, with the following sub-sessions:

• Sub-Session E1:  Energy Efficiency and Eco-City Development
• Sub-Session E2:  Emission Trade and Green Financing
• Sub-Session E3:  Cleaner Production and Circular Economy

Oral and poster presentations on research subjects and issues related to environmental science and technology are invited. All abstracts will be published in the Conference Proceedings, and potentially on a special issue of a major environmental journal.

Conference abstracts, written in clear, concise English, with 3–5 keywords and a maximum of 20 words in the title and 350 words in the text, should be submitted via the conference website. The original deadline for the abstract was no later than March 31, 2009. As PACE announcement is behind the schedule, please send your request for extension to CC Huang (Beijing correspondent for ResponsibleChina) at cc.huang2@gmail.com if needed.

Submit abstracts at http://wice2009.cespn.net/index.php/abstracts.

Published by PACE (Professional Association for China’s Environment)

A weekly update of China’s environmental news and analysis from PACE (www.pacechina.net)

By CC Huang

Welcome to Environmental China, PACE’s e-mail newsletter devoted to giving interested readers a comprehensive update of news concerning China’s environment. This newsletter will be sorted first with an Opinion section, and then a rundown of news divided into Public/NGOs, Government, and Corporations, with news about each sector’s involvement in China’s environment. Articles within each section is sorted chronologically. Any comments, suggestions or questions can be directed to cc.huang2@gmail.com.

OPINION

Growth is good but it must be green (China Daily, 3/26/2009) With the onslaught of the financial crisis last October, politicians and economists immediately began to blame Americans for consuming too much and Chinese for saving too much. Whoever is at fault, China has quickly learned that it can no longer depend on growing exports to drive its economy.

Opportunities abound in China’s environmental monitoring sector (Interfax-China, 3/23/2009) Environmental monitoring is becoming an increasingly important sector of the environmental protection industry as the Chinese government pays more attention to emission control and reduction.

Small-scale agriculture: A viable solution for China’s food and environmental concerns? (The Green Leap Forward, 3/18/2009)

PUBLIC SECTOR/NGOs

China’s green push starts at the bottom (BBC, 3/28/2009) Local farmers use to muck to create energy, reveals a trend toward environmentally friendly practices that might be more difficult for the government to understand.

Jet Li moves One Foundation toward combating climate change (China Daily, 3/26/2009) Kungfu star Jet Li is leading his One Foundation in a new direction - that is, raising public awareness about combating climate change and is teaming up with Tony Blair’s Climate Group to launch a low-carbon city project in Guiyang, Guizhou.

Pupil’s attend environmentally-friendly education activity (Xinhua News, 3/26/2009) Photo Gallery: Pupils attend environmentally-friendly education activity to observe plants in Yichang, Hubei.

Tibet: No; Climate Change, Yes! (NBC News, 3/25/2009) On Monday Greenpeace China turned Yongdingmen, one of Beijing’s ancient city gates, into a gigantic countdown clock ticking down to the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference to be held in Copenhagen in December.

Better to light a candle then curse the crisis (Shanghai Daily, 3/24/2009) Chinese from all across the country turn off their lights for an hour for Earth Hour, an hour celebrated across the world to increase awarenesss for conservation.

5th World Water Forum calls for joint action on water challenges (Xinhua News, 3/22/2009) The 5th World Water Forum, the largest water-related event in the world, concluded in Turkey on Sunday, or the World Water Day, with firm commitments of tackling global water challenges jointly in the context of sustainable development.

GOVERNMENT

China makes additional investment in pollution control in Songhua River Basin (Xinhua News, 3/25/2009) China will add 36 pollution control projects with an investment of nearly 1.8 billion yuan (26.3 million U.S. dollars) for pollution control in Songhua River Basin in the northeastern Jilin Province.

Top state-controlled think tank proposes greenhouse gas trading plan (China Daily, 3/25/2009) A top Chinese State think tank has proposed a global greenhouse gas trading plan to reflect the different historic emissions of rich and poor nations.

China and the Copenhagen Climate Change Agreement (Mark’s China Blog, 3/26/2009) Over the past few days, I’ve been reading some of the back-and-forth and jockeying for position among the global players in preparation for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen later this year. From what I’m reading, a lot of people are hopeful that Copenhagen will provide a sustainable framework for growth over the coming century.

Minister of water resources: China to continue efforts in sustainable water system (Xinhua News, 3/22/2009) China will continue its efforts in infrastructure and water-related systems to enable sustainable development, Chinese Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei said Saturday on the eve of 17th World Water Day in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

CORPORATIONS

Research report on Chinese solid waste disposal industry (Business Wire, 3/26/2009) Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue on the Chinese solid waste dispostal industry.

Multiple Certification for Fuji Xerox recycling site in China (ChinaCSR.com, 3/26/2009) Fuji Xerox Eco-Manufacturing (Suzhou) has been granted quality and environmental certification for its integrated recycling system in China.

GD Power to spend 660 million yuan on alternative energy projects (China Daily, 3/26/2009) GD Power Development Co, a major power producer and heating supplier in the country, announced on Thursday that it will pour 660 million yuan ($96.63 million) into several alternative energy projects through its subsidiary to further diversify its business portfolio.

Auto Zone China: Aims for 10 Million New Cars in 2009, but $1.5 Billion goes to energy vehicles (SUSTY, 3/26/2009) The central government has promised 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) funding for development and deployment of alternative energy vehicle technologies, including hybrid, all electric, and fuel cell vehicles, as well as standards that require more energy efficient manufacturing facilities.

Airbus: Expands Environmental Certification to US, China (Wall Street Journal, 3/25/2009) Aircraft maker Airbus said Wednesday Airbus Americas and Airbus China Beijing Campus have achieved certification according to the ISO 14001 standard for Environmental Management Systems.

Lax environmental laws give Chinese steel unfair edge (The Intelligencer, 3/25/2009) China’s lack of substantial environmental laws gives it an unfair advantage in the steel industry - a gap that could widen if future global-warming laws don’t address China, according to leaders in the U.S. steel industry.

Hebei invests in wind power (JLM Pacific Epoch, 3/25/2009) Hebei Provincial Construction Investment Corporation (HPCIC) plans to build wind power projects totaling 400MW and already has 100MW built or under construction, reports Shanghai Securities News quoting HPCIC General Manager Wang Yongzhong.

State Grid issues guidelines for CSR (China Daily, 3/23/2009) State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), the first Chinese enterprise to formulate a corporate social responsibility (CSR) report in 2005, took the lead again in recently issuing a Guidance for the Implementation of CSR, thoroughly illustrating how the State-owned enterprise fulfills its social responsibilities.

James Fallows of the Atlantic recently blogged about “today’s enormous, expanding Chinese cities,” comparing the more intimate architecture of Shanghai to the sprawling concrete slabs in Beijing.

“This is not a ‘which do you like better?’ discussion,” he emphasizes.

Rather the question is why the look and feel of Beijing seem so clearly to represent the direction Chinese cities are heading. To oversimplify what this means: although Shanghai probably contains more people than Beijing, it feels smaller. The roads are narrower, they’re more likely to bend or twist, the city unfolds on a smaller scale of neighborhoods and courtyards and little houses. Beijing is bigger and squarer and broader and more grandly imposing.

Fallows confesses that he prefers “the look and feel” of Shanghai and then goes on to ask himself why he feels that way:

“Do I like these small streets and human-scale settings in Shanghai because I am foreign?”

It’s an interesting question. Consider a Mercer Consulting study published in BusinessWeek about the “World’s Top 100 Most Livable Cities,” ranked by the “quality of life” they offer to expatriate executives and their families. Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver and Vienna top the list. Shanghai comes in at #100, flanked by Bratislava, Slovakia and Johor Baharu, Malaysia. Beijing comes even further down the list at #116. Other Chinese cities towards the bottom include Guangzhou, Nanjing, Shenyang and Jilin. Certainly, in this study, it appears expats prefer safe (i.e. Zurich), walkable (i.e. Vancouver) and clean (i.e. Vienna) places to live. But it’s hard to imagine why locals wouldn’t want the same thing.

To read more, click here.

Photo by 2493™

As a follow-up to my previous post, I wanted to point out a few more blog posts and articles that I think are worth a read.

First of all, most people might not even know this, but the 4 trillion yuan stimulus has been tweaked. Props to Charlie McElwee from China Environmental Law for noticing the changes. And he’s right that there are “mixed signals,” as obvious from a recent Reuters story. On one hand, vice-environment minister Zhang Lijun said the money will be invested in phasing out pollution; but on the other hand, he supports more car purchases, which we all know will only spew more smog into the air. But, Zhang insists, “If people can’t drive cars, they’ll have to go back to the time of everyone riding bicycles. I don’t think this is realistic, and it is not possible.” Here he is quoted in another story, saying, “Cars are a modern means of transportation and are essential for convenience and business.”

McElwee suggests that China should not be so narrow-minded to only think of cars vs. bicycles, and he advocates for other “progressive” transport alternatives, like “mass transit and electric bikes.” I totally agree, and as I’ve learned at EMBARQ, the solutions don’t stop there. You can curb private car use through other things like transit-oriented development, pedestrianization, congestion charging, bus rapid transit, metro and high-speed rail (ideally, operating on a clean “smart grid“), etc.

Zhang tried to reassure the public that increased car sales will not trash the environment, pointing to policies like banning “huangbiaoche” (or highly polluting yellow-tagged cars) in Beijing, which I wrote about on TheCityFix. But let’s get real - the truly sustainable solution isn’t just about manufacturing cleaner cars and banning dirty ones to ameliorate pollution; it’s about getting rid of cars to begin with. Hey, it worked during the Olympics…

And this brings me to my second point: The stimulus should be used wisely, not widely.  China is prepared to spend more of the total stimulus money on infrastructure projects. But as Andrew Batson of China Journal writes, “Expanding public housing gets 10% of the total, up from 7% previously, and other infrastructure projects somewhat less. That seems to be a gesture to growing concerns that China is preparing to build a lot of infrastructure that it doesn’t really need,” and this could lead to harmful environmental consequences. Again, it’s about building less, consuming less and wasting less. Not just building tons more of something a little better or cleaner or more efficient (although, that’s better than business as usual, of course.)

Reuters reported that China environmental NGO, Friends of Nature, issued a letter to the National People’s Congress, urging delegates to “use the 4 trillion yuan investment to pioneer a green, low-carbon economy… Don’t sacrifice the long-term objectives of conserving energy and reducing emissions for the sake of protecting high energy-consuming industries that have no future.”

Experts are worried this will be hard to achieve since China still remains so focused on growth (soon after the stimulus took effect, industrial output rose by 11%, according to Bloomberg)

Finally, I just wanted to point out this one more article that explains how the government can’t go at it alone, using the clean energy sector as an example:

The economic-stimulus plans rolling out everywhere from the U.S. to Europe to China seek partly to breathe new life into the global clean-energy campaign. But because the global energy system is so huge, even billions of dollars of short-term government money won’t matter much unless it’s able to get hundreds of billions of dollars in long-term private investment flowing into clean energy again.

So, I’m not trashing China’s stimulus plan. I’m just hoping the stimulus plan doesn’t trash whatever potential China has left to use this global economic slump to its advantage and emerge from it as a role model for transformative environmental policy and regulation, as well as a pioneer of new public-private business models (which could also involve cross-national cooperation.) Is that too much to wish for?

Congratulations to Elizabeth Balkan for launching her new blog, New Energy and Environment Digest ????????, covering energy and environmental policy and regulatory standards in China.

“NEEDigest” (the branding of which is slightly reminiscent of GOOD or SEED magazine) has already published eight posts, covering a variety of topics from toxic dumping to clean tech business tycoons.

Balkan, a strategic business consultant, blogs with clarity and a keen sense of how China’s environmental story holds international relevance.

Definitely one to watch.