In September, the Chinese province of Hubei – where the first outbreak of Covid-19 occurred – announced 90 billion yuan (about US$14 billion) of investment in the coal, electricity, oil and gas sectors over the next three years. Provincial bosses described… Read More ›
The welcome return of China’s economy is bringing with it some unwelcome company, as air pollution levels have returned to pre-lockdown levels across the country. Major pollutants have exceeded concentration levels from a year ago for the first time since… Read More ›
Satellite images have shown a dramatic decline in pollution levels over China, which is “at least partly” due to an economic slowdown prompted by the coronavirus, US space agency Nasa says. Nasa maps show falling levels of nitrogen dioxide this… Read More ›
Reuters reported on Dec 19 that China would be launching “a nationwide carbon emission trading scheme (ETS). The government outlined details of what is expected to be the world’s largest such program …… Trading will be based in Shanghai, involving… Read More ›
China’s steel industry, the world’s biggest, is in crisis. The disaster is the result of a combination of factors, including a slowing Chinese economy, falling commodity prices, and an industry loaded with debt. Earlier this month, state-owned enterprise (SOE) Sinosteel… Read More ›
Any failure to tackle China’s huge pollution problems in the coming years could stoke public discontent and create “social conflicts,” government researchers warned, underlining political concerns driving Beijing’s war on smog. With pollution identified as a major source of unrest,… Read More ›
The average surface temperature in China has increased by 0.23°C (0.4°F) each decade of the last 65 years, said a Chinese government official—twice the average pace of warming everywhere else on the planet. This isn’t the first time the Chinese government… Read More ›
Due to land degradation, China worries that its limited farmland will not be able to feed its huge population. Reuters says in its report that, according to the Chinese government’s mouthpiece Xinhua news agency, more than 40% of China’s arable… Read More ›
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, or in my case, what happens in Beijing stays in Beijing is one of those clichés that is used with a bit of a nudge and a wink to describe a trip with… Read More ›
While President Obama challenged China at the United Nations to follow the U.S. lead in pushing for drastic reductions in national carbon emissions to save the planet from “climate change,” it appears that China has dramatically different ideas. As in: no…. Read More ›
China‘s overgrown and smog-hit capital Beijing has passed new rules banning the expansion of polluting and resource-intensive industries, the local government said on Friday. In a list of restrictions published on its website (www.beijing.gov.cn), the municipal government said it would… Read More ›
China‘s capital city, Beijing, will enforce the use of cleaner low-sulphur coal from August 1st in a bid to tackle the soaring levels of air pollution that frequently clog the country’s major cities, the official Xinhua media agency said on… Read More ›
Additive manufacturing (aka. 3-D printing) has triggered a revolution in fabrication, with applications ranging from consumer goods to artificial bones and organs. However, it is in the field of construction that the technology is making what may prove to be… Read More ›
China‘s smog is making it harder for foreign firms to convince top executives to work in the country, the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing said on Wednesday, offering some of the strongest evidence yet on how pollution is hurting… Read More ›
China must increase spending on emission cuts and clean technologies by 2 trillion yuan ($330 billion) to do its fair share to halt climate change, a report by Beijing’s Central University of Finance and Economics said. It urged the government… Read More ›
As China’s smog levels crept past record highs in early December, the phone lines at pollution-busting kit maker Broad Group lit up with Chinese customers worried about hazardous pollution levels that have gripped China this year. China’s government is struggling… Read More ›
Commentaries by two of China’s most influential news outlets suggesting that an ongoing air pollution crisis was not without a silver lining drew a withering reaction on Tuesday from internet users and other media. In online commentaries on Monday, state… Read More ›
Hundreds of flights were delayed or cancelled on Friday in China’s commercial hub of Shanghai as record levels of air pollution shrouded the city in smog, prompting authorities to issue the highest level of health warning. The incident is especially… Read More ›
A chronic shortage of natural gas is hurting China’s plan to move away from burning coal to heat homes and offices, raising the prospect of more choking air pollution this winter and beyond. The problem is worst in northern China,… Read More ›
Thick smog in Harbin urban areas has caused the closing of primary and secondary schools and expressways. The PM2.5 index has exceeded the maximum range of the metre. After the serious smog on October 20, and the early morning on… Read More ›
China unveiled comprehensive new measures to tackle air pollution on Thursday, with plans to slash coal consumption and close polluting mills, factories and smelters, but experts said implementing the bold targets would be a major challenge. China has been under… Read More ›
Thousands of dead fish have been found floating in a river in central China following a toxic spill, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday, the latest in a series of pollution scandals to hit the country’s water supplies. Xinhua said… Read More ›
The newly-topped 632 metre (over 2000 feet) Shanghai Tower is currently the world’s second tallest structure, outdone only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. But equally impressive is what it will have going on inside. In addition to 521,000 square… Read More ›
Nearly 20 million people in China live in areas at high risk of arsenic contamination in their water supplies, according to a study published on Thursday. The Chinese government has labelled arsenic contamination, which it first diagnosed in China in the 1970s, as one… Read More ›
China plans to invest 2.3 trillion yuan ($375 billion) in energy saving and emission-reduction projects in the five years through 2015 to clean up its environment, the China Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing a senior government official. The plan,… Read More ›
My recent post about the financial problems of shipbuilder Rongsheng was renamed from it’s original title to become China believes shipbuilder is ‘too big to fail’ – does China share the same belief about itself?” This posed a very interesting question:… Read More ›
Air pollution causes people in northern China to live an average of 5.5 years shorter than their southern counterparts, according to a study released on Monday which claims to show in unprecedented detail the link between air pollution and life… Read More ›
The Chinese government has approved a set of regulations designed to protect the environment and improve the safety standards of food and water. The Middle Kingdom is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. The National Council recommended,… Read More ›
Overcrowding on farms around Shanghai was the underlying factor that led to 16,000 dead pigs floating down the Huangpu river into China’s affluent financial centre, according to an analysis of official documents and interviews with farmers in the region. The… Read More ›
Much like the 16,000 dead pigs found floating in a different part of the river, the discovery of over 1000 dead ducks in the Nanhe has raised some serious questions. Foremost amongst them is how they died and why they… Read More ›
Leery of product safety in China, Zhu Zhangjin is urging farmers to invest abroad like he has. Zhu Zhangjin calls himself a farmer, but he has little time or love for mainland farm goods. Nor is he afraid to speak… Read More ›
Millions of tonnes of untreated refuse from the countryside end up in rivers and lakes annually. Many were shocked when thousands of dead pigs were found floating on Shanghai’s Huangpu River this month, but animal carcasses are not the only… Read More ›
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang pledged on Sunday that his government would “show even greater resolve” in tackling China’s festering pollution crisis, a source of increasing public fury. Li’s remarks at his debut press conference as premier were the highest-level public… Read More ›
China will force heavily polluting industries to participate in a compulsory insurance program to ensure they can adequately provide compensation for damage, the government said on Thursday. Pollution has become a core concern for the stability-obsessed ruling Communist Party because… Read More ›
Beijing is once again enveloped by smog. Traffic and flights in Beijing were disrupted Sunday because of smog that shrouded the city and some other provinces in China, officials said. SCMP reports: “Travel chaos at end of holiday after visibility… Read More ›
Japan and China have in recent weeks engaged in an unnerving game of aerial cat and mouse, scrambling fighter jets against each over contested airspace, and Japan accusing China of locking weapon-guiding radar against a Japanese helicopter—a claim China denies…. Read More ›
Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, is coming up on February 10, and that means several days firing fireworks and firecrackers to banish evil and invite good. Last Friday, Beijing authorities appealed to the Chinese people to reduce the firing… Read More ›
The search for culprits behind the rancid haze enveloping China‘s capital has turned a spotlight on the country’s two largest oil companies and their resistance to tougher fuel standards. Bureaucratic fighting between the environment ministry on the one hand and… Read More ›
The capital saw some of its worst air pollution in a decade. With fog making things worse, roads were closed and flights hit elsewhere. Photo: Xinhua Pollution levels off the scale in Beijing, and with no wind, conditions could get… Read More ›
China‘s economic boom has seen its coral reefs shrink by at least 80 per cent over the past 30 years, a joint Australian study found yesterday, with researchers describing “grim” levels of damage and loss. Scientists from the Australian Research… Read More ›
The health risks of microscopic air pollutants have been grossly underestimated on the mainland, with nearly 8,600 premature deaths expected this year in four major cities, a study has revealed. And premature deaths are “just a tiny fraction” of the… Read More ›
China is experiencing its largest ecological deficit ever – caused by decades of high economic growth and rapid urbanisation – as total emissions of carbon and other pollutants far exceed the capacity of its ecosystems, a new study says. The… Read More ›
According to Singtao Daily’s comprehensive report, on November 21, just one week after being reelected into the Politburo Standing Committee that ensures his succession to retiring premier Wen Jiabao, Li Keqiang pointed out at a working conference on pilot projects… Read More ›
Huge newly discovered reserves of much-needed uranium are in danger of being destroyed amid a row over digging it up. And as China‘s nuclear and coal sectors battle over the sites where the radioactive heavy metal lies buried, experts say… Read More ›
Pollution and unhealthy lifestyle choices have contributed to a big rise in the incidence of birth defects on the mainland in the past 15 years, experts say. Last year, birth defects were detected in 1.53 per cent of newborns in… Read More ›
Despite some recent progress in Beijing and other big cities, most mainland cities have still not made a sincere effort to improve transparency about their air pollution problems, according to a study. The Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs’ survey… Read More ›
China has an impressive plan to become more sustainable as can be seen from the draft report China’s National Energy Strategy and Reform. In this report the word conservation is mentioned 76 times and yet not once with regard to… Read More ›
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