Water-trading Could Exacerbate Water Shortages in China
CHINADIALOGUELarge-scale engineering projects and rigorous state control are hallmarks of the Chinese developmental model, and both have been apparent in the country’s approach to water management.A US$62 billion project to divert water from the south to the parched north is under way, while the government is investing US$3.35 billion in desalination plants, aiming to produce 2.2 million cubic meters of desalted water a day by 2015. In 2002, it attempted to implement a permit system for water access to curb over-abstraction.But such measures are...
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China Tops Table for Disaster-Induced Displacement of...
CHINADIALOGUEMore than a third of all people forced from their homes by disasters such as floods, storms, and earthquakes in the past five years were in China, says a new report from the leading international body on displacement.Around 49.8 million Chinese people were displaced by natural...
Time to End Secrecy Over Chinese Overseas Fishing
CHINADIALOGUEIt is well-known that overseas fishing fleets are more cavalier in terms of respect for laws and regulations than their domestic counterparts. There are innumerable examples from all over the world of fishing with gears that are not part of agreements, or catching amounts of fish...
Why Has Water-rich Yunnan Become A Drought Hotspot?
CHINADIALOGUEYunnan’s drought continues. During China’s annual parliamentary session in March, the deputy party secretary of the southwest Chinese province, Qiu He, blamed spring floodwaters that flow through Yunnan and on into other countries for the water shortages. He proposed a...
Why It’s Time to End China-bashing on the Environment
CHINADIALOGUEThe major impact that international summits and treaties have had on China’s environmental governance is often overlooked. Environmental protection first emerged as an issue in China in 1972, after the country dispatched a delegation to the U.N. Conference on the Human...
Poor Rural Residents in China Seen as Easy Target for...
CHINADIALOGUEChina today boasts a collection of ninety-five environmental courts, all of which were set up over the past six years. It is a trend that promises to re-shape Chinese environmental law.But simply trumpeting this initiative is no guarantee the environmental courts will live up to...
Morococha: The Peruvian Town the Chinese Relocated
CHINADIALOGUEThe headlines have been stark: a Chinese mining company moves an entire Peruvian town of 5,000 people five miles down the road to make way for its new mine.It sounds like another story about an extractive corporation riding roughshod over local lives. But the reality is more...
Writing Yunnan a Rubber Check
CHRIS HORTONOur van stopped at a scenic vista on the contour road where verdant mountains undulated southward toward China’s border with Laos. Stepping out to take some photos, I was overcome by an acrid, unpleasant odor. I asked my local travel partner, Xiao Guan, what the stink was.“...
Public Fury After Chinese Environment Minister Keeps...
CHINADIALOGUEIn his eight years as China’s environmental protection minister, Zhou Shengxian has failed to keep almost a single promise. I say “almost”: he has kept his word at least when it comes to his own career—as promised, he has not quit.When the new leadership’s ministerial...
China Criticized over Tiger Farms and Illegal Ivory
CHINADIALOGUEChina is under pressure to regulate its rampant trade in illegal ivory and tiger parts ahead of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), opening this weekend in Bangkok.It has also been accused of quietly stimulating domestic markets for tiger skins...
Environmentalists Unconvinced by Wen Jiabao’s Green...
CHINADIALOGUEChina’s outgoing premier Wen Jiabao vowed that the government would solve the country’s ever-worsening pollution in his final work report yesterday as he opened the annual session of parliament.But coming amid rising public concern about China’s air, water, and soil quality...
Drought and Earthquakes Pose “Enormous Risk” to...
CHINADIALOGUEWhen the Fukushima nuclear disaster struck, China was building new nuclear power capacity at a rate unprecedented in world history: 40 percent of all reactors planned or under construction were in China. Targets for installed nuclear generation capacity by 2020 were raised...
China’s State-Run Media Shares Powerful Map of “...
TEA LEAF NATION, DAVID WERTIMEIt appears that Chinese environmental activism is going further mainstream. The Sina micro-blogging account of Global Times, a well-known Communist Party mouthpiece, has just shared news about the horrific proliferation of “cancer villages” in China. Earlier today...
A Progress Report on U.S.-China Energy & Climate Change...
LEAH THOMPSONIn his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama committed to confronting climate change, stating, “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it.” These were welcome words...
China Air Daily
MICHAEL ZHAOBeijing’s air pollution regularly makes international headlines. But exactly how bad is the air in the Chinese capital, home to 20 million people? That’s the question China Air Daily strives to answer—in pictures we take every single day from the same spot.Air pollution...
Nuclear Fusion: An Answer to China’s Energy Problems?
CHINADIALOGUEThe global nuclear sector has been through something of an apocalyptic patch since the disaster at Fukushima—from power station shutdowns in Japan and Germany to waste-plan chaos in the U.K. to doubts about China’s ability to showcase new reactor designs.But not everything is...
Xi Jinping Must Tackle Corruption and Boost Innovation...
CHINADIALOGUEIn January 2013, Australia’s biggest supermarket chain Woolworths began restricting sales of baby formula to four tins per customer after a massive increase in demand stripped shelves bare of popular brands such as Karicare.The buyers were not Australian mothers suddenly...
Where Does Beijing’s Pollution Come From?
SOHU BUSINESS, TEA LEAF NATION, DAVID WERTIMEIn January alone, a stifling and noxious haze twice enveloped the Chinese capital of Beijing, pushing air quality indexes literally off the charts and inciting widespread outrage both on-line and off. Pollution—and the outcry surrounding it—has gotten so severe that,...
Car-driving Officials in China Urged to Get on a Bus
CHINADIALOGUEChina’s new leadership has asked government officials to travel simply and, in normal circumstances, not to close roads to ease their journeys. In a recent visit to the Qianhai area of Shenzhen, south China, incoming president Xi Jinping made sure to follow the new rules.As a...
Stars in the Haze
JOSHUA FRANKFlying kites is the quintessential Chinese pastime. But “wind zithers” or “paper sparrow hawks,” as they are known in Chinese, also have a long history as tools. Over millennia, Chinese have used them for measuring the wind, gauging distances, and even sending secret...
Officials Failing to Stop Textile Factories Dumping...
CHINADIALOGUEThe Qiantang River is the most important river in China’s eastern Zhejiang province, one of the country’s most developed regions. On its banks, textiles plants work to supply fashion labels around the world. But they are polluting the environment in the process. A Greenpeace...
China’s Environment in 2012
CHINADIALOGUEFrom mass protests to trade wars, shale-gas drilling to hazardous cosmetics, it’s been a topsy turvy twelve months for China’s environment. Here’s a quick refresher of the year that was.JanuaryThe year got off to a bang – literally. The customary fireworks set off for...
China’s South-North Water Transfer is “Irrational...
CHINADIALOGUERuth Matthews, executive director of the Water Footprint Network, tells Tom Levitt how food has come to dominate our water use and why China may need to re-think its South-North water transfer project.Tom Levitt: What do you mean by our water footprint?Ruth Matthews: A water...
Tibetans Fight Tourism on Holy Lakes
CHINADIALOGUEMining, dam construction, sand excavation, poaching, and grassland degradation are seriously damaging the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, the world’s most fragile ecosystem. But without a second thought, the tourism industry has joined their ranks. The only difference is that tourism,...
U.S. Cities Suffer Impact of Downwind Chinese Air...
CHINADIALOGUEAround 9,000 feet up, on a remote mountaintop in the state of Oregon, a group of researchers are on the lookout. It is not planes or wildlife they are tracking but pollution clouds.The monitoring site is run by Dan Jaffe, professor of atmospheric and environmental chemistry at...
We’re Winning the Air Pollution Data Battle—So What...
CHINADIALOGUELast year, China made a breakthrough in the publication of air quality data, as more than sixty cities started to monitor and publish levels of the dangerous air pollutant PM2.5. But the figures themselves were depressing. With PM2.5—fine particulates—and ozone now included...
Taxi Drivers in China Have Highest PM2.5 Air Pollutant...
CHINADIALOGUEA study conducted by Greenpeace has revealed that taxi drivers suffer the greatest levels of exposure to PM2.5 air pollution: three times that of the average person, and five times the world standard.The study, carried out by Greenpeace in partnership with the Beijing University...
Can New Trials Boost Chinese Wind?
CHINADIALOGUEFor the last half year, the National Energy Administration (NEA) has been making its interest in Inner Mongolia’s western regions crystal clear. This part of north China, rich in wind-power potential, has hosted group after group of energy officials—one lot even spent the...
Official Shrugs Off Public Food “Panic”
CHINADIALOGUEWang Guowei heads up the policy and legislation department at the State Council Food Safety Commission. He spoke to Xu Nan and Zhou Wei about the nature of China’s food safety problems and the ongoing policy response.chinadialogue: Compared with other countries, what are the...
Doomed Toilet Scheme Was “Valuable Experience”
CHINADIALOGUEFor a large share of the 750 million urban people worldwide who lack adequate sanitation, flush toilets connected to municipal sewers are not a viable option due to poverty, water shortages, groundwater contamination risks, and other issues. The research and development project...
As China Grows Rich, Rainforests Fall
CRAIG SIMONSAn incredible forest lies on its side in this gritty industrial town in southeastern China. On the southern bank of the Yangtze River nine-foot-diameter kevazingo trees from Gabon rub against Cambodian rosewoods and Indonesian teaks. Nearby, rust-colored bark from Malaysian...
China’s Rising Consumer Class Sparks Climate Change...
CRAIG SIMONSTUOJIA VILLAGE, China—When you think about China’s growing greenhouse gas emissions, you probably don’t think of people like Zhang Chao or his father Zhang Dejun. Zhang Chao, a thirty-five-year-old middle school teacher living in small city in southwestern China, earns the...
China’s Rise Creates Clouds of U.S. Pollution
CRAIG SIMONSAt more than 9,000 feet along the crest of Oregon’s Cascade mountain range, the top of this snow-covered peak normally enjoys some of America’s cleanest air. So when sensitive scientific instruments picked up ozone—the chief component of smog—at levels higher than...
China’s Green Buildings and Sustainable Cities
Natural Resources Defense CouncilThe National Resources Defense Council is documenting the way in which it is promoting environmentally friendly growth principles in urban planning in China. This includes it partnership with Chinese governmental organizations in promoting and helping to implement green building...
Energy Innovation
Council on Foreign RelationsLow-carbon technology innovation and diffusion are both essential aspects of an effective response to climate change. Studying China, India, and Brazil, the authors of this report examine how innovation in low-carbon technologies occurs and how the resulting developments are...
Chinese Demand Stokes U.S. Coal Battle
CRAIG SIMONSTRINIDAD, Colorado—When the New Elk mine reopened amid windblown prairies last winter, it attracted little attention. But the mine—a long shaft boring through some of the world’s most valuable coal—strikes at the heart of a growing debate about the future of American coal.On one side are advocates of the U.S. coal industry and people living in places like Trinidad, a city in southern Colorado that has fallen from wealth to poverty in one generation. In the early twentieth century, eastern money financed local steel mills and...
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