Energy & Climate Change~

The status of Tibetan antelopes in China has been downgraded from “endangered” to “near threatened” amid the country’s active anti-poaching and biodiversity protection efforts, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration has announced. Thanks to efforts made to protect the animal over the past 40 years, the number of Tibetan antelopes (or Chiru) has risen from less than 75,000 in the 1980s to around 300,000 today. Despite the good news, the […]

China’s efforts to move electricity generation from a coal-dominated system to a mix of renewables is not only focusing on increased utilisation of wind, solar and other technologies but is also seeking to rapidly expand energy storage options. There are a range of energy storage technologies, including molten salt solar powered heat exchange and pumped hydro, however electrochemical battery storage is an area of rapid development. In late July 2021, […]

Shanghai residents recently spotted a bunch of curious dog-like animals hanging around their neighborhoods. The experts confirmed them as raccoon dogs, or “貉” (hé) in Chinese. Most Chinese have heard of the animal from the phrase “一丘之貉” (yī qiū zhī hé), which could be literally translated to “raccoon dogs of the same hill,” meaning “birds of a feather”. But few actually knew what the animal looked like until recently. The […]

In 2017, the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party set the goal of creating a “Beautiful China” by 2035. Important to this is a special five-year plan (FYP) for the marine environment. There have been marine FYPs before, for fishing and the ocean economy, but this will be the first one dedicated to the environment. China has identified the protection of the marine environment as an integral part […]

“The central government has attached great importance to the protection of farmland and we will implement the strictest policies to prevent farmland from being illegally used for other purposes” China’s Ministry of Natural Resources has released details of dozens of typical land-use supervision cases last year, underlining its firm resolve to protect the country’s farmland and ensure food security. The cases, listed in a notification revealed on Tuesday, covered a […]