China: Energy-intensive industries efficiency goals

October 22, 2021 CEN_com 0

Published 2021/10/22 China’s government said energy-intensive industries like steel, aluminium, cement and oil refining should ensure that more than 30 per cent of their production capacity meets tighter energy efficiency standards by 2025. The goals, published on the website of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), have been set to put China on track to meet its pledge to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon neutral by […]

No Image

Conserving China’s crop biodiversity

October 21, 2021 CEN_com 0

A recent article in China Dialogue discusses the importance of conserving China’s agricultural plant biodiversity for future food security. Maintaining crop genetic diversity is a vital aspect of biodiversity in China, and around the world – hence the importance of looking after “germplasm” in China. Agricultural biological diversity (agrobiodiversity), is a small component of biodiversity, and presents two levels: genetic resources for food and agriculture, and the provision of ecological […]

African foundation hails China’s pledge to support biodiversity conservation

October 20, 2021 CEN_com 0

China’s financial pledge to support biodiversity conservation in developing countries illustrates its commitment to promoting planetary health, the Nairobi-based African Wildlife Foundation said in a statement. During the 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, or COP15, in Kunming, the capital of southwest Yunnan Province, China announced an initiative to establish a biodiversity fund and took the lead by investing 1.5 billion […]

No Image

China to further improve forest coverage and biodiversity by 2025

October 20, 2021 CEN_com 0

China will take more affirmative actions to increase forest cover and boost biodiversity by 2025, China’s forest and wildlife conservation authority announced. The announcement was made at a press briefing by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration(NFGA), during which NFGA officials responded to reporters’ questions on the country’s 14th Five-Year-Plan (2021-2025) about ecosystem restoration and wildlife conservation. According to NFGA deputy director Li Chunliang, China aims to increase forest coverage […]

No Image

China’s development of a carbon-neutral electricity system: 43% of electricity will be solar by 2060

October 20, 2021 CEN_com 0

Researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing, Nankai University in Tianjin, Renmin University of China in Beijing and Harvard University in the USA have found that solar energy could provide 43.2% of China’s electricity demands in 2060 at less than two-and-a-half U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour. For comparison, coal power tariffs in China ranged 3.6 to 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2019. The research was published as the cover article of the Proceedings of the […]

No Image

Mission Impossible: China’s South-North Water Transfer Project

October 16, 2021 CEN_com 0

Introduction by Kelvin Kwok Freshwater is an important resource in many countries especially developing ones, and many people in these regions do not really have access to it in daily life. Unfortunately, this issue tends to receive much less attention compared to, say, air pollution, partly because it seems less relevant to the buzzwords like global warming, but also because it does not really affect the most developed countries that are […]

No Image

How Chinese infrastructure projects let nature be nature

October 15, 2021 CEN_com 0

“On a beautiful day, you could see various animals, zebras, gazelles, giraffes, even elephants,” Fauzia Hussein, a passenger on the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway, described the wildlife she observed along the route. Since it opened to traffic in 2017, the Mombasa-Nairobi railway has been crossed by countless wild animals migrating between north and south, bringing a spectacle of life to the vast grasslands of East Africa, while on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in […]

No Image

Melting the Roof of the World: Impact of Climate Change on the Tibet High Plateau, China

October 14, 2021 CEN_com 0

High up in the Tibet Autonomous Region and western China lies the Tibetan Plateau, an imposing landmass of huge importance to Asia. Now, climate change is threatening to melt its glaciers. What does this mean for China and south Asia? Nicknamed the ‘Roof of the World’, the Tibetan Plateau, or 青藏高原 (Qīng–Zàng Gāoyuán), far surpasses Mount Olympus in height and grandeur. Standing proudly at 4500 metres above sea level and surrounded by […]

No Image

Kunming Declaration – Full Text

October 14, 2021 CEN_com 0

China Environment editorial note: The Kunming Declaration (see full text in English here) was adopted today. Its main purpose is to reaffirm the global political commitment to tackling the biodiversity crisis, and continue the process of coming to an agreement on the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The text is agreed by ministers of all parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which includes just about every country, except the […]

No Image

Xi Jinping unveils new measures at COP15 to strive for a beautiful China

October 14, 2021 CEN_com 0

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for a deep reverence for Nature while addressing the leaders’ summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) via a video link on Tuesday. President Xi said that people need to respect Nature, follow Nature’s laws and protect Nature, so as to build a homeland of harmonious coexistence between man and Nature. Beijing on Tuesday […]