China Environmental Law

“China’s Silver Lining,”  James Fallows’ piece on China’s pollution problems from the June issue of the Atlantic is now available online. I enthusiastically recommend that you read the entire article (not least because it quotes yours truly and my good friend Peggy Liu at JUCCCE); it manages to convey both the monumental challenges and the grounds [...]

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PetroChina’s proposed $7.1 billion refinery and petrochemical complex in Pengzhou (about 19 miles north of Chengdu, Sichuan Province) may be scrapped purportedly as a result of last week’s earthquake.  You may recall that this project was recently the target of environmental protests characterized as the “Chengdu Stroll.”
A Bloomberg story reports that
The nation’s biggest oil company will [...]

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If you have been a reader of this blog for long you know that I do not buy the argument that the export market in China is responsible for China’s environmental problems. I have no doubt that export-driven production causes pollution in China, but to suggest that developed nations (whose consumers are the primary purchasers [...]

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Back in Shanghai. It’s nice to be connected again. In the connectivity department “old” Europe seemed, well, old. Jet lagged and slogging through a ton of emails and a bulging feedreader. Lots of stuff to write about — tomorrow. I will not be writing about the earthquake, unless there are environmental implications.  I’m not inclined [...]

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Hey, they have a wireless connection at our meeting facility! Can’t stay long, but so much to report. One observation: from what I’ve seen so far, the typical Chinese chemical plant, for instance, is not significantly worse than the typical chemical plant in this member of the EU. I’ll post again when I get a chance.

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This was my first time in the new Terminal 2 at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport. It’s big, serviceable and very easy to get through, at least on a Sunday afternoon. There seem to be several decent places to eat on a mezzanine level in the boarding area, and, there is a very big bookstore in the [...]

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Your faithful observer of all things Sino-environmental-law-like is forsaking the Middle Kingdom this week for the comforts of Belgium and Romania. Romania? Yes Romania: Dracula, gypsies, and, I hope, electricity, if you want any blog posts over the next week. Pace dear Romanian readers. I know Romania is a modern, developed nation now part of the [...]

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As I previously noted China’s Standardization Administration announced on April 18 that it had released 46 new national standards on “energy consumption issues ranging from coal-fired power to household induction cookers.” These standards are specifically designed to improve the implementation of the newly amended Energy Conservation Law  that went into effect April 1, 2008. I [...]

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Color me skeptical. The Environmental News Network carries a Reuters article that reports
This summer’s Beijing Olympics will be “basically” carbon neutral thanks to a series of energy saving measures such as the use of solar power and an afforestation program, a senior official said on Thursday.
Technology Minister Wan Gang said that the event was expected to [...]

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More information on the proposed changes to China’s tax revenue allocation scheme, and the impact of those changes on environmental protection.  Here is the current national/local spilt according to a new article  in the  Economic Observer:

Income taxes (corporate and individual): 60% national/40% local
Value-added taxes (VAT): 75% national/25% local

Here are the two proposals for change, both [...]

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