China Environmental Law

So what did you miss last week?  Not much.

Like the swallows to Capistrano

Beijing’s air quality seemed to return to pre-Olympian-effort murkiness or was it just another attack of haze?  No obfuscation this time, Xinhua calls it as it sees it: “smog.”

The reappearance of the smog was blamed on such factors as the lifting of some provisional environmental protection measures taken to ensure good air quality during the Olympics and Paralympics, the restarting of work at construction sites, and the return of heavily-polluting vehicles on the roads.

A new round of traffic restrictions are going to be implemented on a trial basis from October 11 to April 10, however, to try to “to cut gridlock and improve air quality.”  The restrictions appear hopelessly complex (cars with license numbers that end in 5 can’t drive on days when Jupiter aligns with Mars, etc.), and probably won’t work anyway, but at least there are plans to expand the Beijing subway system. 

 Pretty soon every town with a police car is going to get an “emission exchange”

Tianjin’s on again/off again ”emissions exchange” is apparently on again.  There is no indication of what brought it back from the grave.  The owners and their percentage of ownership are the same as had been reported before the project was last shelved: Chicago Climate Exchange (25%), CNPC Assets Management (53%) and Tianjin Property Rights Exchange (22%). The Chicago Climate Exchange will reportedly “provide technology and system support for the Exchange.”

As you may recall the Beijing Environment Exchange and the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange were opened a couple of months ago.

Like the Beijing and Shanghai exchanges, the Tianjin Emissions Exchange does not cover the trading of CO2 since the relevant government departments are still studying that issue. For now the Exchange mainly focuses on trading of major pollutants such as SO2 and COD, and energy efficiency.

Huh? Have a missed the establishment of a cap & trade system for SO₂ and COD in China?  There may be a couple of pilot projects around, but I doubt that they need an exchange to handle the trades that are made.

There you have it.  You’re up-to-date.