China Environmental Law

We have previously discussed the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s new “green passage” for project Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approvals.  As we noted “green” is being used here as it is used in customs clearance.  The “green passage” means “nothing to declare” and speeds you on your way.  Thus “projects that are deemed to have the [...]

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Here’s something a little off the beaten path.  Pruned gives us a look at the Tarim Desert Highway that runs 552km from north to south across the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang.  It connects the cities of Luntai and Minfeng on the northern and southern edges of the Tarim basin, but for “approximately 446km of the highway [...]

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We mentioned last week that the Treasury Department’s Advisory Committee on the Ten Year Energy and Environment Cooperation Framework (TYF) held its first meeting on January 15.  A few of you may be have wondered what was discussed.  Well, now we know, thanks to the indispensable US-China Business Council’s Energy & Environmental Technologies Update (if [...]

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When you hear someone tout China as “the world’s leading renewable energy producer,” remember to put this fact (which includes lots of environmentally unfriendly hydro by the way) in context: China’s energy growth is primarily fired by coal.  Although there appears to be a slight shift from coal in the energy project investment numbers for 2008, [...]

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Reuters is reporting that government data released last Thursday shows that
The amount of energy used to generate each dollar of national income fell 4.2 percent last year, accelerating from a 3.7 percent fall the previous year as factories closed or cut back production across the country’s manufacturing heartland.
If these preliminary numbers hold up after further refining, [...]

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The staff here at CELB is getting a little giddy with the approach of the Chinese New Year (CNY).  The highly-tuned efficiency with which they normally work is starting to sputter a little, and the lunches are getting progressively longer.  The weather had been warm.  The azaleas and camellias were in bloom; the birds were [...]

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Out with old, in with the new as we approach the Chinese New Year.  Although in this case “the old” wasn’t that old having held his job at the new National Energy Administration (NEA) for only several months.  Caijing reportsthat Zhao Xiaoping, currently deputy director of NEA and formerly director of the energy bureau under [...]

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Here’s some good news on the China environmental front.
The extensive effort to rid the Songhua River of pollution, which includes 24 projects launched out of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, is making great progress, according to sources from Harbin environmental protection bureau.
You probably recall that the Songhua River was made infamous after it became contaminated with [...]

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China has just released the 2008 results of its annual survey of public attitudes toward the environment. 
Despite reported reductions in discharges of major pollutants and a high-profile “green” spin on the Olympics, public satisfaction with environmental conditions in China is falling.
Here’s an interesting comparison (the China Daily article notes that the survey has been conducted for [...]

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The Treasury Department’s Advisory Committee on the Ten Year Energy and Environment Cooperation Framework held its first meeting on January 15.  What perverse scheduling sense guides the setting of these meeting dates?  The first meeting of the Committee was originally noticed for the Monday morning immediately after the Thanksgiving holiday (needless to say, it was ultimately [...]

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