China Environmental Law

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 singing courtship songs.  But a cold wind is blowing in today from Beijing and parts north.  Cold has also gripped the hearts of the CELB vendors who in years past have showered us with pre-CNY gift baskets.  Not one present this year.  In this atmosphere, everyone just seems to want to get home and hunker down.  Posts will be sporadic over the coming week, since little of any substance will be going on in China. 

A couple of points to leave you with.

First, Orville Schell, director of the Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations, was interviewed in Caijing regarding a new Asia Society and the Pew Center on Global Climate Change effort: “Common Challenge, Cooperative Response: A Roadmap for U.S.-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate.”  Although Schell is quoted as saying that this Roadmap has been “finally published,” I can’t find a copy of it out there.  Anyone else seen it?

After noting a lack of discussion during the Presidential campaign about Obama’s views on U.S. policy towards China, Schell says

But we are very hopeful that as President Obama’s new China policy is elaborated, it will put climate change at the center of a major new collaborative era between out two countries. Indeed, it is essential that he do so, and this sentiment is held by almost every new official in his administration. However, they will need a positive response from China and support from the American people to affect such a change. We see it as our task to help create that support by working with Chinese colleagues and by better informing the American people and the U.S. Congress on the dangers of ignoring this historic opportunity.

(emphasis supplied).  The bolded part of the statement really is the crux of the matter.  With China showing little appetite to commit to change the status quo (as far as its carbon emissions are concerned) and the American public ‘s concerns about environmental issues receding in the face of what are viewed as more pressing issues, it will take a phenomenal act of leadership from the new President to achieve the necessary progress on climate change agreements.

Second, a bold new solar power initiative: ”Shanghai introduces solar-powered, ’speaking’ toilets” .  The solar part is good, the “speaking” part when combined with a toilet is a little disconcerting.  Fortunately the headline writer was in error; it is a much less personally intimate “garbage bin” which will be conversing. 

The bins use solar energy to provide power for the electronic voice, which is activated by a button, that tells pedestrians where the closest two toilets are. The solar energy also provides power for a map on the top of the trash bins which lights up at night.

Apparently there are 480 of these solar powered, talking bins scattered throughout the Huangpu District.  Always the pace setter, Shanghai’s new trash cans “are the first solar-powered garbage bins in the country.”