China Environmental Law

On the climate front, be sure to read Li Gao’s critique of ACES and Paul Krugman’s defense of “border adjustments” to curb greenhouse gas emissions (I like to think of it as “cap & trade locally, tax globally”).  Links to both can be found in the Twitter feed on the left.
Today, however, I want to [...]

[Read more →]

Although it was initially reported that China “welcomed” the passage by the US House of Representatives of the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), it has quickly pulled up the “Welcome” mat.  A Xinhua article, which could have been written by Pan Jiahua, ridicules and lambasts the House bill.  The US “fell short of [...]

[Read more →]

I love it when China refuses to play along with its most sycophantic flatterers.  You may recall that we discussed HSBC’s bizarre contention that 37.8% (or US$221.3 billion) of China’s stimulus package is devoted to funding “green” projects.  These numbers lead to mind boggling claims that “China’s leaders are investing $12.6 million every hour to [...]

[Read more →]

I just stumbled upon a China Daily opinion piece, “No Green Signal,” from June 16 that deals with the game that is played by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and developers of hydroelectric projects.  In this game MEP and the environment always lose.
Often times, work on projects suspended for environmental reasons are allowed to [...]

[Read more →]

The Ministry of Environmental Protection released the English summary of its “State of the Environment” report earlier this month.  We have read it so you won’t have to.
Let’s first look at the ten achievements identified for 2008.  Where interesting facts and figures were given, we have noted them.

First, the CPC Central Committee and the State [...]

[Read more →]

I made a presentation today at a seminar sponsored by a large, international company which offers environmental consulting services in China.  The topic was “Sustainable Redevelopment of Contaminated Land.”   There was a lively audience and lots of good questions.  Now if we just had a lot of good answers we’d be making some progress. [...]

[Read more →]

There was a little more information in a China.org.cn story today about the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s construction ban on two large hydroelectric projects on the Jinsha River.  Both projects started construction in 2007 and both are owned by subsidiaries of large state-owned power producers (China Huaneng Group and China Huadian Corporation).  The pictures that [...]

[Read more →]

I applaud China’s willingness to publish the results of environmental and energy audits when the results do not paint a pretty picture.  The National Audit Office (NAO) yesterday released a report containing the results of its audit of the compliance efforts of 41 major state-owned enterprises (SOE) in 2007.  It found that a number of [...]

[Read more →]

Where has the time gone today? Several things to report on, but they will have to wait until tomorrow. I did learn at lunch that tales of the Shennongjia’s “wild man” are well-known in China. One person told me their mother used to threaten to send them to Shennongjia when they got a little out [...]

[Read more →]

At the suggestion of the wise Adam Minter, I’ve decoupled today’s orginal post.  While both portions relate to the same locale, they address seperate (but equally important) issues.  Here’s one part:
Had I not read this story about Shennongjia’s quest for “ecological compensation” (which is the subject of today’s other feature) I would have missed the [...]

[Read more →]