Daily Chinese Environmental Wire 10/31

大家好！ 这是今天的最重要的环保的新闻。


1. First up, the NRDC has been busy today. Two great articles, and one good roundup:

--Cleaner textile mills, with a socioeconomic analysis of their benefits; as well as the CCP
   investment in EV vehicles and how they're leaving us in the [less-polluted] dust.

2. The incredible amount of energy solutions emerging from Hong Kong, via Renewable Energy World.

3. The push for the 'greening' of companies in Taiwan, via Taiwan News.

4. The heights of Taipei 101, via GreenBiz.

5. Increased [environmental] cooperation on either side of the straits, via Taiwan's China Post.

6. The opening of the International Forum of Climate Change in Beijing via China Daily, China.org.

Check back for more tomorrow!

－嘉石

"The Environmental and Social Consequences of Glacial Decline: Why Flatlanders Need to Care about High-Altitude Changes"

A few speakers from The Mountain Institute, along with panelists from ClimateWire magazine, USAID, and Center for Naval Analysis (CNA) met together at the Woodrow Wilson Center last Wednesday to discuss the consequences of melting glaciers, specifically in the Himalayan region.  Many of them had just recently been on expeditions to the Himalayas to study glaciers and meet with the local population.

Global warming will cause glaciers to melt much more faster and more often.  As glaciers retreat, they leave behind glacial lakes.  With the onset of glacier melt, floods will occur from ice avalanches falling from glaciers into glacial lakes.  These glacial lakes will then overflow over terminal moraines and cause flooding, called “outburst floods.”  These glacial lakes, which have the potential to cause outburst floods are named dangerous lakes.  There are about 400 marked dangerous lakes in the Himalayas, although this number is hard to calculate accurately.  As global warming continues, people must learn how to adapt or control and manage these dangerous lakes.  Historically it has been recorded that during periods of climate warming, glacial lake outbursts are more common.  Populations especially in the Andes and Himalayas will be at risk. 

The Andes government has already “turned a liability into an asset” by making tunnels for canals from the glacial lakes for use for hydropower and irrigation.  This is an example to follow for the Himalaya region. 

Besides glacial outbursts, there are other problems with melting glaciers.  People in the glacial areas use glaciers as reservoirs for fresh water – however in areas such as the Tibetan plateau and in Bhutan, land use is increasingly intense as deforestation and overgrazing occurs, which leaves little topsoil, so after the rainy season, or glacial melt, all the water runs off and floods the area.

An interesting point mentioned during the panel was how predictions can often times be exaggerated.  This is not necessarily a bad thing though since it leads to people taking action.  Unfortunately I do not remember the specifics, but an example one of the speakers gave was how someone predicted all forests in Ecuador will disappear within 25 years.  However, 25 years later, Ecuador had even MORE forest-cover than previously.  This is because people took action in planting trees and protecting the forests, after predictions looked dire. 

An important focus of the panel was how significant local knowledge is in thinking of solutions or way to adapt to the increasing possibility of glacial outbursts, and climate change in the glacial regions.  In the Andes, local people already have seeds for hundreds of varieties of potatoes for different possible changes in climate.  As stated earlier, the Andes government has already tried to make the travesty of melting glaciers into a benefit by making tunnels from the glacial lakes flow into canals for hydropower and irrigation purposes.  Hopefully the Himalayan people will also be able to adapt to the new glacial environment.  Many of the panel members had been on expeditions to the Himalayan glaciers.  They suggest a mixture of natural and social scientists along with local people in thinking of adaption and mitigation solutions to the melting glaciers and problems they will create.

Liz

Chinese Environmental News Wire 10/27

7 billion (!!!) people, new grid investment, and ending the Durban Deadlock.

In the pipeline: new site / blog, and a feature on Chinese investment in desalination

and the parallels between government investment in that industry, and the current

state of solar technology production, investment, and implementation. Enjoy!

*****************************************************************************

The investment of major CCP capital in water desalination via NYTimes

Sino-Iranian Cooperation on Wind, Solar, Hydro and Gas Energy Production via Celsias

More of 'Blame China' via The Energy Collective

Glaciers in SW China Feel the Pain via Eurek Alert

China: 'End the Deadlock on Durban Talks' via Reuters

Chinese Investment in Smart Grid Technology via Earth Techling

Seven Billion: Pictures and Workds via China Daily

Gates Foundation + Chinese Ministry of Sci & Tech focus on Health via China Daily

And finally, this is not about the environment, but those interested in Chinese online activism, and the relationship between the government, individuals, censors and the internet should check this wonderful article out.. via NYTimes

Enjoy!

Josh

Daily Chinese Environmental Wire 10/24

Wow! Busy day for China and the environment today. Then again, when isn't?

October 24 Brief:

China Aims to Dominate U.S. in Smart Grid Investments Just

As it has With Renewables via ThinkProgress

China's Great Wall is Crumbling Due to Mining via TreeHugger

Heavy Fog Dampens Beijing's Blue Sky Ambition via ChinaDaily

Suspension of Commercialization of GM Rice via FoodChainDB

China, Shale, Fracking, and Environmental Safeguards via ClimateProgress

Regional Energy Caps in China via BusinessGreen

Targets, not Goals for Chinese Solar Panel Trade via NYTimes

US Solar Panel Makers' Accuses Chinese Counterparts of Trade Rule Violations via NYTimes

and: China Replies With Accusations of Protectionism via NYTimes

and: US Expresses Outcry on Chinese [lack of] Anti-Dumping via RenewableEnergyFocus

Weekly Chinese Environmental News Alerts via NRDC

The Renewable Energy Arms Race [audio] via WBUR (NPR's Boston Affiliate)

as always, for up to date aggregation and commentary, follow us on twitter @IFCE_DC!

Jiashi

Germany and the Future of Clean Energy

          The Center for American Progress and the Heinrich Boell Foundation welcomed Franz Untersteller, minister for the environment, climate, and energy of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, on Monday, October 3 for a roundtable discussion on Germany’s simultaneous transition away from carbon and nuclear-based energies. As a German economic powerhouse, Baden- Württemberg will be a pivotal player in the country’s implementation of clean energy.

Untersteller began the discussion by identifying Germany’s main energy goals: the complete phase out of nuclear power plants by 2023; an increase in the share of renewable fuels in use; the addition of flexible gas power to their energy spectrum; and the adaptation of the current infrastructure to accommodate changes in energy sources. Untersteller emphasized that Germany’s decision to end its nuclear program does not suggest that it is abandoning its prior commitment to clean energy. Rather, Germany is focusing on other forms of clean energy, such as wind, hydro power, photovoltaic cells, and biomass—so long as it does not interfere with food production—as well as trying to improve efficiency. Untersteller highlighted the necessity of such a combination of tactics in order for Germany to reach its energy targets, with the ambitious goal of acquiring 80% percent of its power from non-carbon sources by 2050.

            Untersteller spoke to the anxieties associated with attempting such a dramatic shift, noting that a significant number of jobs and companies have already been created, contributing to Germany’s economy. In addition, the country’s eight oldest nuclear power plants have been shut down successfully, quelling fears of price shocks and destabilization. So far, Germany has provided as a model of success in the energy revolution. In 2000, Germany passed the Renewable Energy Act, which has served as a central political mechanism in the transition from fossil-based fuels to clean energy. This Act has influenced other countries in their parallel attempts to build their stocks of clean energy, partly because of the convergence of strategy drivers: energy independence, global climate change, and economic opportunity.

            Untersteller sees Germany’s planned nuclear and fossil-fuel phase-out as an opportunity to be on the forefront of the clean energy movement. He emphasized that the future of energy lies in the implementation of a second stage of transition in which the energy system experiences fundamental changes, with renewable energy dominating the energy sector, rather than merely being integrated. In addition, Germany’s leadership in the clean energy revolution introduces impetus for the United States to increase its commitment to the adaptation of clean energy.

Colleen Quinn

Migration as a result of climate change

This morning I attended Conversations about Climate Change Adaption: Displacement, Migration and Planned Relocation at the Brookings Institute.  I found this event particularly interesting because I am currently taking a Climate and Human Ecology class at George Washington University.  In my class we recently talked about how climate has influenced history and events.  For example the Irish potato famine in 1845 led to the Irish migrating to the Americas and New Zealand among other countries.  This historical migration relates to today’s event, which covered the impact on human mobility from climate change and how it is becoming increasingly discussed as it becomes more and more relevant. 

            The panelists held the event in the form of a conversation, exploring the potential impacts of climate change on migration, displacement and planned relocation. They first introduced approaches to climate change and how there is a  shift from trying to only practice climate change mitigation to also incorporating adaptation efforts.  One form of adaption is migration.  Climate change will lead to droughts and food shortages in certain parts of the world, while flooding and inundating others.  This means that migration is necessary.  In fact, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported that, “the greatest single impact of climate change might be on human migration.”  Panelist Dr. Beyani, a rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons by the Human Rights Council, presented the statistic that by 2050, 100 million people may be displaced by climate change.  In some African countries such as Ethiopia, recent droughts and subsequent famines have already led people to move to other areas.

The last panelist, Dr. Mearns, presented criticisms of the argument that migration is an effective form of climate change adaption.  He argued that it is impossible to record exactly how many people migrated only for reasons of climate change.  He also pointed out that people should be careful about seeming deterministic in saying that migration is due directly from climate change.  Climate change does not directly cause migration; however there are many reasons for migration deriving from climate change such as economic incentives if the effects of climate change prevent someone from making a living how they previously did, such as farmers who live in an area that will be affected by an increasingly hotter and drier climate.

There will have to be a lot of policy written to accommodate all the future migration taking place, such as the planned relocation of peoples in islands that will be inundated, and policy of who or who doesn’t qualify as an urban resident.  In China a household registration system called hukou (户口) exists which keeps rural people in rural areas, and perpetuates China’s urban-rural divide.[1]  If your hukou says you are from the countryside but you work in a city, you don’t get many of the benefits that come from having a city hukou, and you probably have to pay more in fees.  Anyway it will be interesting to see what new policy is made across the world as migration becomes increasingly more relevant from changes in climate.

Liz

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[1] Keith B. Richburg. “China ‘hukou’ system deemed outdated as way of controlling access to services.” The Washington Post. Aug. 15, 2010. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/14/AR2010081402009.html

Germany: Heading into the Second Phase of Clean Energy Industrialization Report of ‘Roundtable on German Success in Clean Energy Re-industrialization’

On October 3^rd, 2011, Center for American Progress hosted a roundtable discussion on Germany’s strategy and implementation of its clean energy development.  The discussion was led by Mr. Winfried Kretschmann, the minister of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg and politician from the Green Party.

The state of Baden-Wuttemberg lies in the southeastern corner of Germany.  Although it lacks natural resources, Baden-Wuttemberg is among the most prosperous states in Germany and one of the wealthiest regions in Europe with traditionally lowest unemployment rate. The state is heavily industrialized, with focus on Research and Development in the sustainable energy industry. One fifth of R&D personnel in Germany live in Baden-Wurttemberg. The state is also recognized as one of the Four Motors for Europe. It has great expertise in renewable energy engineering.

In March, 2011, Germany decided to shut down 25% of its nuclear power plants in the country, and completely phase out atomic energy by 2022. This strategy definitely put tremendous pressure on the energy sector in Germany. However, as in the nation, Germany is still dedicated to fulfilling the target set by Kyoto Protocol, reducing its emission by 80% compared to 1990s. Some of the new directions are renovating state-owned buildings to meet energy efficiency standards, and encouraging goods and service providers to adjust their products satisfy the needs for higher energy efficiency.  Businesses and industries are encouraged to lower energy consumption while improve manufacture facility and technology.

Solar energy has always received the highest population approval rate in the area. According to the new strategy, wind powered electricity will be increased to 30%.

In Germany, 23% of electricity comes from nuclear power plants. With the shutting down of nuclear power plants, there will be a period of time when marginal job creation does not change. However, as the technology and new industry revolves, new jobs will overcome the loss of jobs.

Germany, especially the state of Baden-Wurttemberg, is confident to be the leader of the SECOND phase of clean energy industry revolution, which is to fundamentally reengineer the grid system and work on innovation solution of storage facilities.

                               

                                                                                               ---- Haiya Zhang

The Issue of Chinese Emissions

When considering questions of development and pollution, measuring pollutants emitted as a function of energy production is one of the most effective measures for obtaining a base understanding of a nation's level of such practices. Obviously, there are other major sources of pollution be it industrial waste, or automotive exhaust, but energy production given its massive scale and comparatively easily discernible figure (its much easier to go off of their albeit questionable figures, rather than attempt to catalogue and draw empirical conclusions on the multitude of small polluters). That being said, despite the CCP discussing stricter and wide-ranging measures for controlling, reporting, and limiting emissions in its twelfth five-year plan it is still extremely difficult to gauge an accurate reading on levels of particulates emitted. Yuhan Zhang of Columbia university notes this, and speaks of a practice that has seemed to become culturally entrenched. Hit the jump to get the full analysis of emisisons figures, standards, regulations, and how those will all continue to intermingle for many years going forward. 

Low carbon development and public participation in China (Dr. He's talk on VOA)

There will be a talk by Dr. He on Voice of America (VOA) Oct. 5, Wednesday:

Time: Oct. 5, 9pm-10pm (Beijing time), 9am -10am (EST, USA)
Program: Issues and Opinions, Voice of America
Featured guest: Dr. Ping He, President of IFCE
Issues to be discussed: Low carbon development and public participation in China

You can watch online the live broadcast at: http://www.voanews.com/chinese/video-audio/
or you can also listen to the live talk show online at: http://www.voanews.com/chinese/video-audio/?play=Audio

Audience can dial in (FREE) to discuss with Dr. He or to ask questions:
Mainland China - Step 1, dial 10810 or 10871; Step 2, dial 866-837-5161 after you hear the recorded voice in Chinese
Taiwan - Step 1, dial 00801-102-880; Step 2, dial 866-837-5159 after you hear the recorded voice in English
Other regions (including in the US) - dial 202-401-4941

Gross National Happiness- silly or legitimate?

Last Wednesday I went uptown to the Brookings Institute for an interesting event called “Measuring Happiness and Opportunity Around the World.”  This event, based on author Carol Graham’s book The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-being, presented a new method to measure a country’s national progress: happiness.  Happiness is important- after all, in the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. guarantees its citizens “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”  Policymakers are beginning to seriously consider the benefits of measuring happiness. 

A few slides were presented on the screen in front of us.  One of them was the image of a happiness curve, based on the data of South America, but the U-shaped curve is meant to apply worldwide.  The curve shows that people’s happiness generally forms a U-shaped curve, meaning that it decreases, but climbs back up after the age of 40.  The panelists provided other data relating to happiness, such as how happier people live longer, and that happiness is increased by stable partnerships and employment, which I guess is not so surprising.  However something I was surprised about is that people in a changing society where the citizens are trying to make change, are likely to be unhappy.  Another interesting fact I found depressing was that there is a “paradox of unhappy growth.”  This means that countries with rapid growth often have unhappy citizens.  This could be due to the increasing gap in income levels in a rapidly growing country, among other reasons.

Automatically I associate the phrase “rapid growth” with China, and so I instantly started thinking about my experiences with China and if I thought the “paradox of unhappy growth” could be accurately applied there.  I am no expert on China, but I know that people are much happier now than forty years ago, and this has a lot to do with the increased standard of living, due to the fast-growing economy.

Economic growth is often the main objective of politicians.  However the power of relationships and social context can greatly influence one’s happiness, and happiness is enormously important to citizens’ wellbeing.  Graham points out that economic growth and GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in particular, is too narrow of a perspective for policy since GDP does not look at relationships.  Some countries have already began to take happiness into account in making policy, such as Bhutan in their Ministry of Happiness, where they measure citizens’ happiness using a measure called Gross National Happiness.  I became interested in Bhutan and was curious to see how measuring happiness has influenced the country’s policy and the wellbeing of its citizens. Ignorance is bliss, and Bhutan was previously a very isolated country. Bhutan only started opening up to the world recently, such as getting its first internet connection in 1999.  A quote I found while looking up articles on Bhutan reads, "’TV and the Internet are very new to us, and their impact on family and society has not been fully understood,’ he says without hesitation. ‘After all, we are talking about a traditional society that only recently came out of isolation. We feel vulnerable. In the past, we always saw these threats in the form of physical occupation. But with TV and the Internet, we must now fear a new threat--a kind of aerial threat.’[1] I do not have any profound concluding remarks about measuring happiness, or if I believe it should be seriously incorporated into policy.  After all, it is a subjective measurement that is complex and extremely difficult to try to quantify.  I am curious, however, to see how Bhutan and other countries fare who use this hard-to-measure, yet very significant human need into their policy-making.

Liz

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[1] Dorji, Kinley. “Bhutan- The Last Place. Gross National Happiness.” May 2002
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/bhutan/gnh.html