“China’s Environmental Challenges” Book Release

2 October 2012

Judith Shapiro, a professor at American University’s School for International Service, has just published a great new textbook called China’s Environmental Challenges. She hopes for this new text to bring together scholars of China and scholars of environmental science, so that people from both disciplines will start to understand each others’ work. I had the great pleasure of attending the release party on Tuesday, and I want to share a few of the book’s main points:

-China’s governmental system complicated! The CPC has passed many ambitious environmental protection laws, however the tiao-kuai (referring to the often uncoordinated horizontal and vertical lines of authority) makes it difficult for these laws to be implemented effectively.
-however, there has been increased participation at the civil society level in China. NGOs are playing bigger and bigger roles! Ordinary citizens are launching more protests against environmentally-harmful businesses.
-The Chinese government must also get past cultural values that work against environmentalism: conspicuous consumptions and global economic recognition.
-Ethnic minorities are also suffering. The Chinese government has a track record of building polluting power plants in minority areas.

There was also a very interesting question from the audience:

What can China learn from the U.S., and vice-versa?
    -According to Professor Shapiro, China needs to learn more about our civil society and NGOs, and try to emulate our system. They can also take lessons from our information transparency, which they are already improving in China. As for the U.S., we must learn empathy. Too many Americans are quick to blame China for its pollution and energy consumption without realizing that the Chinese just want a country as developed as ours, with our high level of living standards.

You can get Professor Shapiro’s new book on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Environmental-Challenges-China-Today/dp/0745660916

The New Great Game: Potential Impact of Mongolia’s Mineral Development on China, Russia, Japan and Korea

18 September 2012
East-West Center
Dr. Alicia Campi

    Last week, noted Mongolist Dr. Alicia Campi gave a lecture on her research into Mongolia’s new mineral development and its effects on surrounding north Asian countries. For this post, I will focus only on her discussion of China:

    China’s neighbor to the north, Mongolia, is in the midst of a very exciting time: the country’s economy is growing by leaps and bounds, and most of this growth is directly attributable to Mongolia’s extensive mineral reserves. Mongolia is home to vast deposits of coal, gold, uranium, copper and rare earth minerals. In 2011 alone, coal mining increased 23%!

    What does this mean for China?
   
    China is currently Mongolia’s largest trading partner and foreign investor. As both a geographically enormous country and a coal-based economy, China has the onerous task of transporting coal all over the nation to fuel industry. This ties up the railways! So naturally, China is very interested in Mongolian copper and coal for its factories in the north, closer to the border.
   
    However, China could have other motives for buying Mongolian coal. According to a Peking University professor, China only invests in Mongolia for “political reasons.” He was referring to China’s national security goal of encouraging the Mongolian government not to support Inner Mongolian “terrorists.” Given that the Chinese government has forwarded huge sums of money to Mongolia in exchange for minerals it won't receive for years, this claim seems legitimate.

    As I was listening to Dr. Campi’s lecture, two things struck me as significant:
        1. Mongolia’s plan for the future is to diversify their foreign investors (meaning, not let China invest so much more than any other country)
        2. Russia is interested in monopolizing Mongolian coal in order to keep it out of China’s hands

        These two points indicate that it might be more difficult for China to obtain Mongolian coal in the near future. Could this cause China to make more of an effort to shift its economy towards a renewable energy base? Or will China just find other ways to keep fueling its growth using coal? Only time will tell!

-Hannah Chen

Empower and Thrive: Creating New Pathways for Development and Conservation

Hello everyone! My name is Hannah, and I am the new intern at IFCE. I’ve been here for a couple of weeks now, and I am enjoying every minute of it. I was especially excited to have the opportunity to attend a summit last Tuesday called "Empower and Thrive: Creating New Pathways for Development and Conservation," which was jointly hosted by the World Wildlife Foundation and Care.

What an amazing group of speakers! Twelve experts were divided into three panels, and each lecture had its own distinct approach to global development and environmental conservation.

The discussions from the first and third panels varied widely in topic, everything from the green economy to environmental policies in Mozambique. The second panel was more focused on a single issue: food security. Here are a few main points from the lectures:

    -Green Growth is the way of the future! If businesses integrate the idea of the value of natural capital into their models and work towards putting a price on carbon, they can save money and have more environmentally-friendly business practices!

    -Women are still at the bottom of the financial food chain, but they can play a large role in combating climate change. It is essential to promote education, job training, and reproductive health services for women, and to include women in decision-making processes at local government levels

    -Global food security is a major concern for the future. We will have to double the world food supply by 2050, but if we can maximize the yield of cropland and slow deforestation, we might be able to do it! We must also breed food that delivers better nutrition and uses less water and fewer chemicals

    The above are just a few examples of the topics we learned about, but I felt that there was an overall theme included (either explicitly or implicitly) in each of the lectures: partnership. Whether the speakers advocated partnership between state and local governments, between the public and private sector, between women and men, or between the World Wildlife Foundation and Care (two organizations with seemingly very different goals), the message was clear: climate change and environmental problems are everybody’s problems, and we must work together to solve them--even where we do not agree.

The Role of Renewables in the U.S. and World Energy Mix

July 10, 2012 – 3:00 p.m.
Atlantic Council, Washington, D.C.

Speakers:
Katrina Landis
Chief Executive Officer, BP Alternative Energy Ltd.
John Lyman
Director, Energy and Environment Program, Atlantic Council
Katrina Landis - British Petroleum’s (BP) Alternative Energy (AE) Ltd. division was launched in 2005 with global assets in the United States, Brazil and Europe. BP AE’s aim is to create new businesses, which will facilitate BP’s transition to a low-carbon future. With four core businesses in biofuels, US wind, solar and hydrogen power & carbon capture and storage, BP AE has invested about $7 billion, where $4 billion of that has been invested in the US. BP AE has invested approximately $4 billion in U.S. biofuels, including wind, solar and hydrogen power, as well as carbon capture and storage. Ms. Landis spoke about two of the businesses within BP AE--biofuels and wind energy-- and mentioned that BP AE plans to let go of their solar business due to competition. Unfortunately, BP AE’s carbon capture and storage business is at a standstill, as the progress is not moving at the expected pace.

In terms of biofuels, BP AE reexamined their strategy. It was decided that there were four criteria that needed to be satisfied in order to create a viable business. First, biofuels have to be low cost. They have to be capable of competing with hydrocarbon fuel over the short to medium term, with absolutely no form of subsidization. Second, biofuels must be low-carbon from a full cycle greenhouse gas basis. Sugar cane ethanol in Brazil, for example, has 90% less impact on the greenhouse gas basis than does gasoline. Third, biofuels have to be scalable. BP AE is not interested in niche opportunities; they are looking at developing very material businesses. Finally, they must be sustainable from an environmental, social and economic perspective. In an effort to fulfill these criteria, BP AE decided to focus on sugar fermentation as their core conversion methodology. BP AE believes that is the most viable and economic way of producing biofuels across a wide spectrum. Although the three businesses within biofuels act mostly independent, ultimately, the division expects to see the joining of the technologies they are developing with the advantaged businesses that they have on the feedstock basis. Today, they can produce sugar cane ethanol on a volume basis that will compete with hydrocarbons at $50 per barrel and on an energy basis that will compete with hydrocarbons at $60 per barrel, with no subsidization required whatsoever to put ethanol onto the market.

Within the wind business of BP AE, there are 13 operating wind farms with 1000 turbines and nearly 2000 MW of production. Furthermore, there are three facilities being developed this year in Kansas with 470 MW under development, Pennsylvania and Hawaii, which will the first wind facility in that state. In Hawaii, the use of battery storage is required in case the sun is not out or the wind is absent, which makes it the first wind farm to make use of batteries. What is driving BP AE to invest in wind power in the US is the production tax credit (PTC). Essentially, this piece of legislation says that the US government will financially support the development of wind energy. To date, this has meant $3.5 billion of support, which has driven $16 billion of capital investment from the industry. The cost of wind energy between the years of 1990-2010 has come down 55% and in the last three years alone, the cost of wind energy fell 25%. As the prices have come down, the size of wind turbines has increased seven times and the power output has increased fifteen times. Over the next 2-4 years, depending on the price of gas, wind energy will be able to compete with gas without any additional form of subsidization.

Since the year 2007, 35% of the new generation for power has come from wind energy, and BP AE anticipates that biofuels will make up 30% of the gasoline gene pool by 2030.

-by Amy Kuehnert

Chinese Environmental Wire Nov. 9

哎哟呢么多！就是今天的环保新闻：

Quenching China's Thirst via ChinaDaily

Under Immense Pressure, Beijing Opens its Air Quality Ctrl Center to the Public via Xinhua

and... the Pressure Itself via China Daily

Hong Kong's Air, well.. Not Doing So Great via HK CAN

China's Energy Demands Are Destroying Farmland Other than their Own via Vancouver Sun

China and... Climate Blackmail?! via The Guardian

Global Warming Evaporating China's Hydropower Production.. ouch. via Consul Clima

Climate Change + Chinese Grain Crop Yields via China Daily

Enjoy!

Chinese Environmental Wire Nov. 8

Excuse the day-lateness! Lots going on as usual! Check it out.

Microbloggers Pressure for More Air Quality Monitoring via China RealTime Report

China's Water Plan for the Next Decade via State of the Planet

The Chinese Solar Industry Runs into Anti-Dumping Concerns via Want China Times

Chinese Government Buildings, and their Special Air Quality via HK CAN

China Produces Finally Phasing Out Incandescent Bulbs via The Guardian

Cigarette Smoking and Air Pollution via China Daily

Beijing: US Embassy and 'Pollution Hype' via Yahoo

Why China Needs a Stronger Clean Air Act via NRDC

more to come!

@ifce_dc

Celebrating 50 Years of USAID

On Friday, October 28, 2011, the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted an event to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of USAID, the United States’ most prominent development agency. The event brought together four former administrators of USAID as well as the current administrator, Rajiv Shah, to discuss the agency’s accomplishments over the last 50 years, its current trajectory, and the issues that it will face in the future.

CSIS president and C.E.O. John Hamre opened the discussion by recalling the year 1962, the starting point for USAID. During the Cold War, the realization began to proliferate that the outcome of this conflict would not be decided by military action but rather through ideas. Innovation was necessary to demonstrate superiority, and the United States needed to act as a progressive world leader, especially in developing countries, to spread their innovations, and, subsequently, their political philosophy.

Daniel Runde, the co-director of the Project on U.S. Leadership in Development for CSIS, moderated the discussion, which featured Peter McPherson, Brian Atwood, Andrew Natasios, Henrietta Fore, and Shah.

Throughout the discussion, Shah emphasized his admiration of and appreciation for his predecessors, with whom he shared the stage. He noted that his administration would not have been able to achieve the results that they have without the extensive groundwork laid down by previous administrators. The beginning of the discussion focused on the many advancements made under the direction of the administrators in attendance, the most significant of which identified a need and strove to meet it in spite of the global atmosphere at the time. In particular, famine relief efforts in the 1980s, led by McPherson, in Ethiopia and Mozambique marked a defining moment in humanitarian efforts, with both countries representing Communist regimes. These relief efforts raised the question how to approach aid in the face of a fundamentally different system of governance.

As USAIS has matured, this question has been expanded to how to approach aid despite elementary differences in ways of life. Under Natsios, the answer lay in looking for overlap between the problems which developing countries faced—for example, combating food insecurity through improving the use of family planning. Fore built upon this principle by creating the Development Leadership Initiative, which seeks to establish a team of intellectual leaders focused on a results-based approach to international aid. Today, under Shah’s directorship, emphasis has been placed on empowering individuals—focusing less on a doctor or hospital’s ability to save a child’s life and instead putting the capability to do so into the mother’s hands—and thereby expanding the number of people that can be affected.

One of the major challenges facing the agency today is the issue of fragmentation. Although international development has risen on the agenda and the number of agencies involved in development work has increased substantially, this growth raises problems of how to coordinate all of these actors in the most efficient way possible. The administrators emphasized that any institution that has value to offer should be fully engaged and included. However, USAID should act a coordination point for all of these agencies, with approval necessary for any money spent. The event concluded with a discussion of the agency’s evolving relationship with the United States military and the need for a balance between security and development. As Shah reminded the audience, though, it is less expensive to do development work than to send soldiers, reinforcing the importance of USAID’s work over the past 50 years and their continued efforts to advance international development.

Colleen 

Daily Chinese Environmental Wire 11/2

UNDP Human Development Report out today! The USA leaves UNESCO! China... keeps on going. Check out today's wire:


Not Surprisingly, Asia is the Center of Green Investment via EcoBusiness
     and more than that... China! via MarketWatch

Analysts Say State-Owned Oil Companies are to Blame for Oil Shortages.. oops! via EpochTimes

Solectra Renewables to Open Factories in China via ChinaBriefing

BASIC Ministers Urge Developed Nations to Honor Climate Change Commitments via People's Daily

US Questions China's Smog Claims via CNN

HK Legislators Attack Government over Air Quality Issues via RTHK

The Hazardous Nature of Beijing Air Pollution via HK-CAN

Enjoy! Follow us on Twitter @IFCE_DC for up-to-date commentary, aggregation, and updates!


--Jiashi

Chinese Environmental Newswire 11/1

October come, and gone.

Six billion come, and gone.

As we rapidly approach that mystical carrying capacity of our planet, our environmental problems will only become further complication, more intense, and all the more important. Now too however, we have a great amount of potential, a high level of consciousness and years of experience. Hopefully, we can make the best of it. That however, will take some time to unfold. For instant gratification, check today's China-related environmental news!


Hasbro Joins others in Jumping the Sinking Ship that is Asia's Pulp & Paper via Greenpeace

India Moves Ahead With Thorium-based Nuclear Power Plant via The Guardian

Seven Billion, the Environment, and You. via NYTimes

China's First Biofuel Flight via China Real Time

The Center for Global Development's 2011 Commitment to Development Index via Poverty Matters Blog

Sanjeev Sanyal's 'The End of Population Growth' via Project Syndicate 

Trouble Strikes the Farmers of the Chinese Sugar Industry via China Daily


Enjoy!

-嘉石

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

---

[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

Climate Change in Bangladesh

The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, in conjunction with The Asia Program, The Environmental Change and Security Program, and The Comparative Urban Studies Project, presented a panel discussion about the effects of climate change on Bangladesh on Monday, September 19. The conference, entitled Perfect Storm? Population Pressures, Natural Resource Constraints, and Climate Change in Bangladesh, explored the dangers that global climate change presents for this small nation, which the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted as severe. The populous nation is expected to reach 200 million people by 2050; however, with a forecasted sea level rise of two to three feet, one-fifth of its landmass is expected to be destroyed. This loss of land holds particular implications for agriculture, with a predicted loss of staple crops of about 30 percent, as well as for the area’s inhabitants, leading to at least 20 million displaced people.

With such grave implications looming for Bangladesh, an overwhelming need for scholarly discourse presents itself. The conference consisted of two panels and included six speakers: Ali Riaz, who discussed Climate Change and National Security; Mohamed Khalequzzaman, Geological Aspects of Climate Change and the Fate of the Bengal Delta; Adnan Morshed, The Central Threat: Dhaka as a Frontier in the Climate-Change Narrative of Bangladesh; Roger-Mark De Souza, Population and Climate Connections: Effective Pathways to Calming the Storm; Shamarukh Mohiuddin, Adaption Needs in Bangladesh and the U.S. Response; and Philip J. DeCosse, Storm Surges, Coastal Forests, Local Governance, and Food Security: Innovations from Bangladesh.

Many of the speakers framed their talks around security. As Riaz pointed out, security can be both traditional, in military terms, and nontraditional, in relation to human activity and food. Together, traditional and nontraditional security comprise national security. The effects of climate change threaten all aspects of Bangladesh’s security as a nation. Not only does climate change hold repercussions for Bangladesh’s southern low-lying coastal areas, but its rural zones and urban centers are also at risk. Rising sea levels translate to massive internal migration, as individuals are forced out of their homes. However, it also means a considerable shift toward food insecurity, as lands are destroyed and fresh water sources obliterated. Currently, 56 percent of current food production comes from irrigated agriculture, a reality that cannot continue without readily available fresh water. Just as significant of an issue, though, is the uncontrolled urbanization of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city. The hyper-urbanization of Dhaka has lead to the proliferation of slums and squatter settlements and the dominance of social insecurities over the lives of many inhabitants. This unplanned urban sprawl also has serious environmental consequences, disrupting the fragile river ecosystem that feeds Dhaka and spewing pollution into the air with unprecedented traffic congestion.

Khalequzzaman emphasized that without intervention, that with an acceptance of the status quo, the situation in Bangladesh will result in the “Perfect Storm:” a host of issues and a scarcity of solutions. The issue of Bangladesh’s future needs to be brought to an international level. However, action cannot occur at the expense of the nation’s sovereignty. The speakers warned that if the capacity of the state shrinks, if social wellbeing relies too heavily on international or non-governmental actors, then Bangladeshi governance may turn to the adoption of more authoritarian methods. In the meantime, however, policies need to put in place and alternative solutions explored to help Bangladesh adapt to the severe ecological changes that threaten to redefine this highly vulnerable nation.


Colleen Quinn