China, the Climate and the Fate of the Planet
If the world's biggest polluter doesn't radically reduce the amount of coal it burns, nothing anyone does to stabilize the climate will matter.
Environment
07.10.14
U.S.-China Climate Cooperation More Crucial Than Ever
from chinadialogueAs the governments of the United States and China meet in Beijing this week for the Sixth U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue (S&ED), one area worth...
Environment
05.07.14
Why China Will Fight for a Global Climate Deal Next Year
from chinadialogueChina is now the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and so the world will pay close attention to its stance at next year’s climate negotiations in Paris, as well as to the kinds of actions it takes to tackle climate change post-2020....
Environment
04.16.14
Ten Steps to Cleaner Air in China’s Cities
from chinadialogueEarlier this year, former San Francisco planning advisor Eugene Leong looked at the legacy of air pollution in San Francisco. Here he draws out ten key policy lessons for China's leadership.
Recognize PM2.5 pollution as a...
China’s Air Pollution Leading to More Erratic Climate for US, Say Scientists
Computer modelling shows intensification of U.S.-bound Pacific storms, driven by fine aerosols from coal power plants and traffic.
Environment
03.27.14
Climate Change Darkens Life in China
from chinadialogueAsia faces a worsening water crisis, according to a leaked report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Water demand from rising populations and living standards, and...
Books
01.16.14
Debating China
America and China are the two most powerful players in global affairs, and no relationship is more consequential. How they choose to cooperate and compete affects billions of lives. But U.S.-China relations are complex and often delicate, featuring a multitude of critical issues that America and China must navigate together. Missteps could spell catastrophe.
Recharging China’s Electric Vehicle Policy
Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy
Electric vehicles offer China an opportunity to reduce its reliance on foreign oil, improve air quality by curbing emissions from the burgeoning transportation sector, and enjoy the future economic benefits of being a global pioneer in an...
Environment
07.11.13
Organic Farming Takes Root in Nepal
from chinadialogueThe fierce sunlight bakes the fields and the winter crop of potatoes is still under the soil. Fifty-five year old Nepalese farmer Badri Prasad Humagain sits in his front yard looking out at his small field. His village in the Kathmandu Valley is...
Environment
07.03.13
Understanding China’s Domestic Agenda Can End U.N. Climate Gridlock
from chinadialogueLi Shuo of Greenpeace China has recently argued on chinadialogue that U.N. climate talks can drive more ambitious greenhouse...
Environment
06.06.13
Wuxi-Düsseldorf and the Challenge of Green City Partnerships
from chinadialogueAt first glance, it isn’t an obvious pairing. Düsseldorf is the fashion and advertising capital of Germany. Wuxi is a fast-growing industrial city on China’s east coast, with probably more coal plants than catwalks. But a German environmental...
Environment
05.28.13
How China Can Kick-start Carbon Capture and Storage
from chinadialogueChina’s estimated total carbon dioxide emissions reached 25 percent of global emissions in 2011 and they continue to grow rapidly—so...
Environment
04.22.13
Why It’s Time to End China-Bashing on the Environment
from chinadialogueThe major impact that international summits and treaties have had on China’s environmental governance is often overlooked. Environmental protection first emerged as an issue in China in 1972, after the country dispatched a delegation to the U.N....
Environment
02.14.13
A Progress Report on U.S.-China Energy & Climate Change Cooperation
In his second inaugural address, President Barack Obama committed to confronting climate change, stating, “The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead...
Environment
01.25.13
Climate Change, Not Grazing, Destroying the Tibetan Plateau
from chinadialogueSanjiangyuan—which literally translates as the “three river source area”—feeds China’s mightiest rivers. The 300,000-square kilometer region, high on western China’s Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, provides a quarter of the Yangtze’s water, almost half...
Environment
09.06.12
Sinking Shanghai “Not Prepared to Admit” Climate Change Threat
from chinadialogueIt’s been a brutal summer for much of urban China. From the once-in-sixty-years storm that lashed Beijing in July, killing seventy-nine people and costing US$1.6...
Gauging the Impact of Warming On Asia’s Life-Giving Monsoons
China is currently experiencing a variety of impacts from the monsoon, ranging from an extended drought in southern China to a heavy monsoon season this year in northern China.
When Beijing Cleared the Air
An effort by one city (the world’s 19th most populous metropolitan area, with 12.5 million people) led to emissions reductions that, if made permanent and multiplied by 360, would be enough to avoid the...
Average Chinese Person’s Carbon Footprint Now Equals European’s
The average Chinese person's carbon footprint is now almost on a par with the average European's, figures released on Wednesday reveal. China became the largest national emitter of CO2 in 2006, though its emissions per person have always been...
Cleaning Up Coal
That explosive increase in coal use came not from the developed world, where demand is plateauing, but from the developing world, where the fuel remains the cheapest, most reliable source of electricity. This year, the market in globally traded...
Environment
06.14.12
Rio and China’s Global Future
from chinadialogueWe have a common predicament, and solving it requires humanity to work together. But state actors are, to a large degree, controlled by the confrontational logic of international politics. The dualities and contradictions common in sustainable...
Environment
05.18.12
Europe Can Do Better
from chinadialogueSince 2005, the European Union and China have sought to develop dialogue and cooperation in the area of climate-change policy. This has taken place primarily within the framework of the EU-China Partnership on Climate Change, agreed at the 2005...
Environment
11.14.11
China’s Rise Creates Clouds of U.S. Pollution
At more than 9,000 feet along the crest of Oregon’s Cascade mountain range, the top of this snow-covered peak normally enjoys some of America’s cleanest air. So when sensitive scientific instruments picked up ozone—the chief component of smog—at...
China’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Mitigation Policies
Congressional Research Service
The 112th Congress continues to debate whether and how the United States should address climate change. Most often, this debate includes concerns about the effects of U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions controls if China and other major countries...
Energy Innovation
Council on Foreign Relations
Low-carbon technology innovation and diffusion are both essential aspects of an effective response to climate change. Studying China, India, and Brazil, the authors of this report examine how innovation in low-carbon technologies occurs and how...
Sinica Podcast
07.09.10
China’s Environmental Collapse
from Sinica PodcastAfter the collapse of international climate change talks in Copenhagen in 2009, Mark Lynas’ devastating article, published in the...
The NYRB China Archive
05.27.10
The Message from the Glaciers
from New York Review of BooksIt was not so long ago that the parts of the globe covered permanently with ice and snow, the Arctic, Antarctic, and Greater Himalayas (“the abode of the snows” in Sanskrit), were viewed as distant, frigid climes of little consequence. Only the...
The NYRB China Archive
12.07.09
Copenhagen: China’s Oppressive Climate
from New York Review of BooksAs the UN’s Climate Change Conference opens in Copenhagen this week, much attention will focus on China and the United States, who are, by a wide margin, the world’s two leading emitters of greenhouse gases. The success of the conference will...
China’s Fight Against Climate Change
Natural Resources Defense Council
On March 4, 2009, Barbara Finamore, Senior Attorney and China Program Director of the National Resources Defense Council, testified before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming in the United States House of...
A Roadmap for US-China Cooperation on Energy and Climate Change
Asia Society
The world faces no greater challenge in the 21st century than arresting the rapidly increasing accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. The two largest producers of these gases are the United States...