China Environ Prot (EP) Industry, Technology, Solid Waste Mgt, Liquid Treat: News & Discussions

[JSCh]

Saving the Planet: Collapsed coal mines turn into solar power plants in North China
TRANSCRIPT
2018-06-17 13:17 GMT+8

China's rapid economic growth in the past decades left many scars on land. Coal mining has destroyed around ten billion square meters. In recent years, many places have started to build solar projects on these areas, to generate green energy and improve the environment. CGTN's Hu Chao visited one such project to find out how it makes a change.

These millions of solar panels are a common sight in the outskirts of Yangquan City in north China's Shanxi Province. No one would have guessed these areas used to be sinking lands, destroyed and made useless by coal mining. Today, twenty million square meters of such lands in the city have been turned into solar power plants.

HU CHAO YANGQUAN, SHANXI PROVINCE "Years of mining have caused serious subsidence and environmental destruction to the land. Right now, it's near impossible to restore the environment here, as that will require huge investment which the local government cannot afford. Building up solar projects over these areas now seems to be the best way to make use of the abandoned land."

But it isn't just solar panel installations. Companies are required by the local government to plant trees and grass in the area.

CAO CHUNLEI, GENERAL MANAGER, YANGQUAN SOLAR PROJECT, SHANXI ZHANGZE ELECTRICITY CO. "Our company doesn't just run solar projects here, but also helps to improve the environment. We've planted some grass within the area. Next, after our plan is confirmed by the local forest bureau, we'll plant trees in the surrounding areas."

The city of Yangquan has been relying heavily on coal production and mining. And as that slowly runs out, the city decided to shift its energy sources from black to green.

FENG WEIMING DIRECTOR, YANGQUAN DEVELOPMENT & REFORM COMMISSION "The municipal government has always been emphasizing environment protection. We require a 3,000 yuan deposit from every solar power company to ensure environment improvements. And we've been supervising their work progress closely."

It's been a year since these solar projects started. Now the city's share of clean energy has increased from 5% to 30%. The local government says more of such projects will be created in the future, and that will help to save 430-thousand tons of coal each year and reduce millions of tons in emissions. Yangquan is one of many places in China which set up solar projects on destroyed land. Some companies have even gone one step further to combine these projects with other activities such as fish farming, or greenhouse farming. Hu Chao, CGTN, Yangquan, Shanxi Province.

 

[JSCh]

Checking China’s pollution, by satellite
Study finds reduction in sulfur emissions from power plants.

Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office
June 18, 2018

Air pollution has smothered China’s cities in recent decades. In response, the Chinese government has implemented measures to clean up its skies. But are those policies effective? Now an innovative study co-authored by an MIT scholar shows that one of China’s key antipollution laws is indeed working — but unevenly, with one particular set of polluters most readily adapting to it.

The study examines a Chinese law that has required coal-fired power plants to significantly reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, a pollutant associated with respiratory illnesses, starting in July 2014. Overall, the researchers found that with the policy in place, the concentration of these emissions at coal power plants fell by 13.9 percent.

“There is a significant drop in sulfur dioxide concentrations around the policy deadline,” says Valerie Karplus, an assistant professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of a newly published paper detailing the results. “That’s really important. The stakes are really high in China.”

However, that top-line result comes with some quirks. The law called for greater sulfur dioxide emissions reductions in regions that were more heavily polluted and are more populous, yet those places — known as “key” regions in policy terms — are precisely where plants have been least compliant, the researchers found.

“We see the lowest correspondence between sulfur dioxide reported by plants and in independent satellite measures in key regions,” Karplus notes. That includes coal-fired plants in the areas around Beijing and Shanghai, among other populous, economically well-off places.

Indeed, the researchers discovered this precisely because the method they employed in the study compares satellite data measuring sulfur dioxide, on the one hand, to data from relatively new, on-the-ground emissions-monitoring systems — an approach that can pinpoint places where emissions exceed the law, even if audits and reports do not catch the excess pollution.

The paper, “Quantifying coal power plant responses to tighter SO2 emissions standards in China,” is being published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The authors are Karplus, who is the Class of 1943 Career Development Professor and an assistant professor of global economics and management at MIT Sloan; Shuang Zhang, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder; and Douglas Almond, a professor in the School of International and Public Affairs and the Department of Economics at Columbia University.

To conduct the study, the researchers examined sulfur dioxide data from Continuous Emissions Monitoring Systems (CEMS), power-plant based sensor systems used to capture on-the-ground concentrations of pollution emitted in China. The team looked at data from 256 plants in four provinces. They also used NASA satellite data that measures sulfur dioxide concentration levels globally, and in geographic detail. This provided “an objective source for assessing changes in plant-level emitting behavior that is not susceptible to manipulation,” as the researchers write in the paper.

That is, the CEMS data could be affected by actions at power plants that are designed to influence the results — from incomplete reporting to the manipulation of sensors. But the NASA data is not affected by attempts to influence ground-level readings.

Then, by evaluating the results of the two systems together, Karplus, Zhang, and Almond were able to see how much the data sets corresponded, and where, by focusing on isolated power plants.

“Because we’re comparing patterns in the CEMS to a trusted and well-established data source, that helps make the case that what we’re seeing here is real, and there’s an explanation behind it,” Karplus says.

Intriguingly, data from the two monitoring systems corresponded closely in what the researchers call “non-key” regions, where the maximum allowable concentration of sulfur dioxide was lowered from 400 milligrams per cubic meter to 200 milligrams per cubic meter. But in the heavily polluted and populated “key” regions, where the limit was placed at 50 milligrams per cubic meter, the research found no evidence of correspondence.

That tougher new standard may have been harder for power plants to meet. Thus one potential explanation for the varying results could be that the “stricter new standards and pressure to comply may have generated incentives for plant managers to falsify or selectively omit concentration data,” as the researchers put it in the paper. The study further finds a drop in the reported compliance in key regions from 100 percent to around 50 percent, a further indication the new standard was tough for many plants to meet.

So in addition to the bottom line results indicating overall progress, the new study may contain a couple of policy lessons. In the first place, Karplus suggests, “Governments can and should use remote sensing data as a way of providing an independent check on the numbers they’re getting from emitters who are subject to a particular policy. Satellite data could help to support central government ambitions to curb air pollution.”

To be sure, she notes, the fact that China not only uses CEMS data but makes it available is “a sign of real progress in environmental management in China.” But the satellite data is vital to accurate monitoring.

Moreover, Karplus adds, tightening pollution standards is necessary, but not sufficient to get emitters to make lasting reductions in pollution. New standards are likely to work best when accompanied by stronger implementing capabilities of firms and local governments, as well as rules and norms that support accurate reporting.

“Environmental policy doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” Karplus says. “It requires reshaping prevailing understanding of firms’ environmental responsibility and establishing credible reporting systems. In China, there is still a long way to go, but recent progress is very encouraging.”


Checking China’s pollution, by satellite | MIT News

 

[JSCh]

China's ban spurs world to solve plastic waste problem
Alok Gupta
2018-06-21 15:34 GMT+8

China’s ban on waste imports is set to inundate wealthy countries with millions of tons of plastic waste if “bold global ideas” are not implemented to recycle them, a study warned.

Early this year, China implemented National Sword, a policy banning the import of 24 types of waste including non-industrial plastic. Scientists from the University of Georgia calculated that the ban would result in 111 million metric tons of plastic trash with nowhere to go by 2030.

China and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) had previously been importing 72.4 percent of all global plastic waste. In 2016, about half of global plastic waste – 14.1 million metric tons – was exported to 123 countries. And China alone accepted a whopping 7.35 million metric tons of this waste from 43 different countries for recycling.

Since 1992 to 2016, China has imported more than 106 million metric tons of plastic waste, amounting to 45.1 percent of global imports. Wealthy nations from Europe, Asia, and the Americas accounted for more than 85 percent of all exported global plastic waste.

Jenna Jambeck, co-author of the study maintained that wealthy nations would need to rethink their use of plastics. “We’re going to have to develop more robust recycling programs domestically and rethink the use and design of plastic products if we want to deal with this waste responsibly,” she suggested.

The study, "The Chinese import ban and its impact on global plastic waste trade" published in journal Science Advances also highlights that 89 percent of historical exports consist of polymer groups often used in single-use plastic food packaging

. Sources of plastic waste imports into China in 2016 and cumulative plastic waste export tonnage (in million MT) in 1988–2016. /Science Advances-UGA Graphics

From a profitable market to dumping ground

Cheaper waste processing fees and the ability to move waste via ships made China a preferred location in waste recycling for wealthier nations. Researchers claimed, for rich countries, it was cheaper to ship waste to China than domestically transport it to recycling units.

The ease of waste transport to China also helped wealthier nations to preserve their solid waste management capacity. “Plastic waste was once a fairly profitable business for China, because they could use or resell the recycled plastic waste,” said Amy Brooks, lead author of the paper.

In 2013, alarmed over the frequent dumping of poor quality waste, Chinese authorities launched the Green Fence campaign, to check containers for non-recyclable waste that has been banned by the World Trade Organization (WTO). During the month-long crackdown, nearly 800,000 tons of scraps were returned to the US, and import licenses of 247 companies were revoked.

“But a lot of plastic China received in recent years was poor quality, and it became difficult to turn a profit. China is also producing more plastic waste domestically, so it doesn’t have to rely on other nations for waste,” Brooks added.

In recent years, China’s burgeoning economy has spiked solid waste generation. The additional plastic waste import has contributed to nearly 10 to 13 percent of additional mass to the domestically generated plastic waste. The massive surplus results in 1.3 million to 3.5 million metric tons of plastic waste entering China’s oceans annually.

Before enforcing the ban, Chinese government in a noting, apprised the WTO, “that large amounts of dirty wastes or even hazardous waste are mixed in the solid waste that can be used as raw materials. This polluted China's environment seriously."

Before enforcing the waste ban, China gave countries more than eight months to strengthen their recycling facilities. However, this did not deter countries from continuing to send their waste. Jambeck told CGTN that China’s recycling was cheaper, and I think the systems within [each] country are also fairly complex, so although eight months is plenty of time to become aware, the change happens more slowly.

“There was a decrease in exports after the Green Fence, but it still remained the most economically viable option after that, so those that could continue did.”

(Top Image: A block of compressed plastic bottles at a solid waste center on the outskirts of Beijing. /VCG Photo)

 

[JSCh]

China’s wisdom in taming desertification
(People's Daily Online) 17:52, June 22, 2018

Residents of Heilin Village Lin Zhifu (R) and Zhou Hong make straw checkerboard sand barriers in the Tengger Desert in the Shapotou District of Zhongwei City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, June 11, 2018.

Each day, hectares of moving sand dunes are tightly grasped by straw checkerboard sand barriers in the Tengger Desert in the Shapotou District of Zhongwei City, northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The women who work here lay the barriers equally over the sand while men use shovels to dig holes into the ground and fill them with straw. Each straw pile stands 10 centimeters below ground and 30 centimeters aboveground.

50-year-old Zheng Zihua and his fellow villagers have been doing this job since the 1950s, keeping this unique technique of fighting desertification alive for decades.

While working, women wear face masks and hats to shield their faces from the hot sun. The workers’ resting place is very simple: a makeshift tent supported by four wooden pillars with a bed sheet and several sand bags.

More than 200 farmers are involved in making these straw checkerboard sand barriers, which gives them an annual income of 60,000 to 70,000 yuan, according to Fang Wensheng, Party secretary of Heilin Village.

They have so far created 360,000 mu, or 24,000 hectares, of sand barriers since a program to combat desertification was launched in 2013. The current number is very close to the overall target of 420,000 mu.

As the grass barriers gradually fade out, new plants grow, bringing life to the area.

Shapotou, its name deriving from the high sand dunes all around, is located on the southern edge of the Tengger Desert. For half a century, Shapotou has been known as a hub for curbing desertification by making straw checkerboard sand barriers on a large scale.

A worker walks in the desert, holding a bunch of straw. Photo from Xinhua

The straw checkerboard sand barriers were originally created for building the desert section of the Baotou-Lanzhou Railway, and the technique was unprecedented back then.

In 1955, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established China’s first comprehensive observation station in Shapotou; and then the following year, the country’s first specialized sand-break forest was launched.

After numerous failures and explorations, straw checkerboard sand barriers were adopted as the main method to deal with moving sand when the railway opened.

The method was applauded by experts from both home and abroad at the United Nations Conference on Desertification (UNCOD) in Nairobi in 1977. Since then, foreign experts and personnel came one after another to Shapotou to learn the unique method.

Zhang Zhishan, deputy chief of the Shapotou research center, said experience has indicated that the straw checkerboard sand barrier method is so far the most convenient, eco-friendly and cost-effective way to fight desertification.

The research center has also found that it’s feasible to recover the ecology in the desert area of northern China through planting manmade vegetation. Now, 155,000 mu of straw checkerboard sand barriers have been created, 145,000 mu of shrubbery has grown and a 60 meter belt for wind prevention and sand fixation has been established in Shapotou.

But there is still a long road ahead. According to statistics, China has 2.61 million sq km of desert, occupying 27.2 percent of the country’s landmass.

The country looks to effectively tame 50 percent of its deserted land by 2020, according to a guideline on pushing forward ecological civilization construction issued in 2015.

Scientists are now working on targeted desertification control, such as studying the desert water balance and ecological hydrology in Shapotou, which they think is key to curbing desertification.

Photo shows workers making straw checkerboard sand barriers in the Tengger Desert, June 11, 2018. Photo from Xinhua

 

[JSCh]

Nesting flock halts highway project in West China
Source:Global Times Published: 2018/6/27 19:40:59

A highway project in West China is being halted after tens of thousands of a protected bird species began nesting in construction sites.

The flocks of rosy starlings have recently made their nesting grounds on sites of an ongoing highway project in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

"Since middle of June, our workers found lots of birds with black and pink feathers standing on stones," said a foreman, adding that many of the nests contained eggs.

After consulting with local experts, the workers learned the rosy starlings were a protected species in China and notified their superiors.

Migratory and found in large flocks, the birds' presence can be favorable to farmers, as they feed on pests such as grasshoppers and locusts.

They have a short breeding season between May and June, which corresponds with hatching seasons for these insects.

The relevant department put a temporary stop on the project until the migratory birds hatch their young.

Signs have also been set up to notify approaching drivers of the temporary bird reserve.

 

[JSCh]

Heritage concerns stall treatment of foul water in Shaanxi
By Hou Liqiang in Xi'an | China Daily | Updated: 2018-06-28 09:26

Inspectors have found three bodies of water in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, that are black and smelly - including one traversing the ruins of an ancient capital - even though the city said it had eliminated such problems.

The Fengsanganqu channel crosses the ruins of the 2,200-year-old Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) capital of Chang'an, which covers 36 square kilometers in the city's Weiyang district. Inspectors found about 70 percent of the 6.2-kilometer channel to be black and odorous.

Local authorities said the problem arises from a ban on construction in the protected area though they had drafted plans for water treatment more than a decade ago.

No sewage pipe network has been built along the black and odorous part of the channel. Raw wastewater from households and factories is discharged into it, the inspection team said.

It also reported that inspectors found more than 100 sewage drain exits along the 4.3-kilometer section, 26 of which were active when they visited the area. Rubbish was also found in the water.

Four criteria are used to classify water as black and odorous, including transparency and its dissolved oxygen content. A water body can be defined as black and odorous if the content of dissolved oxygen stands below 2 micrograms per liter and heavily black and odorous if it is below 0.2 mg/L. The dissolved oxygen in this channel's water was found to be 0.95 mg/L.

When China Daily visited the channel on Monday with an inspector, the water was smelly and murky. There was some waste visible, including half a watermelon.

Zhang Xiaopeng, deputy director of the water resources authority in Weiyang district, said the local government had drafted a plan to treat the water in 2004, but it was not approved by the cultural heritage administration.

Though the ruins are located between the second and the third ring road of Xi'an, the area is not included in the city as urban area because of the need for protection. There is no urban sewage pipe network, and residents must discharge their domestic wastewater into the river, Zhang said.

The channel needs to be excavated so a tunnel can be built for wastewater, he said, but construction is highly restricted because of the cultural heritage element.

"We have changed the construction plans many times, but it still needs permission from the cultural heritage administration," he said, adding that the latest plan was handed to the administration in May.

The channel was built in the 1930s for irrigation, but it became a wastewater receiver as the city developed.

In addition to being the Western Han Dynasty capital, Chang'an was important in nine other dynasties. In total, it served as a capital for about 350 years. Today's channel crosses two palace ruins.

Two sections of a local water body in Xi'an's Zaohe River area were also defined as black and odorous.

A campaign to treat such water was launched by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in May.

A third batch of 11 inspection teams, including the one to Shaanxi, was dispatched on June 20 to the last 11 provincial regions in the Chinese mainland that have not been covered in previous inspections. The inspection will go until July 4.

 

[TaiShang]

30-year business in a north China desert benefits 100,000 people

By Gong Zhe
2018-06-29

What kind of business can survive a desert filled with almost nothing but sand? A data report released by Chinese researchers on Friday claims that a company is not just surviving but succeeding in the north of the country.

Elion Resource Group and its leader Wang Wenbiao are more than acclaimed by the report, which recognizes their 30-year efforts in containing the expanding desert while making a profit.

The head of China's forestry administration Yang Wenbin said that "Elion's desert control model relies on its world-leading technologies, which includes a robot tree farm and breeding new plant species that can fit in the desert ecosystem."

"These technologies are great treasures for China's environmental protection," he added.

Graph by Pan Yufei

Elion found its business in China's 7th largest desert, the Kubuqi Desert near Erdos city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Since 2017, the business model has been named "The Kubuqi Model," recognized by the head of UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Erik Solheim.

Solheim also spoke at the event for the release of the data report, saying that a similar model may be applied to more deserts, especially those along the Belt and Road.

Environmental media around the world covered the model a lot in the past year.

CGTN's business reporters visited Elion and a similar firm M-Grass last year and interviewed Wang Wenbiao.

We at CGTN Digital have also made a mini-documentary recently, telling you the story of a "desert fighter" living in Erdos City.

The Kubuqi desert is also known to be one of the main sources of the sandstorms that hit Beijing in the mid-2000s as it is located about 600 kilometers to the west of China's capital.

(Cover image: Satellite images of Kubuqi Desert from 1984 to 2016. Courtesy: Google Earth Engine)

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514e3559444e78457a6333566d54/share_p.html

@+4vsgorillas-Apebane

 

[+4vsgorillas-Apebane]

30-year business in a north China desert benefits 100,000 people

By Gong Zhe
2018-06-29

What kind of business can survive a desert filled with almost nothing but sand? A data report released by Chinese researchers on Friday claims that a company is not just surviving but succeeding in the north of the country.

Elion Resource Group and its leader Wang Wenbiao are more than acclaimed by the report, which recognizes their 30-year efforts in containing the expanding desert while making a profit.

The head of China's forestry administration Yang Wenbin said that "Elion's desert control model relies on its world-leading technologies, which includes a robot tree farm and breeding new plant species that can fit in the desert ecosystem."

"These technologies are great treasures for China's environmental protection," he added.

Graph by Pan Yufei

Elion found its business in China's 7th largest desert, the Kubuqi Desert near Erdos city in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Since 2017, the business model has been named "The Kubuqi Model," recognized by the head of UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Erik Solheim.

Solheim also spoke at the event for the release of the data report, saying that a similar model may be applied to more deserts, especially those along the Belt and Road.

Environmental media around the world covered the model a lot in the past year.

CGTN's business reporters visited Elion and a similar firm M-Grass last year and interviewed Wang Wenbiao.

We at CGTN Digital have also made a mini-documentary recently, telling you the story of a "desert fighter" living in Erdos City.

The Kubuqi desert is also known to be one of the main sources of the sandstorms that hit Beijing in the mid-2000s as it is located about 600 kilometers to the west of China's capital.

(Cover image: Satellite images of Kubuqi Desert from 1984 to 2016. Courtesy: Google Earth Engine)

https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514e3559444e78457a6333566d54/share_p.html

@+4vsgorillas-Apebane

This is excellent news. I hope that there is enough water resources avaliable in the local area to sustainably maintain the new green areas.

So much damage was done during the frenzy days of the cultural revolution and the decades immediately after opening up. Now the only real sizable primeval forests that are left is in the Changbai Shan area.

The last generation really fcuked up in regards to environment but the millennial generation seems far more environment savy.

 

[JSCh]

Construction of water control project starts in parched province
Source: Xinhua| 2018-07-01 15:25:50|Editor: Yurou


XI'AN, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Construction of the largest water control project in northwest China's Shaanxi Province has started, local authorities said Sunday.

With an investment of more than 15.4 billion yuan (around 2.3 billion U.S. dollars), the Dongzhuang water control project on the Jinghe River consists of a reservoir, a power generation system, and several other facilities for purposes such as flood or sand control, according to Shaanxi Provincial Department of Water Resources.

According to the plan, the project has a water storage capacity of more than 3.2 billion cubic meters, and installed capacity can reach 110,000 kilowatts.

It can block around 1 billion tonnes of sand from rushing into the Yellow River, and provide 435 million cubic meters of water for 1.65 million residents and 97,000 hectares of farmland in Shaanxi every year.

Liu Guozhong, provincial governor of Shaanxi, said that the project would effectively alleviate the pressure on flood controls and provide optimized allocation of water resources and supply electricity in the area of Guanzhong, the economic powerhouse of Shaanxi.

Located on the Jinghe River, a tributary of the Yellow River, the project is expected to be completed within eight years.

 

[JSCh]

China's emissions reversal cause for 'cautious optimism' says study
July 2, 2018
University of East Anglia

The decline in China's carbon emissions is likely to be sustained if changes to the country's industrial structure and energy efficiency continue, according to new research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA).

As part of the Paris Agreement, China pledged to peak its CO2 emissions by 2030. In fact, China may already have fulfilled this commitment, with emissions peaking in 2013 at a level of 9.5 Gigatons of CO2, and declining in each year from 2014 to 2016.

After nearly two decades of rapidly rising emissions the study, published in Nature Geoscience, shows that slowing economic growth in China has made it easier to reduce emissions. The decline of 4.2% in the years since to 2016 is largely associated with changes in industrial structure and a decline in the share of coal used for energy. Decreasing energy intensity (energy per unit GDP) and emissions intensity (emissions per unit energy) also contributed to the decline.

The study authors say the peak prompts important questions about what factors are driving the current decrease, their relative importance, and whether or not the decline can be sustained or even accelerated. In particular, if China's emissions are have fallen primarily as a result of slowing economic activity, as happened in the US during the global financial crisis, renewed economic growth could reverse the decrease.

The team from UEA, the University of Cambridge and UCL, together with researchers in China and the US, explored this by assessing the drivers of Chinese CO2 emissions from 2007-2016, using the latest available energy, economic, and industry data.

They warn that China's emissions may fluctuate in the coming years and that may mean that 2013 may not be the 'final' peak. Indeed, preliminary figures for 2017 have shown an increase. However, the changes in industrial activities, coal use, and efficiency that have caused the recent decline have roots in the changing structure of China's economy and long-term government policies.

The research was led by Prof Dabo Guan and Dr Jing Meng, from UEA's Schools of International Development and Environmental Sciences.

"As the world's top emitting and manufacturing nation, this reversal is cause for cautious optimism among those seeking to stabilise the Earth's climate," said Prof Guan, professor of climate change economics. "Now, the important question is whether the decline in Chinese emissions will persist.

"We conclude that the decline of Chinese emissions is structural and is likely to be sustained if the growing industrial and energy system transitions continue. Government policies are also a sign that the decline in China's emissions will carry on.

"In response to the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, China has increasingly assumed a leadership role in climate change mitigation, and its five-year progress reports under the agreement will be heavily scrutinised by the rest of the world."

Under current plans, China's seven local and regional pilot carbon market schemes will be replaced by a nationwide emissions trading scheme in 2018. China has also pledged to improve national energy intensity during 2015-2020, which will further translate into emissions reduction in coming years.

A recent Chinese policy directive to cap coal at four billion metric tonnes per year requires its proportion in the energy mix to decrease from 64% in 2015 to around 58% by 2020. Such pressures suggest that the downward trend in emissions could continue as China's economy shifts from heavy and low-value manufacturing to high-technology and service industries.

Dr Meng said: "Both emissions and their underlying drivers will need to be carefully monitored, but the fact that China's emissions have decreased for several years -- and more importantly the reasons why -- give hope for further decreases going forward."

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of East Anglia. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

Dabo Guan, Jing Meng, David M. Reiner, Ning Zhang, Yuli Shan, Zhifu Mi, Shuai Shao, Zhu Liu, Qiang Zhang, Steven J. Davis. Structural decline in China’s CO2 emissions through transitions in industry and energy systems. Nature Geoscience, 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41561-018-0161-1


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China's emissions reversal cause for 'cautious optimism' says study -- ScienceDaily

 

[JSCh]

What we can learn from China’s fight against environmental ruin
July 12, 2018 6.08am AEST

Authors

• Brett Bryan Professor of Global Change, Environment, and Society, Deakin University
• Lei Gao Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO

A good news story about China’s environment is something you don’t hear every day. But a major review published today in Nature has found that China has made significant progress in battling the environmental catastrophes of the past century.

Our team, which included 19 scientists from 16 Australian, Chinese and US institutions, reviewed China’s 16 major programs designed to improve the sustainability of its rural environment and people.

Read more: China's green planning for the world starts with infrastructure

We wanted to tell the story of China’s progress, so that other nations may learn from its experience as they strive towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

A monumental effort
From 1998, China dramatically escalated its investment in rural sustainability. Through to 2015, more than US$350 billion was invested in 16 sustainability programs, addressing more than 620 million hectares (65% of China’s land area).

This effort, while imperfect, is globally unrivalled. Its environmental objectives included:

• reducing erosion, sedimentation, and flooding in the Yangtze and Yellow rivers
• conserving forests in the north-east
• mitigating desertification in the dry north and rocky south
• reducing the impact of dust storms on the capital Beijing
• increasing agricultural productivity in China’s centre and east.

Just as important were the socio-economic objectives of poverty reduction and economic development, particularly in western China.

Programs improved livelihoods by paying farmers to implement sustainability measures on their land. Providing housing and off-farm work in China’s booming cities also boosted household incomes and reduced pressure on land.

​

Click to enlarge: Investment under the 16 sustainability programs across China’s provinces from 1978 to 2015. Author provided

An environmental emergency
China’s pivot towards sustainability in the late 1990s came as a type of emergency response to the heinous condition of its rural people and environment.

China has been farmed for more than 8,000 years, but by the mid-1900s the cumulative impacts of inefficient and unsustainable agricultural practices and the over-exploitation of natural resources caused widespread poverty and environmental degradation.

Floods, droughts, and other catastrophes ensued, including the Great Chinese Famine from 1959-61, which caused between 20 million and 45 million deaths.

Following the 1978 economic reforms, six sustainability programs were established, but with only modest investment conditions continued to deteriorate. By the 1990s natural forest cover was below 10% and around 5 billion tonnes of soil eroded annually, causing major water quality and sedimentation problems.

In the Loess Plateau, the worst-affected parts were losing 100 tonnes of soil per hectare each year to erosion, and the Yellow River that flowed through it had the dubious honour of being the world’s muddiest waterway.

Agricultural soils were exhausted and productivity was down, grasslands were overgrazed, and more than a quarter of China was desertified.

In the late 1990s, China experienced a series of natural disasters widely believed to have been caused by unsustainable land management, including the Yellow River drought in 1997, the Yangtze River floods in 1998, and the severe dust storms that repeatedly afflicted Beijing in 2000.

This sustainability emergency triggered a great acceleration in investment after 1998, including the launch of 11 new programs. The portfolio included iconic programs such as the Grain for Green Program, the Natural Forest Conservation Program, and the Three North Shelterbelt Program which aimed to slow and reverse desertification by planting a 4,500km Great Green Wall.

The result
After 20 years the results of these programs have been overwhelmingly positive. Deforestation has declined and forest cover has exceeded 22%. Grasslands have expanded and regenerated. Desertification trends have reversed in many areas, and while mostly driven by climatic change, restoration efforts have helped.

Soil erosion has waned substantially and water quality and river sedimentation have improved dramatically. Yellow River sediment loads have fallen by 90% and the Yangtze is not far behind. Agricultural productivity has increased through efficiency gains and technological advances. Rural households are generally better off and hunger has largely disappeared.

That said, there have also been significant unintended consequences. Afforestation – or planting trees where trees never grew – has dried up water resources and led to high rates of plantation failure.

Read more: China's fight against desertification should not be done at the cost of water security

In the most degraded areas, significant cultural disruption has occurred through the migration of entire communities to less sensitive environments. More could be done to conserve biodiversity, particularly by prioritising diverse natural forest restoration and regeneration over single-species plantations.

The precise impacts of China’s sustainability programs are clouded by other influences such as the One Child Policy and Household Responsibility System, urbanisation and development, and environmental change. Detailed and comprehensive evaluations are now needed to disentangle these factors.

Lessons from China’s experience
While the context of China’s path to sustainability is unique, other countries can learn from its experience. Nations must commit to sustainability as a long-term, large-scale public investment like education, health, defence, and infrastructure.

Read more: Government needs to front up billions, not millions, to save Australia's threatened species

We do not wish to pretend that China is a global poster child of sustainability. Very serious pollution of its air, water, and soils, urban expansion, vanishing coastal wetlands and the illegal wildlife trade still dog the world’s most populous nation.

As China cleans up its domestic environment, great care needs to be taken not to simply shift problems offshore.

But to give credit where credit is due, China’s vast investment has made great strides towards improving the sustainability of rural people and nature.

China’s path towards sustainability is clearly charted in the 13th Five Year Plan where President Xi’s Chinese dream for an ecological civilization and a “beautiful China” is laid out.



What we can learn from China’s fight against environmental ruin | theconversation.com

 

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XIEG Will Lead Research on Climate Change in Gilgit Region of Pakistan
Jul 12, 2018

Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences will start a project on climate change-related researches in the Gilgit region of Pakistan, jointly with two Pakistani research institutions. The project was initiated in Kathmandu, Nepal, on July 1.

As a member of Himalayan University Consortium (HUC) and initiating unit, XIEG will collaborate with Karakoram International University and Forman Christian College of Pakistan on a series of researches, including mitigating social and economic impact of climate change and enhancing climate change adaptation.

The HUC was founded in 2007 with a mandate to develop an effective, sustainable network of universities in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH), for collaboration with academic, research, and knowledge generating and exchange institutions both within and outside the HKH region for sustainable mountain development.

Climate change has an increasing influence on the stability of fragile mountain ecosystems and the livelihoods of mountain people. Mountain and downstream communities are in pressing need of effective adaptation and mitigation measures.

The resilience and adaption capacities of communities and ecosystems need to be strengthened through adaptation mechanisms that are built on both indigenous knowledge of autonomous adaptation and strong scientific evidence.

The project was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

XIEG Will Lead Research on Climate Change in Gilgit Region of Pakistan---Chinese Academy of Sciences

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Sino-Pakistan Karakorum Glacier Basin Field Investigation Completed
Jul 12, 2018

A joint field investigation by China and Pakistan in the glacier basin of Karakorum regions was completed on June 30.

Scientists from Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (XIEG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, National Climate Center of China and Pakistan Meteorological Department investigated ice and snow automatic monitoring facilities in the Chitral River basin and collected data there.

The facilities were donated by XIEG this January to the Pakistan Meteorological Department to help boost their glacier runoff monitoring ability.

They also investigated the Pakistani glacier runoff observatory stations in the Barot valley and the Passu Glacier during the five-day investigation.

Chinese researchers provided hydrological model training for Pakistan young researchers after the investigation.

The two sides agreed, during the following two-day discussion, to deepen cooperation both on exchange of young researchers and publication of joint research results. More collaborated researches on mountainous watershed runoff components are expected.

Sino-Pakistan Karakorum Glacier Basin Field Investigation Completed---Chinese Academy of Sciences

 

[JSCh]

New map to help city deal with noise
Ma Yue
00:40 UTC+8, 2018-07-16

A “noise map” has been developed by Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences which allows people to “see” noise.

On this map, each street block and major road within the Outer Ring road is given a color. There are a total of 12 colors which represent 12 noise levels. For example, a purple color means noise detected in the certain area is between 30 and 35 decibels. Red color indicates 60-65 decibels and blue color is between 75 and 80 decibels, etc.

Roads along busy elevated ways are often of red or blue color, while neighborhoods and parks are usually quieter, showing a color of green or purple.

According to Zhou Yude, director of the academy’s noise control engineering research center, the project was kicked off about six years ago, and the map is still being tested and improved before being officially introduced to the public.

Noise detectors around the city help collect data to decide the color of certain areas. But for areas without detectors, researchers borrow indirect data from other city departments and “translate” them into decibels.

“For roads that are not equipped with detectors, we collect traffic data from the transport department, including vehicle flowrate, car speed as well as car model,” said Zhou.

“For example, If the flowrate of a road is 5,000 to 6,000 vehicles per hour with an average speed of about 50km, and the vehicles are mostly small-size cars, our calculation says the average noise level of this road is between 65 and 70 decibels during day time.

“We use similar methods for roads along railways. We collect information like timetable and train speed, and calculate the noise in different times of a day. After years of improvement, on-site verification shows that the error rate of such calculation is no higher than 3 percent,” said Zhou.

SHINE
The noise data are collected by detectors or "borrowed" from other city departments.

According to Zhou, the map updates data every 20 minutes. If maps taken at different times are displayed together, it shows the effect similar to a meteorogram, giving researchers an idea how noise level changes with time in certain areas.

Noise map is not a new invention, but quite new a technology for China. Back in 2007, European Union member countries have been required by the EU to make noise maps for cities with population over 250,000, so that the government can take measures against noise pollution.

Some cities in Japan and South Korea also have noise maps, which are used for environmental protection purpose as well as urban planning.

But most noise maps in European countries don’t get updated so frequently. Some get updated only on a yearly base.

“It doesn’t mean that we have better technology than those countries” said Zhou. “The updating rate of a noise map is decided by how we want to use it. In European countries, the map is usually used for long-term environment policy making and urban planning. But for a city like Shanghai which is still developing with fast speed, noise data changes quickly with on-going city construction. The maps of different months or seasons can be very different,” said Zhou.

The noise map can also help detect hidden noise sources. Zhou said in one particular case, the roof of a building which is next to a busy road showed blue color on the map. However, its color rarely changed and the noise level it indicated is often higher than the major road nearby.

Local environmental protection authority’s investigation showed that there was a heat pump on the roof of the building which kept making noise. The authority then ordered the property management company of the building to take measures against the pump so as not to disturb nearby residents.

 

[JSCh]

China’s response to a national land-system sustainability emergency: a perspective piece

​

12 JUL 2018

To move forward with informed, national-scale, transformative SDG implementation, the world should look to China as an example.

“China’s unprecedented response to a national land-system sustainability emergency” was first published in Nature Research Journals on 12 July 2018. Download the paper here.

China has been farmed for over 8000 years. Over this time, forests were progressively cleared for agriculture and exploited for energy, food, medicines, and materials. Exploitation of land, forest, water, and nature over thousands of years of human occupation and development seriously degraded China’s environment and impoverished its rural people.

Twenty years ago, in response to its dire sustainability crisis, China developed large-scale, integrated sustainability programs to improve both environmental and socio-economic outcomes. Now in 2018, China has two decades of experience that can inform the rest of the world as we move toward meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the United Nations’ Agenda 2030.

China’s sustainability programs are addressing issues of: erosion, sedimentation, and flooding; conservation of forests; mitigation of desertification and dust storms; and increasing the agricultural productivity. These environmental objectives are complemented by socio-economic objectives to improve food security and household income to achieve a holistic approach to managing China’s land-systems.

With a bill exceeding $378 billion US dollars since 1978, these programs stretch over 623.9 million hectares of land and engage over 500 million people. This significant investment has resulted in overwhelming improvements in the sustainability of China’s rural land-systems and has lifted many people out of poverty.

A newly published paper led by the Centre for Integrative Ecology at Deakin University, but including 19 collaborators from 16 Australian, Chinese, and US institutions, evaluates China’s 16 sustainability programs. This paper was first published in Nature and closely examines the impacts, challenges and threats to the durability of China’s long-term investment in sustainability. The authors in the context of the SDGs, identify take-away points to assist governments and organisations in developing informed programs as we move toward 2030.

The full paper is available to download here: "China’s unprecedented response to a national land-system sustainability emergency."

The impacts of China’s sustainability programs

China has seen a significant improvement in national forest coverage and a reduction in dust storms and desertification. Water quality has improved in some areas, biodiversity decline has been slowed and there has been a marked improvement in agricultural production and a reduction in national hunger. Many households have reported an increase in income.

These successes should be celebrated, but not without careful reflection on some of the challenges faced along the way.

Afforestation of some regions resulted in a reduction of water-table levels that impacted community access to water and threatened and food security for the local region. Biodiversity is still in decline partly due to the prevalence of non-native, single-species plantations. Increased productivity in agriculture, while improving food security and household income for many, has polluted waterways. Migrations from environmentally-stressed land to urban centres have resulted in cultural disruptions, loss of social networks and an increased cost of living.

While these challenges threaten to dampen the successes of China’s programs, improved practice, policy adjustments and evidence-based planning informed by reflective review processes will continue the upward trend.

Keys to China’s success

The success of China’s sustainability programs lay within its integrated, long-term, large-scale investment and its coordinated, adaptive and evidence-based planning. With a steadfast government that has been committed to engaging in pilot programs, trials and staged rollouts, China has created the opportunity to establish conservation as a social norm.

By jointly addressing systemic socio-economic and environment causes, China’s integrated programs aimed to break the vicious cycle of poverty and environmental damage, and as a result have progressed towards many of the UN’s SDGs.

For the rest of the world, achieving these goals requires a step-change increase in spending. Governments need to bring sustainability funding more in-line with expenditure on other public services like health, defence, and education.

Additionally, the unified vision required for transformative change may prove to be a challenge for democratic governments which typically plan sustainability programs over much shorter electoral cycles.

The outlook for China and the world

Despite considerable efforts, China still faces enormous social and environmental sustainability challenges associated with rapid development, industrialisation, and urbanisation.

Meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals will be an ongoing process for China, but its successes and the challenges it faces present the rest of the world with an informative road map.

When governments are designing their own approach to the SDGs, they must embrace the complex nature of sustainability challenges and target key systemic causes, leverage points and address socio-economic and environmental stresses concurrently.

Creating programs that are evidence-based, long-standing, cost-effective and adaptive will be the key to our success. We must be prepared to take urgent, strong, and decisive action, but must also provide appropriate economic and cultural support for those affected.

Moving towards the SDGs will be filled with challenges, but we must continue to progress and learn from China’s experience.

For more on "China’s unprecedented response to a national land-system sustainability emergency," read Dr. Brett Bryan's Behind the Paper in Nature Sustainability.



China’s response to a national land-system sustainability emergency: a perspective piece | Future Earth

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41...LejwqqJjONJrvSVKq9V6b6MEJ9pp70JihzncEJ3TURyQ=

 

[JSCh]

China shares water-saving agriculture experience with Arab countries
By Shan Jie Source:Global Times Published: 2018/7/16 21:38:39 Last Updated: 2018/7/17 8:27:22

Training course on water-saving technology opens

China has opened a training class on water-saving agriculture for experts from Arab countries in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, aiming to share China's advanced technology and experience in the region and further serve the Belt and Road initiative.

The International Training on Model Agricultural Water-saving Technology in China and Arab Countries opened on Sunday in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia, the China News Service (CNS) reported on Monday.

The training is hosted by the College of Resources and Environmental Science under Ningxia University and the China-Arab States Technology Transfer Center.

A total of 11 agricultural scholars and technical personnel from Egypt, Yemen and Sudan are taking part in the training, which will last two weeks until July 31, Sun Zhaojun, head of the College of Resources and Environmental Science under Ningxia University, told the Global Times.

Experts from China and the Arab states discussed the water shortage issue in agricultural development in Arab countries, advanced technologies in water-saving agriculture and typical water-saving technologies, methods and projects in Northwest China, the CNS report said.

According to Sun, China and the Arab states have been cooperating on water-saving agriculture for five years. "The technologies have matured, and we are signing agreements to transfer technologies to the region," Sun said.

The cooperation mainly focuses on aspects such as water-saving device study and development, biological resources as well as alkali soil management, with countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Egypt. "Next, China will deepen cooperation with Kuwait and Jordan," Sun said.

"China has technologies, as well as cheaper and more advanced materials to develop water-saving agriculture," Sun said, adding that Sino-Arab cooperation is also answering the call of the Belt and Road initiative.

According to the China News Service, a smart water-saving irrigation testing base has previously been constructed by the training project, targeting operation in scorching summer temperatures, widespread drought and water shortage common in the Persian Gulf.

Two testing bases, covering a total of 1,650 mu (110 hectares), in Muscat, Oman have implemented the water-saving technology transfer. The bases could use 20 percent less water, 60 percent less energy and increase production by 30 percent, the report said.

With a Muslim population of more than 200 million and dry climate similar to the Middle East, Ningxia plays a significant role in China's connection with the Arab states.

Since 2015, the China-Arab States Technology Transfer Center, based in Ningxia, has initiated more than 20 Sino-Arab projects on technology and innovation that have been tested and promoted in the Arab states, such as date palm planting, halal food processing research and smart water-saving facilities.