Group items tagged

n what has been hailed as a far-reaching victory for global shark conservation, Air China has become the first airline in mainland China to ban shark fin cargo on its flights. The airline, which is headquartered in Beijing, announced the ban on Friday. "We were one of the first airlines in China to raise the awareness of the unsustainability of the global shark trade," says a message on the carrier's website. "We understand the community's desire to promote responsible and sustainable marine sourcing practices, and this remains important to Air China Cargo's overall sustainable development goals."

China has sent 60,000 soldiers to plant trees. China plans to grow 6.66 million hectares of new forest this year, having already created 33.8 million hectares (338,000 square kilometres) of forest in the past five years, says Zhang Jianlong, head of the State Forestry Administration, in a report from Reuters. The country wants to increase the area of land covered by woodlands from 21.7% in 2016 to 23% by 2020, according to China Daily.

The country may be the world's largest carbon emitter, but China has the potential to become a clean energy leader. China is now the largest producer of renewable energy, generating 325 million tons of oil equivalent in 2013. Although renewables represented only 11 percent of the country's total energy production in 2014, this shift indicates the Chinese government's effort to transition its energy production mix.

Logging emissions is an important step in securing the transparency that China needs to solve its pollution problems, Mr. Ma argues. Among the harmful pollutants are air particles known as PM2.5, which can enter deep into the lungs and even into the bloodstream. In an interview, he talked about the considerable progress he sees in the Chinese government's approach to air pollution, but also how concerns about social unrest continued to constrain discussion of pollution's damage to public health. Before 2013, levels of PM2.5 [the finest and deadliest particulate matter] were not monitored or made public in a single city. Now it's monitored and released in more than 400 cities. China has entered an era when air quality information is released. It's much more transparent. The 11th and 12th Five-Year Plans only referred to "emission reduction targets," so local governments could play games by claiming they had reduced emissions. Now, by saying by what year the PM2.5 must be below a certain amount, it's much harder to fake. The 13th Five-Year Plan is a progressive plan because it says that the public has the right to participate, to monitor, and that it's the public's right to know.

China could use wind to create more than 25% of its electricity by 2030, according to new Nature Energy study. China added 145 gigawatts of installed wind capacity in 2015 -- more than anywhere else, including the US and Europe.

China has proposed building a $50 trillion global transmission system that would connect the world's wind farms and renewable energy projects. "Global energy interconnection" would solve global energy instability, climate change and environmental pollution, said State Grid Corp. of China Chairman Liu Zhenya. In such a model, clean energy sources would provide about 80% of the world's total electricity.

Chines courts are allowed to hand down the death penalty for serisous cases of pollution

China will present its post-2020 goals for coping with climate change ahead of schedule, according to the nation's top climate official. Xie Zhenhua, head of the Chinese delegation to the United Nations climate change talks in Lima, Peru, said China will announce its "intended nationally determined contribution" in the first quarter of next year, rather than in June.

China recently pledged to max out its carbon emissions by 2030 -- but some researchers say the country's carbon output might already have peaked. "We're reaching a point in much of China where the cities have been built, the roads have been built, a lot of the demand for cement and steel is essentially slowing," explained energy researcher Joanna Lewis.

The Coca-Cola Company has launched a new vending machine concept in China where consumers can purchase beverages, as well as return and recycle used bottles and cans, marking the first concept equipment to combine beverage sales and packaging recycling by Coca-Cola China. The vending machine also uses AI technology such as facial recognition and sound interaction to provide an interactive experience to the consumers.

China's 13th Five-Year-Plan on Energy Development (Energy 13FYP) might be one of the most anticipated energy blueprints in the world for its far-reaching implications for the carbon trajectory of the planet's largest emitter. On Jan 5, 2017, the National Energy Administration finally unveiled the plan to reporters, with a set of 2020 targets covering everything from total energy consumption to installed wind energy capacity. Before we delve into details of the plan, one thing is worth noting: with the Energy 13FYP, China might have once again raised ambitions for its low-carbon future, highlighting the urgency that this smog-ridden country attaches to moving away from fossil fuels. This time round, policymakers seem even more determined to squeeze out coal's share in the country's energy mix, lowering its 2020 percentage in primary energy consumption from 62% to 58%. The country is also aiming higher for renewables: installed capacity of wind energy and solar energy should reach "more than 210GW" and "more than 110GW", respectively, by 2020; higher than what was declared at the end of 2014.

Steve Davis is a climate energy scientist at the University of California Irvine. He and his colleagues wanted to see whether outsourcing manufacturing to China--which happens to be good for our wallets--is also good for the planet. Spoiler alert: doesn't look like it.

Apple is making progress on its sustainable supply chain efforts. The tech giant says all 14 of its final assembly site in China are now compliant with UL's Zero Waste to Landfill validation.

Apple is advetising a env program manager in China to make srue the company aheres to regional and national regulations

China may lead the renewable energy race and is projected to add more renewable energy facilities than the combined efforts from the U.S., EU and Japan through 2035, according to a report from the International Energy Agency. The report also projected that the share of hydropower, biomass, wind and solar energy in the world's supply will surpass 30% in two decades. Advances in solar and wind power technology will help increase output in these sectors by 45%.

China is planning to put an absolute cap on its carbon emissions, according to He Jiankun, the chairman of China's Advisory Committee on Climate Change. The cap -- the first of its kind -- will be announced in China's next five-year plan and will come into force in 2016, He said. 

China is starting to get serious about tackling pollution and climate issues, and the fate of the rest of the world could depend on how good a job Beijing can do at mapping out a sustainable course for the future. "We need more of everything," says Chinese sustainability leader Peggy Liu. "Wind, solar, a modernized grid. We need to leapfrog over the past and into a clean-energy future."

China seeks a fair, global system to tackle climate change and will deliver its pledge to the United Nations by the end of Tuesday on how much it will cut emissions, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said after talks with top European Union officials.

Apple is working with the World Wildlife Fund to preserve as much as 1 million acres of Chinese forests and will also promote clean energy and sustainable manufacturing practices in China and elsewhere. "Apple is in a unique position to take the initiative toward this ambitious goal. It is a responsibility we accept," CEO Tim Cook said. 

The United States and China contributed most to record mountains of electronic waste such as cellphones, hair dryers and fridges in 2014 and less than a sixth ended up recycled worldwide, a U.N. study said on Sunday. Overall, 41.8 million tonnes of "e-waste" - defined as any device with an electric cord or battery - were dumped around the globe in 2014 and only an estimated 6.5 million tonnes were taken for recycling, the United Nations University (UNU) said.