The battle against global warming has received a transformational boost after China, the world’s biggest producer of carbon dioxide, proposed to set a cap on its greenhouse gas emissions for the first time.

Under the proposal China, which is responsible for a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, would put a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions from 2016, in a bid to curb what most scientists agree is the main cause of climate change.

It marks a dramatic change in China’s approach to climate change that experts say will make countries around the world more likely to agree to stringent cuts to their carbon emissions in a co-ordinated effort to tackle global warming.

[Source]

China now burns nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined — one factor contributing to the record levels of PM2.5 recorded early this year in Beijing — and has been accused in the past of being uncooperative in the global fight against climate change. Amid the new leadership’s call for “ecological progress,” the Ministry of Finance hinted in February at the imminent imposition of an emission-curbing carbon tax, though the ministry later said that, due to economic concerns, the move would have to wait until after 2013. Details about another measure towards “ecological progress” were recently unveiled: the country’s first pilot carbon-trading program will launch next month in Shenzhen. From The Guardian:

The trading scheme will cover 638 companies responsible for 38% of the city’s total emissions, the Shenzhen branch of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on Wednesday. The scheme will eventually expand to include transportation, manufacturing and construction companies.

Shenzhen is one of seven designated areas in which the central government plans to roll out experimental carbon trading programmes before 2014.

[...]Li Yan, Greenpeace east Asia’s climate and energy campaign manager, said that the pilot programmes will inform the central government on how to motivate local authorities to adopt low-carbon policies.

[Source]

In a report covering both the possible carbon cap and the new pilot program, Think Progress underlines the global and local impact of carbon emission in China, and notes what China’s progress in carbon regulation implies for the U.S., the world’s second top carbon dioxide emitter:

The possibility of a carbon cap in China has been hailed as “potentially transformative” in the fight against climate change, as other major emitters such as the U.S. have historically cited China’s inaction on climate change as reason to avoid implementing meaningful greenhouse gas regulations. Previously, China has shied away from cuts in emissions, saying its main priority was the growth of its economy. In November 2012, the state-owned Xinhua quoted Xie Zhenhua, China’s chief negotiator to the UN climate change talks, as saying it was “unfair and unreasonable to hold China to absolute cuts in emissions at the present stage, when its per capita GDP stands at just 5,000 U.S. dollars.”

But now, China’s advancements in carbon regulation mean the U.S.’s strategy of waiting for China to act on climate change before it does is becoming less and less credible. China has already pledged to cut its carbon intensity, or emissions per unit of GDP, by 17 percent between 2011 and 2015 and 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels. In February, the countryannounced it would be implementing a carbon tax, but it later clarified that it would wait until 2013 is over to introduce the program. And the country has invested substantially in renewable energy, spending $65 billion on clean energy projects in 2012, nearly twice as much as the U.S.’s $35.6 billion.

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Post tags: air pollution, carbon cap-and-trade, carbon tax, emissions standards, environment, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, sustainable development
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In a March issue of China Weekly, reporter Gong Xi tells the story of two women whose lives have been turned upside down by the smog.

The Beijing Patient

Capital city of smog.

“I don’t know how, but I got lung cancer.”

Mother Qin, 49, pale, and emaciated, is lying on a bed in Wangjing Hospital, Beijing. You have to pay close attention to hear her voice. Her daughter, Tongtong, is sitting next to her, firmly grasping her mother’s hand, glaring at the slowly dripping IV solution.

The ward is crowded with an endless stream of family and friends visiting patients. Only Mother Qin’s bed is quiet. Next to her bed, there are no flowers or fruit baskets, only a meal tray and a bowl of pears boiled in rock sugar.

The nurse on duty lifts the half-closed curtain. But there is no sunshine.

Beijing is shrouded in heavy smog. Looking out the glass on the 18th floor, everything is white. In January 2013, Beijing has already had 25 days like this.

Lifting her eyelids and looking through the window, Mother Qin can’t help but let out two coughs.

Cancer from Heaven

Mother Qin had been a normal Beijinger, living a very normal life. She spent her days mostly at home, her work unit, the vegetable market, and the supermarket.

She lived very close to her work unit, only a ten-minute walk away. She worked in the mail room and was in charge of delivering newspapers, documents, and other easy tasks. Everyday during the noon break, she went to the vegetable market near her home to buy the day’s fresh vegetables and cook her lunch. She seldom ate out.

“My mom is just a normal women. She doesn’t have a lot of education or a high emotional quotient. She’s just a very common woman, a normal housewife,” her daughter Tongtong says. Mother Qin didn’t have any particular hobbies. Her main pastime was going to supermarket. She could ride her bike to three or four supermarkets in one day.

Every day after dinner, as long as it wasn’t raining or snowing, she would go out for a walk. She held onto this habit for nearly ten years. Those ten years also saw a rapid growth of lung cancer patients in Beijing.

In 2011, one after another report on air pollution appeared. Beijing’s air pollution index topped the nation. The capital city of China was gradually turning to “the capital city of smog.” More and more, air pollution far exceeded safe levels. But at the time, neither 2.5 micrometer particular matter (PM2.5) measurements nor the air pollution index had official standards. Mother Qin never thought about the air quality when she took her walks.

“At home,” Mother Qin says with a weak voice, “I would watch TV dramas and such, and rarely cared about the news. When I took walks, I never used any protection. Nobody wore face masks when they went out in the evening.”

In 2012, Mother Qin starting to feel a tingling in her chest and sometimes could hardly breathe, but she didn’t take it seriously. At the beginning of March, Mother Qin was sorting newspapers in the mailroom when she suddenly felt pressure in her chest and difficulty breathing, as if a heavy object was pressing on her back. The feeling continued for the whole day. Back home in the evening, Tongtong saw that her mother was not feeling well and took her to the nearby hospital. Her blood pressure had already jumped to 110/180. It was past 10 p.m., and the outpatient department was closed for the day. Mother Qin could not have a comprehensive check at that time. She could only control her blood pressure for the time being.

The next day, Tongtong took Mother Qin back to the hospital for a CT scan of her chest. The doctor found excessive fluid in both lungs, which had to be immediately extracted by pleural tap. The doctor asked that Mother Qin be hospitalized to run further tests.

March and April are peak season for respiratory diseases. All the hospitals were already full, and there was no chance to get a bed. After several rounds of turnovers, Mother Qin was finally able through personal connections to find space at Navy General Hospital.

After she checked in, doctors at Navy General Hospital ran comprehensive tests and found cancer cells in the fluid built up in her lungs. As Mother Qin went to the restroom, the doctor told Tongtong the diagnosis–lung adenocarcinoma, and it was late stage. The cancer cells had already spread from the lungs to the parietal pleura, the lung tissue attached to the chest cavity.

One Who Cannot Escape

Tongtong was stunned. She never expected her mother would ever get lung cancer. She knew that the most significant cause of lung cancer was smoking, but Mother Qin never smoked. And the  adenocarcinoma she had was the type least related to smoking.

Wang Fang, the doctor in charge of Mother Qin’s case, is an oncology specialist at Wangjing Hospital. “The patient doesn’t smoke,” she explains. “She was not in a second-hand smoke environment, either. She doesn’t have bad living habits or a family history of the disease. There are many causes of cancer. Although we cannot pinpoint the specific reason for her case, air pollution definitely plays a major role.”

Dr. Wang remarks that “genetic defects are a contributing factor to cancer. In Chinese traditional medicine, this is called ‘inner weakness.’ Some patients who are susceptible to respiratory diseases have this ‘inner weakness’ manifest in their heart and lungs. When they breathe polluted air for extended periods of time, they will inevitably get sick. Such stimulus can trigger cancer. Mother Qin is this kind of a patient. It might take five to ten years for a cancer cell to develop into a tumor. During these five to ten years, the environment has changed, she she has been breathing the kind of air which can lead to cancer. So the air pollution can be seen as the catalyst for her cancer.”

Doctor Wang Fang usually suggests that patients whose conditions are stable to stay with family and friends in the suburbs or beyond, in order to avoid the heavily polluted air of Beijing. This will extend the lifetime of the patient. She has two colleagues who also have lung cancer, both of whom learned they had the disease in the late stage. After their symptoms were under control, they fled downtown Beijing and rented a farmhouse in the suburb of Shunyi. Their symptoms have been very stable so far.

Zhong Nanshan, an academic at Chinese Academy of Engineering, has said, “Beijing has seen a 60% increase in lung cancer in the past ten years. The smog has a significant impact on the respiratory system because the air pollution permeates the whole environment, both outside and indoors. For every ten micrograms of PM2.5 in one cubic meter of air, the hospitalization rate for respiratory diseases can increase up to 3.1%. If the smog increases from 25 micrograms to 200 micrograms, the daily fatality rate can increase up to 11%. This is much worse than SARS. SARS can be isolated, but no one can escape air pollution.”

Mother Qin is one who “cannot escape.”

The White Lie

Once she learned her mother had cancer, 24-year-old Tongtong decided not to tell her mother the truth. Tongtong cried alone in the corridor for a long time. Then she wiped her tears, went back to the patient’s room, and smilingly told her mother, “Ma, the doctor just told me that you have tuberculosis. No need to worry. As long as we follow the treatment, it will go away.”

Tongtong just graduated from college last year. When she was 12, her father passed away in a car crash. Afraid that the child could not take the reality of losing her father, Mother Qin didn’t tell her daughter the truth at first.

12 years had past. Now sad news once again hit the family. This time, it was the daughter who chose to keep a secret. “When I was a kid, she kept the truth from me. Now I’m keeping the truth from her.”

Two types of treatment were presented to Tongtong: one was chemotherapy, the other an imported treatment called molecularly targeted therapy. Chemotherapy kills and controls the growth of tumor cells, but at the same time kills normal cells and immune cells. Targeted therapy is a new kind of anti-cancer medicine which blocks tumors from certain molecules necessary for their development into cancer cells.

Although her father passed away early, Tongtong grew up under her mother’s tender care. This was the first crucial decision of her life, and it concerned her mother’s life. Tongtong was helpless. She had no one to talk to. She couldn’t find anyone to talk to.

That night, Tongtong thought it through. Considering that chemotherapy would add to her mother’s physical and psychological burdens, Tongtong chose the more conservative treatment: targeted therapy.

The doctor told Tongtong that Mother Qin could take targeted therapy at home; no need to stay in hospital. If her situation got worse, she could come back for treatment. At the end of March 2012, Tongtong checked her mother out of the hospital.

After leaving Navy General Hospital, Tongtong stayed at home with her mother. Ignorant of her illness, Mother Qin was in a good mood. She believed that her health would soon be restored. Tongtong had to keep the secret. She put the cancer treatment capsules one by one into another medicine bottle. Mother Qin took the medicine everyday. Her health was gradually getting better. For nearly half a year, Mother Qin was in good shape. She could still go to the supermarket, cook, and sometimes go out to take a walk. Life was returning to normal. What was different from before was that Mother Qin would wear a face mask every time she went out.

When she was checking out of the hospital, the doctor warned Mother Qin that the air pollution was severe, that she should take protective measures when she went out, and should try her best to breathe fresh air. Tongtong bought an air purifier for the house. Mother Qin became attuned to news about air quality and air pollution. “The government can’t change the air pollution, never mind us,” Tongtong thought. “What I can do is to make my mom feel more comfortable. The air outside is bad, so the only thing we can do is to go out less often.”

The good times didn’t last long. In November 2012, Mother Qin’s symptoms worsened. She got weaker and weaker. She felt tingling in her back and fatigue from head to toe. She became irritable and lost her appetite. Mother Qin started to doubt her illness. She often asked Tongtong if she really had tuberculosis. Tongtong comforted her mother, saying that she ought not to have such a heavy heart; all medical treatment requires such a process.

At the end of December, the drugs Mother Qin normally took could not control the spread of the disease. Pungent smells made her cough violently, and her phlegm was speckled with blood. She ached so much that she couldn’t swallow food. She could only ingest liquid.

Regular painkillers could no longer alleviate Mother Qin’s pain. One day at the end of December, Tongtong went to the hospital to get clinical-grade painkillers for her mother. She was nervous all the way back, feeling that something was about to happen. When she got home, she saw Mother Qin lying on the sofa, hair unkempt, sweat drenched through the shirt from pain. Tongtong immediately poured a glass of hot water for her mother take the medicine. Mother Qin could hardly breathe. She mustered the strength to lift her arm and shoved the glass back into Tongtong’s hand. “Tell me, just what am I sick with?” Her daughter could keep the secret no more. Her eyes filled with tears, Tongtong said in one breath, “lung cancer.”

“Whaaa…” Mother Qin cried.

Mother Qin thought of quitting treatment several times. She thought late-stage cancer was incurable; all efforts were a waste of time. But under Tongtong’s persuasion, she went once again to Wangjing Hospital.

January 2013 was a smoggy month in Beijing. Mother Qin was very sensitive to changes in the weather. When the air was bad, she would cough, have trouble breathing, and feel unbearable pain all over her body. Now she had to take painkillers every day.

Targeted therapy loses its effect after one to two years of use. Mother Qin had poor immunity, so her health was on a fast decline.

When she was hospitalized, experts at Wangjing Hospital had a consultation about Mother Qin’s symptoms. Upon examination, they found the cancer cells had corroded her lymph. A large lump was growing on one of her lymph nodes. They decided to deploy a combination of Chinese and Western medicine in one final battle. They would administer injections primarily to kill cancer cells, and use Chinese medicine to help Mother Qin expand her trachea, eliminate phlegm, invigorate her blood and qi, and enhance her immunity. Now Mother Qin has to undergo transfusion five to six hours every day. Pin pricks dot the back of her boney hands.

A Concern Come Too Late

The fees for Mother Qin’s cancer treatment are huge. Excluding hospitalization, the medicine alone costs more than 10,000 yuan (about US$1,613) a month. The targeted drug she used to take when she was still at home cost 4,600 yuan for seven pills. Taking one pill per day meant a monthly cost of 20,000 yuan (about US$3,225). Most cancer treatment is not covered by medical insurance, and Mother Qin’s family finances are precarious. She has lost the ability to work. Tongtong just graduated and has no job. She has to rely on their limited savings for her mother’s  treatment. Yet this will barely make a dent.

Tongtong wishes she were a carefree little girl who could go shopping after work and come home to meals cooked by her mother. This normal and happy life has vanished. “I have to be tough. A somber day is still a day, a happy day is still a day. It’s worth it to spend whatever amount of money it takes to make my mom a little bit happier.”

In the hospital, Mother Qin’s mind wanders far and wide. She says to Tongtong, “My daughter, your dad passed away early. You have had a bitter life since you were young. You’ve finally grown up, and now Mom has this illness. Mom is encumbering you.”

“Mom, I’m still young. I’m not married and I don’t have kids. I only have you. As long as you are well, I am well, too. You took care of me the in the past few decades, and I will take care of you in the coming decades.”

Mother and the daughter can’t tell how many times they have had this conversation.

For convenience, Tongtong stays in her relative’s home near the hospital. Every day she gets to the hospital at 7 a.m. sharp to stay with her mother, and leaves at 9 p.m. These happen to be the two times of day when the air is at its worst. Every time she sees a smoggy sky, Tongtong puts on a face mask.

Doctors remind Tongtong and Mother Qin, “Right now the air quality  is very bad. Try not to go outside or open windows for ventilation. Breathe more oxygen to relieve pressure on the lungs.”

Sometimes, when there are patients ready to leave the hospital, the doctors will have them wait until the air quality has improved before releasing them.

Tongtong has also started to worry about the air. She regrets that her concern has come too late. “Before I was not too concerned. I just heard on the news that there are this many or that many breathable particles in the air, and reminders to take care. But the sky was clear and we couldn’t see or touch the particles, so we didn’t pay attention to the warnings. Now I can see with my own eyes. Everywhere the air is cloudy white. Honestly, I regret that I didn’t make my mom pay attention to it earlier.

“Even though it’s in the news every day, the government isn’t doing anything to address the issue. It hasn’t announced any policies or improved its ability to monitor air quality. It’s all just useless work. For an individual, no matter how hard he tries to strengthen his own environmental awareness, there’s almost nothing he can do about it. Not to mention that it’s only the very few who have this awareness. I recognize the seriousness of the air pollution because my mom got sick. But for those people who haven’t gotten sick, can they understand? Normal face masks can’t filter out PM2.5; we have to buy professional masks. Now it’s PM2.5, who knows what will come afterwards. Will we wear biosafety masks in the future?”

Tongtong asked the doctor to let her mother go home for Spring Festival. It’s hard to feel the holiday spirit from a hospital bed. The doctor observed Mother Qin for a few days, then agreed to Tongtong’s request.

On the second day of the holiday, the Spring Festival Gala was still replaying on TV. Their relatives were gathered at home. Mother Qin wore an oxygen mask, watching the sparkle of firecrackers through the window from her bed. Smoke from burning fireworks mingled with the smog in the air. Mother Qin furrowed her brow.

“Tomorrow will be another smoggy day.”

Mother Qin and Tongtong are pseudonyms.

Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Mengyu Dong.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air pollution, Beijing, cancer, environment, public health
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What the leaders neglect to say is that infighting within the government bureaucracy is one of the biggest obstacles to enacting stronger environmental policies. Even as some officials push for tighter restrictions on pollutants, state-owned enterprises — especially China’s oil and power companies — have been putting profits ahead of health in working to outflank new rules, according to government data and interviews with people involved in policy negotiations.

For instance, even though trucks and buses crisscrossing China are far worse for the environment than any other vehicles, the oil companies have delayed for years an improvement in the diesel fuel those vehicles burn. As a result, the sulfur levels of diesel in China are at least 23 times that of the United States. As for power companies, the three biggest ones in the country are all repeat violators of government restrictions on emissions from coal-burning plants; offending power plants are found across the country, from Inner Mongolia to the southwest metropolis of Chongqing.

The state-owned enterprises are given critical roles in policy-making on environmental standards. The committees that determine fuel standards, for example, are housed in the buildings of an oil company. Whether the enterprises can be forced to follow, rather than impede, environmental restrictions will be a critical test of the commitment of Mr. Li and Xi Jinping, the new party chief and president, to curbing the influence of vested interests in the economy.[...]

Also see CDT coverage of record levels of air pollution in Beijing this past winter, the 16,000+ dead pig carcasses found floating in rivers near Shanghai, or other examples of China’s environmental woes.

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Post tags: air pollution, bureaucracy, environment, environmental degradation, pollution, river pollution, water pollution
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When the new leadership’s ministerial appointments were announced last weekend, Zhou retained his post, to the disappointment of those concerned about the environment. The public questioned why a minister with no achievements should remain in power.

When, on March 16, almost 3,000 representatives to the National People’s Congress voted on 25 ministerial appointments, Zhou received the lowest number of supporting votes, showing the level of discontent with his work.

The news was also met with catcalls from the public. Musician Zhao Tianming asked on his microblog if anyone knew what the minister’s achievements were. The vast majority of the 4,000-odd netizens who forwarded and commented on his message did not. One asked if the fact that one river was full of pigs and others had dried up; and the towns covered in smog and millions suffering from dust-related lung diseases could be classed as ministerial feats.

Liu does credit new premier Li Keqiang with some encouraging rhetoric and past achievements. But a campaigner quoted by Jonathan Kaiman at The Guardian argued that, in any case, the problem does not lie at the top of the political pyramid:

Ma Tianjie, the head of toxics campaign at Greenpeace East Asia, said that despite the lack of concrete anti-pollution action at the congress, bold environmental legislation may yet emerge over the next five years as new leaders acclimate to their roles and cement their alliances.

“Because they’re changing a lot of positions at the top, they have been a bit cautious in revealing their agenda,” he said. “The problem is not that the top doesn’t get it – they have got it for a while now. The problem is with lower level authorities, whether they can translate that kind of top-level consciousness to actual actions on the ground.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: environment, environmental policy, environmental protection, greenpeace, Li Keqiang, National People's Congress, Pan Yue, pollution
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China’s “old friend” isn’t known for playing nice. (Pumpkin Brother)

After North Korea’s February 12 nuclear test, condemnation of the blast rained in from both China’s government and the general public. Netizens voiced anxiety that irradiated fallout from the blast might travel across the border into China.

But China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) issued a report that dismissed the possibility of nuclear radiation from the blast reaching the Chinese border. Quoting data from the National Meteorological Center, the MEP claimed, “Even if fallout had leaked out [from the North Korean nuclear test], the wind mainly blows towards the southeast, and China would therefore not be affected.”

Many netizens weren’t blown away by the MEP’s assurances:

@2ndGenerationSickJiuFuTian: It seems nuclear fallout is classist; it [only] drifts towards countries with different ideologies.

@二代症久富田：核爆污染有阶级性，向不同的意识形态国家飘。

@DontWorryAlmostDone: The Third Kim decided on the nuclear blast, while the resulting radiation is under the command of China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection.

@别急快完了：核爆金三儿说了算，辐射规中国环保部指挥。

@EcoProtectionDongLiangJie: Be good, dear wind. You’ve got to be patriotic. China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection is counting on you.

@环保董良杰:风儿，乖乖，你要爱国啊。中国环保就靠你了

@WangXianSen: Even if it did blow over here, would the Ministry of Environmental Protection tell the truth?

@Wang先森：就算真飘过来了，环保部会说实话吗？

@HisOpponentIsScary: Can our Ministry of Environmental Protection’s most advanced technology control the direction of the spread of radiation?

@他的对手很可怕：我环保部最新技术，控制核扩散方向？

@Oso_azul: For a nuclear test that wasn’t conducted above ground or outdoors, the direction of the wind isn’t such a big issue. But if it was an underground nuclear test, then what about underground water sources?

@Oso_azul：不是露天的、地面的核试验，主要不关心风向。地下核试验，那地下水源呢？

@Roookie: Even if you were talking about PM2.5 pollution, could just one gust of wind really blow it away?

@Roookie：你当是PM2.5啊，一阵风就能刮走？

@YiWeiBing: I peed myself laughing! The great General Kim has invented an intelligent form of radiation that avoids what is nearby in search of what is far away.

@毅卫兵：笑尿了，伟大的金将军发明的舍近求远的智能辐射

Translation by Liz Carter. Via CDT Chinese.

© Little Bluegill for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: environment, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Netizen Voices, North Korea, North Korea nuclear, North Korea relations, radiation
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Beijing Municipal Propaganda Department: Do not report on the glass that was broken at the [Chairman Mao] Memorial on Tiananmen Square. (February 25, 2013)

北京市委宣传部：有关天安门广场纪念堂玻璃被砸一事不报道。

Beijing Municipal Propaganda Department: Regarding the trash dumps in the upper reaches of the Miyun Reservoir, all media coverage is to be conducted in accordance with the information released by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. Media are not to conduct their own coverage or commentary. From now on, media are to submit drafts of all reports involving public opinion to be examined and approved by the Municipal Propaganda Department. (February 25, 2013)

北京市委宣传部：有关密云水库上游垃圾填埋坑一事，按北京环保局统一信息发布，媒体不再自行报道和评论。以后媒体要将涉及舆论监督的报道一律上报市委宣传部备案审批。

Two directives from the Beijing Municipal Propaganda Department were reported on February 25, 2013. The first directive referred to an apparent act of vandalism at the Chairman Mao Memorial Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square.

The second directive forbade coverage of trash dump sites near the Miyun Reservoir from deviating from official information released by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. Recently, fears spread that the reservoir, which is reported to supply about two-thirds of Beijing’s drinking water, was being contaminated by illegal dumping.

Public awareness of the issue can be traced back to a call by popular Weibo personality Deng Fei for Spring Festival travelers to take note of the condition of the environment in their respective hometowns. Mr. Deng, who is the director of the department of reporting at Hong Kong based Phoenix Weekly, is a champion of environmental causes in China. H generated tremendous buzz on Weibo last week when he accused Shandong officials of forbidding media coverage of illegal pollution in Shandong Province.

Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.” CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

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Post tags: Beijing environment, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, environment, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, propaganda department, reservoirs, Tiananmen Square, water pollution
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A statement by the city government said the cut-off was caused by an accident in the neighboring Shanxi Province where industrial pollutants poured into the upper reaches of the Zhanghe River.

The statement did not provide details about the accident, or how many households have been affected.

The city cut off its water supply from Yuecheng Reservoir located on the river and switched to another underground water source, according to the statement.

Residents in several parts of Handan told Xinhua reporters that the water supply had not resumed on Saturday evening.

Although the number of households affected was not included in the statement, the population of the city and the surrounding rural areas is about 9 million, AP reports:

Xinhua News Agency said Sunday that a loose drainage valve in a chemical plant was to blame for the leaking of nearly 9 tons of the chemical aniline into the river. It said another 30 tons of aniline have been contained in a disused reservoir.

Aniline, used in manufacturing polyurethane, can be toxic to humans.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the initial accident occurred in Changzhi, Shanxi Province:

Ma Jun, director of the nonprofit Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs in Beijing, described the incident in an interview as “serious” due to both the amount of pollutants involved and the toxicity of the substance. But he said the broader problem was the delay in making it public. “The government should do a thorough investigation,” Mr. Ma said.

Changzhi, the upriver city in Shanxi province where the initial accident occurred, illustrates the challenges China faces in protecting its natural resources. In a marketing video, historic Changzhi bills itself as the nation’s “attractive city” in the cradle of Chinese civilization, with plentiful clean water that runs through a rugged mountain range with Grand Canyon-like vistas. Yet Changzhi in the video also boasts an industrial backbone of coal mining, chemical production and steel manufacturing.

Users of Sina Corp.’s SINA -0.02% Twitter-like Weibo microblog service posted photos from Handan of store shelves emptied of bottled water and criticized the time it took for authorities to report the leak. Chinese bloggers also reposted a report from the national broadcaster China Central Television that included a photo of the Tianji plant’s ruptured pipeline.

Water pollution is a serious problem in China, with garbage blamed for clogging dams, refineries for damaging marine life and fertilizers for ruining aquifers. Acute shortages of water through much of the country have been worsened by industrial accidents and often slow reporting by polluters. Still, it isn’t clear whether the Changzhi incident shows a worsening of the situation or greater public attention to it.

This incident comes amid the recent Qidong paper plant protests and another incident of a chemical leak in Guangxi last year. Another Xinhua article says the response to the chemical leak was just as troubling as the leak itself:

The Changzhi municipal government clearly failed the crisis management test — a failure that has endangered millions of people and aquatic life.

Had the information been disclosed earlier, the pollutants could have been contained within a much smaller area of water and damage to public health could have been minimized.

It is time for authorities and businesses to realize that the costs of trying to hide a crisis are much higher than handling it in a timely manner.

They also need to see that revealing information themselves would help to curb the spread of rumors, which often exaggerate the facts and make accidents seem much worse.

See also “Protecting China’s Natual Habitat Feels Like a Game,” via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: environment, Handan, industrial pollution, Shanxi, water pollution
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The translations are by Rogier Creemers of China Copyright and Media.

26 August 2005

(1) Close news trackers on “Anti-Corruption: More than 10,000 Leading Cadres Actively Handed Over More than 60 Million Yuan in Cash, Etc.” Existing ones are to be deleted, it is not to be discussed.

(2) Search websites, if there are articles such as “North Korea’s Fall-out with China,” these are to be deleted.

23 August 2005

Heading: Corpse of Old Person Discovered Exposed on Hospital Roof, Ten Days After Hospitalization (Images), the content of this article is about an incident of a violent struggle between the hospital and relatives after an old person died in Xi’an Gaoxin Hospital. This incident may not be reported, if discovered, immediately delete it!!

22 August 2005

Everyone, a small number of people in Meishan Town, Changxing, Zhejiang used the masses’ emotions of appealing to enterprises to protect the environment, and took advantage to create a mass disturbance, at present, the situation has already calmed down. It is only permitted to reprint Xinhua copy, forums and other interactive columns may also not disseminate or play up this matter. Our websites do not have news qualifications, no channel may disseminate this news, please immediately delete this when examining and verifying matters.

18 August 2005

Gong Xiantian’s “Open Letter on the ‘Property Law’ (Draft)” may not be reprinted by any website without exception. Concerning “Li Datong’s Open Letter on the China Youth Daily’s New Assessment Methods to Editor-in-chief Li Erliang and the Editorial Committee” and corresponding content inspection of forums must be strengthened, and relevant information timely blocked and deleted.

13 August 2005

The incident of the Heilongjiang Higher Procuratorate Director’s suicide may not be reported.

13 August 2005

Phoenix Net issued three articles on the 11th, with the respective titles: (1) Japan and the U.S. Plan to Use Military Exercises to Probe China and Encircle China’s March to the Oceans; (2) Japan Blocks China’s Gas Exploration in the East China Sea, Related Persons Point Out China and Japan May Come to Blows Within the Year; (3) Chinese Ex-diplomat in Japan: China and Japan May Come to Blows Within the Year Because of the East China Sea Dispute. Content corresponding to this and netizen discussion must be deleted without exception.

11 August 2005

“China’s Ten Worst Cities,” this article is pure foreign fabrication, and is to be deleted without exception.

The article “SARFT Notice concerning Further Strengthening Radio and Television Channel Management” must be deleted.

7 August 2005

Concerning the mass attack on the Huangshi Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government building that took place in Huangshi City, Hubei Province, networks may not report without exception, corresponding information on forums is to be deleted without exception.

2 August 2005

(1) Online information related to demobilized military personnel. (Information referring to treatment and corresponding demobilization systems must be deleted.)

(2) Domestic online information concerning hotspots and commentaries that shareholders pay attention to, as well as information concerning inciting and arousing netizens to conduct rallies and demonstrations. (Apart from incitement of rallies and demonstrations, it is permitted to not delete this.)

(3) Online matters related to Japan, activities and trends of organizations and individuals to protect the Diaoyu Islands. (Where language is radical and destructive to the Sino-Japanese relationship.)

(4) Online information related to rights defense and petitioning by workers and peasants. (To be deleted where the cause of the matter is related to the government.)

(5) Online information on activities concerning Tibetan independence and Xinjiang independence, East Turkestanists planning terror activities during the 50th anniversary celebrations. (All pieces containing this information are to be deleted.)

(6) Online information concerning network real-name systems. (Maintain the positive side, delete the negative side.)

(7) Online interest paid to information concerning the Sichuan illness that has no clear cause. (Do not manage the past, delete the pieces maliciously playing this up this week.)

(8) Foreign websites’ attention paid to peasant land rights defense at the South China Sea, as well as the level of domestic attention. (Those clashing with the government are to be deleted, others are provisionally not to be deleted, but must be reported.)

(9) Online information related to unemployed laborers’ rights defense as well as the issue of the Three Rurals.

2005年8月北京网管办发出的禁令

2005-8-26

1：关闭《反腐：万余领导干部主动上交现金等6000余万元》一文的新闻跟贴。原有的删除，论坛中不讨论。

2：搜索网站,如有”朝鲜对中国翻脸”相关文章做删除处理.
2005-8-23

标题：老人住院十日后被发现暴尸于医院天台 [组图] ，此文章内容是一老人死于西安高新医院后发生的医院和家属的暴力纠纷事件。此事件不准报，发现即删！！
2005-8-22

各位，浙江长兴煤山镇少数人利用群众最企业环保诉求情绪，趁机聚众闹事一事，目前事态已经平息．只许转载新华社通稿，论坛等互动栏目亦不得传播炒作此事。我们网站没有新闻资质，任何频道不转转载此新闻，请审核时看到立即删除！
2005-8-15

巩献田关于《物权法（草案）》公开信》各网站一律不得传播。《李大同就中国青年报新的考评办法致李而亮总编辑并编委会的公开信》及相关内容，要加强对论坛的检查，及时封堵和删除有关信息。

2005-8-13

黑龙江高检检察长自杀事件，不准报。
2005-8-13

凤凰网11日发了三篇稿子，标题分别为：1、日美拟借军演试探中国围堵中国走向海洋 2、日阻华东海采气 相关人士指出中日年内或动武 3、中国前驻日外交官：中日年内或因东海纷争动武。与此相关的内容及网友讨论一律删除.
2005-8-11

“中国十大最差城市”此文纯属境外造假，一律删除。

“广电总局关于进一步加强广播电视频道管理的通知”一文要删除。
2005-8-7

关于湖北省黄石市发生群众冲击黄石市委市政府大楼的事件，网站一律不报，论坛中相关信息一律删除。
2005-8-2

1.网上有关复转军人的相关信息。（提到待遇和相关复转制度的要删）

2.境内网上股民关注热点、评论以及煽动、鼓动网民进行集会、游行的相关信息。(除煽动集会游行外可不删)

3.网上涉日、保钓组织、人员的活动动向。(言词激进的破坏中日关系的）

4.网上有关工人、农民维权、上访的相关信息。（事情原因与政府有关系的删）

5.网上藏独、疆独活动信息，东突分子策划50周年大庆之际进行恐怖活动。(凡有与此信息的删除）

6.网上关于网络实名制的相关信息。（正面保留，负面的删）

7.网上对于四川不明原因疾病相关信息的关注。（以前不管，对于这周的恶意炒作的删）

8.境外网站对南海农民土地维权问题的关注，以及境内网的关注程度。(与政府相冲突的删，其他先不删，但要上报）

9.网上有关下岗工人维权以及三农问题的相关信息。

These translated directives were first posted by Rogier Creemers on China Copyright and Media on November 10, 2012 (here).

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: anti-corruption, Beijing, Beijing Internet Instructions, censorship, Censorship Vault, china youth daily, diaoyu islands, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, east china sea, environment, Gong Xiantian, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Internet censorship, Japan, lands rights, Li Datong, Li Erliang, Ministry of Truth, North Korea, phoenix, rights defense, SARFT, Sichuan, Tibet, xian, Xinhua, Xinjiang, Zhejiang
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Residents of a town in southern China  said Monday that demonstrators protesting the building of a coal-fired power plant had thrown bricks at police officers who fired volleys of tear gas and detained dozens of people in the latest unrest over an environmental dispute. At least 1,000 people in the town, Yinggehai, on Hainan Island, began protesting last week after construction resumed on the plant, which had been halted by earlier demonstrations. […]

Environmental issues have been a source of tension in recent years. According to the Washington Post, the protest turned into a violent nine day clash between villagers and police:

Fearing that such a plant could devastate the environment, residents, who mostly depend on fishing as their livelihood, began to protest the project Oct. 13. On that first day, it was mostly older women demonstrating in front of the local government’s fishery department, according to one witness, who owns a fishing business and like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of an ongoing crackdown by authorities. Town officials did not return calls seeking comment.

The women decided to confiscate as evidence of local officials’ lies and ill intent a sign for the harbor project that referred to it as a “fishing harbor” rather than a “coal-shipping harbor,” said the business owner.

When armed police tried to snatch back the sign, one of the women was hurt, which touched off widespread anger among the village’s men. That night, men turned out by the thousands and began throwing stones and bricks at police, who, in return, fired tear gas.

For days afterward, the protest followed a pattern of women protesting by day in front of the armed police and men clashing with authorities at night, when it is more difficult to photograph and identify violent protesters.

Radio Free Asia reports more than 25 people remain in custody following the clashes despite local officials denials of arrests:

“Right now there are police guarding all of the main streets, and they are stopping any vehicles from driving in the direction of the township government buildings,” said a township resident surnamed Liu.

He added: “The police are detaining people on the streets. None of the local people dares to come out, or to speak out.”

Meanwhile, an official at the Ledong county government denied that any Yinggehai protesters had been detained.

“This never happened,” the official said. “The final location of the coal-fired power plant hasn’t been decided yet, so how could there be protests and detentions as you are describing?”

Read more about environmental protests in China, via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: coal, coal industry, environment, environmental activism, environmental protests, Hainan
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The number of travelers taking to China’s highways totaled 85 million by 4 p.m. on Sunday, the first day of the eight-day national holiday.

The figure is 13.3 percent more than the equivalent period last year, according to an announcement from the Ministry of Transport.

The surge was partially driven by a new government policy that has made most expressways in the country toll free during the holiday period for passenger cars with fewer than seven seats.

Aside from travel within China, Arirang reports tourism to South Korea has increased during the long holiday:

Korea’s tourism industry is expected to get a boost from China’s week-long national holiday in October.
The Korea Tourism Organization says over 100-thousand Chinese tourists will visit Korea next week, up over 43 percent from the same period last year.
They are estimated to spend an all-time record of over 200 million U.S. dollars.
The number of Chinese tourists and the amount of money they spend in Korea have been on the up-and-up since 2008.

The Mid-Autumn Festival has also brought other issues to the attention of the Chinese people. From corruption to an excess of trash, activists are seeking greener solutions in Chinese business practices. The Los Angeles Times adds:

Neighborhood recycler Lu Shoujun knows mooncake season means one thing: more trash. About 10 days from now, Lu will start to get calls from his regular customers, clamoring for him to collect mooncake boxes along with their newspapers, cardboard and other usual items.

This year, the nation is expected to produce 280,000 tons of mooncakes, with sales reaching $2.53 billion, up 6% from a year ago, Zhu Nianlin, president of the China Assn. of Bakery & Confectionery Industry, told China’s Global Times newspaper. But high-end mooncake purveyors report much stronger growth.

A Beijing-based environmental group, Friends of Nature, says more than 95% of the packaging is unnecessary, and even when the material can be recycled, the process uses energy and can contribute to water and air pollution.

This year, China’s Zero Waste Alliance has launched a campaign to get users of Sina Weibo, the nation’s Twitter-like microblog service, to take pictures of excessively packaged mooncakes. The group plans to collect the photos and compile a list of the most egregious offenders.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: environment, holiday, moon festival, transportation, waste
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Crews in the city of Liuzhou used ships to spread canvas across the Longjiang River and stop the cadmium, China National Radio reported today. Tests done at 6 p.m. yesterday at Liuzhou’s water plants met national standards, it said.

The cadmium spill, first detected Jan. 15 upstream in the city of Hechi, has killed fish and prompted panic buying of bottled water, the official Xinhua News Agency reported yesterday. Hechi Mayor He Xinxing issued a public apology after the incident, China National Radio reported. The city’s Communist Party Chief Huang Shiyong pledged to “severely crack down” on polluting companies, the China News Service reported.

Environmental contamination has fueled social unrest in China as three decades of growth transformed the nation into the world’s second-biggest economy and its largest polluter. Lead poisoning from battery makers, fluoride leaks from solar panel plants and acid spills from copper mines are among incidents that have sparked public outrage, prompting President Hu Jintao and other senior officials to pledge to reduce pollution.

In Guangxi, authorities dumped hundreds of tons of chemicals into the river to neutralize the cadmium, according to Xinhua. Hechi officials haven’t been able to confirm the direct source of the pollution because of the area’s complicated geography, China National Radio reported, citing Wu Haique, director of the city’s environmental protection agency.

Cadmium may cause kidney dysfunction and cancer, and the chemical is speculated to have a lasting impact on the soil in the riverbed and the local fish. Seven people have been detained as a result of this spill. Bloomberg adds:

China detained seven people in connection with a toxic metal spill in Guangxi province that contaminated a tributary of the Pearl River and threatened water for 1.5 million people, according to a local official.

All seven were executives at chemical plants, the official Xinhua News Agency reported late yesterday, citing Feng Zhennian, an official with the regional environmental protection department. Feng didn’t identify the executives, Xinhua said.

Several instances of chemical spills have threatened Chinese cities’ drinking water in the past decade. A 2005 explosion at a unit of PetroChina Co. in northern China caused 100 tons of toxins to be spilled into the Songhua river, forcing authorities to shut off tap water for more than 3 million people in the city of Harbin. That incident led to the resignation of Xie Zhenhua as China’s top environmental protection official.

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Post tags: environment, Guangxi, industrial pollution, pollution, water pollution
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Authorities will also start to monitor the smallest and most dangerous airborne pollution, known as PM2.5, in densely populated areas such as Beijing and Tianjin, the government said in a statement on its environmental targets.

“Urban and rural drinking water supply and environmental security should be protected effectively, water quality should be improved greatly and heavy metal pollution should be controlled effectively.”

The council has also vowed to improve the safety of nuclear energy production and lower the number of cars registered before 2005 on the road. These announcements come after protests that claim that the environment is ruining the people’s health. AFP adds:

Millions of Chinese went online to vent their anger after thick smog blanketed Beijing earlier this month, raising health fears and causing hundreds of flights to be cancelled.

Public angst in the Chinese capital over heavy pollution has been compounded by official data showing air quality is good, or only slightly polluted, when smog is visible and figures published by the US embassy rank it as “very unhealthy”.

Protests over environmental pollution are also increasing. In the latest incident, residents in the southern town of Haimen stormed government buildings on Tuesday to protest against a power plant they say is damaging their health.

See also: Beijing air quality officially at crisis level via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air quality, climate change, environment, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution
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Beijing’s air has improved significantly since 1998, but the city can still cut emissions from sources including automobiles, coal-burning, industry and dust, Mr. Du said at a forum about how Chinese government offices can make use of microblogging services.

The recognition of a need for improvement might hearten residents of a city that is sometimes beset by darkness at noon. Mr. Du’s comments follow years of Chinese officials playing down the soupiness of Beijing’s air. The inky dark clouds that loom over the city on too many days represent for many Beijingers the disconnect between official statements and the reality of life in China’s capital.

But Mr. Du didn’t elaborate on measures that Beijing may be planning, and he was dismissive of the idea that air-pollution readings released by the U.S. Embassy in Beijing could bring pressure on the government.

Mr. Du declined to say whether he thinks Beijing should monitor and release data for smaller particulate matter in the air, as the U.S. Embassy in Beijing does.

The most recent post on The Diplomat’s China Power blog describes the discrepancy in air-quality readings between Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau and data released by the US Embassy:

I checked the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau’s reading. Data from the bureau for between 8 pm on December 4 and 8 am the next morning showed the pollution reading was 150 to 170, which equates to Level 3 on the bureau’s rating system. Level 3 is designated as “slight pollution” that will cause “some irritation amongst healthy people.”

So I checked with other media sources, and found that most were instead using air monitoring data from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The data was shocking.

The index used by the U.S. Embassy measures particles under 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) compared with the between 2.5 and 10 micrometers used in China’s official readings. According to the U.S. index, at 7 pm on December 4, the concentration of fine particles in Beijing was 552. The maximum value on their scale is 500, meaning Beijing’s air quality was so poor that it was described as “beyond index.”

The city’s deteriorating air quality (this was the second time in about a month that Beijing’s pollution levels had exceeded the U.S. index) has prompted considerable frustration among many Chinese, and pressure is growing to include the PM2.5 data as the U.S. Embassy does.

Beijing’s failure to include the PM2.5 readings in official data may have to do with central government responses to publication of those numbers elsewhere in China. Asia Times reports on this and on public pressure to publicize more accurate air quality readings:

[...]Beijing has 27 monitoring stations capable of measuring PM2.5 levels, but officials choose to keep their readings to themselves.

Perhaps they learned a lesson from the eastern city of Nanjing, which was quickly castigated last month by central authorities after publishing PM2.5 readings online.

[...]Last Thursday, China Daily ran a story in which a Beijing-based expert on the environment made an unambiguous call for a tougher air-quality regime.

“Including PM2.5 readings is essential in figuring out the country’s haze problems,” said Ma Jun, director of the Public and Environmental Affairs Institute, “and it reflects the growing influence of public opinion regarding air quality.”

The Asia Times article also points to an op-ed published last week in the state-owned Global Times urging the nation to seriously address the environmental crisis. From the Global Times editorial:

The Chinese have been pursing a quality of life that comes under a blue sky. But we have not been able to bring this blueprint into reality. Our society needs to face the reality at present. Our pollution has become severe. It is time for us to shift our focus from development to protection. China should also strive for the environmental protection result seen in developed countries.

[...]There is no more reason to delay an overall campaign against air pollution. It needs the participation of every individual. For the government, covering things up or one-off drives, like that seen ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, can no longer be seen as a quick fix. For citizens, we all have to make our due contribution to win this battle. Every one of us is behind the air pollution more or less.

[...]A public yearning for clean air will also be a process reshaping China in many ways. It may be a bit messy, but can stir new hope.

You can view up to date air quality readings via the @BeijingAir Twitter feed. For more information on China and the environment, be sure to stay tuned to CDT’s Environment category.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air quality, climate change, environment, PM2.5, pollution
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In a speech broadcast live on state television, Hu said China’s ultimate aim is to have balanced trade and that total imports will exceed $8 trillion over the next five years, bringing “enormous opportunities” to businesses around the world eager to sell to hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers.

Other economies are looking to China to help drive global demand, but its high trade surplus has meant that fewer of the gains are shared with other countries. Last year, China imported goods worth $1.39 trillion. But imports are on the rise, reaching $1.426 trillion in the first 10 months of 2011.

The president also urged other countries to recognize China’s full-market economy status as soon as possible and relax restrictions on high-tech commodity exports to China. Major trading partners including the European Union and the United States do not recognize China as a market economy, making it easier for WTO panels to rule that its companies dump goods on overseas markets.

China will also accelerate the development of its services sector, make the agricultural sector more efficient and commit to green and low-carbon development, Hu said.

Bloomberg has more about China’s ten-year anniversary as a member of the WTO:

China joined the Geneva-based WTO on Dec. 11, 2001, capping a 15-year drive to join the rules-based trading system and giving foreign companies from Yum! Brands Inc. and General Motors Co. to HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) a bigger foothold in the world’s most-populous market.

Since then, China has become the world’s biggest exporter and second-largest importer. Trade in goods such as clothing, electronics, toys and appliances soared to almost $3 trillion last year from $510 billion in 2001, with both exports and imports growing almost fivefold.

“This spectacular rise would not have been possible without the open global trading system that China was able to benefit from during the past 10 years,” said European Union Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht.

“At the same time, China is having to increasingly recognize and respect not only the legal responsibilities it now faces as a member of a global rules-based body, but also the WTO ‘spirit’ of promoting open markets and non-discriminatory principles in its domestic legislation, and the enforcement of it,” De Gucht said in an e-mailed statement from Brussels.

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Post tags: economic slowdown, environment, exports, Hu Jintao, world trade organization
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Speaking Tuesday as the white paper was released, officials said China and other developing countries had taken serious steps while developed countries lagged. Xie Zhenhua, the head of the Chinese delegation to the Durban meeting, said poorer countries accounted for 57 percent of emission reductions.

“We hope nations of the world translate their political willingness into concrete actions,” Mr. Xie said at the news conference.

The report said that China achieved a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions between 2005 and 2010 and planned to cut another 17 percent by 2015. The reduction is per unit of gross domestic product, the most common measurement of economic output. This means that while China’s overall carbon emissions will rise along with its economic output, its industries will become more efficient.

While reports indicate that Japan, the U.S. and European Union are united in opposition to any firm agreement at the upcoming round of talks, Xie also reiterated China’s support for an extension to the Kyoto Protocol beyond its first “commitment period” ending in 2012. From Bloomberg:

China expects developed countries under the protocol to clarify their quantities for emissions reductions under the second commitment period during the Durban conference, while those not covered by the accord should pledge comparable targets, Xie said. “Developing countries should make voluntary emission-reduction commitments.”

Under Kyoto’s first enforcement period, 35 nations and the European Union committed to cut emissions by a collective 5.2 percent from the 1990 levels by 2012.

Some nations are turning down the extension of the protocol to emphasize “environmental integrity,” Xie said. “This is an excuse as most of the countries have made commitments after the Copenhagen talks” in 2009.

See also previous CDT coverage of the environment and climate change in China, including the China International Forum on Climate Change in Beijing earlier this month.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: climate change, environment, european union, Japan, kyoto protocol, United Nations, United States
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