Environment

China’s active involvement in climate diplomacy can increase overseas understanding of its climate policies and bring impetus to global climate governance, writes Liu Yuanling from China Dialogue Tensions arising from globalisation are increasing, leading to a trend towards deglobalisation and making the international action the climate crisis calls for even harder. The Covid-19 pandemic left countries isolated and estranged. The war in Ukraine has led to antagonism and power struggles. …

A mix of government initiatives, marketing and consumer choice can help cut emissions from China’s food system, writes You Xiaoying for China Dialogue There is no kitchen waste at Li Yan’s restaurant: everything gets eaten, reused or composted. There is no fixed menu, either. The 40-year-old chef buys seasonal local produce fresh from market vendors every day, carrying a bamboo basket on his back. Most elements in the dishes are …

When we catch up with Songqiao Yao she is in Cambridge, fresh from the Skoll World Forum in Oxford and heading to London for yet more meetings and to see more friends. The truth is, even the most intrepid Chinese entrepreneurs have been grounded for the last three years – victims of China’s extremely strict zero Covid policy – and now, finally, things can get moving. And it’s no exaggeration …

China’s emissions will peak when clean energy growth overtakes total energy demand growth. This may happen as soon as 2024, writes Lauri Myllyvirta for China Dialogue At first glance, recent headlines on coal, energy and emissions in China make little sense. Coal-fired power generation grew slightly, by 1.4%, in 2022, and output in the other major coal-using sectors, steel and cement, contracted. However, the government is reporting a major increase …

There has been a surge in demand in China for products that are sustainable and eco-friendly. But could “greenwashing” be hurting your chances of registering a green trademark in China? Kristina Koehler-Coluccia from Woodburn Global investigates There is no doubt that the trend for sustainable, eco-friendly products both in China and around the world has had a net positive effect, but it has also been responsible for a practice called “greenwashing”, …

Understanding China’s urbanisation drive and its new mega-cities – the powerhouses of consumption, business and societal change – is a challenge for all businesses. A new book explores the topic. Providing some great perspectives on the process of urbanisation in China is China Urbanising: Impacts and Transitions (University of Pennsylvania Press), edited by Weiping Wu and Qin Gao, both professors at Columbia University. The book gathers an interdisciplinary group of …

Despite efforts by China, the UK and numerous other countries to mitigate the effects of climate change, the fallout from the rise in global temperatures will affect future generations regardless. Are young educated Chinese people more concerned about having children as a result? In recent years, the concept of reproductive climate concerns has gradually ignited public debate and attracted academic attention around the world. The issues fall under the umbrella …

Recent extreme weather events — including the floods in Henan in 2021 and the China-wide heatwave in 2022 — have shown the importance of upgrading early warning and response systems nationwide, according to China Dialogue’s Jiang Mengnan and Lin Zi “At about 2pm, the sky went dark and water started leaking into the office. Heavy rain and flood warnings started to appear on Weibo and some of my colleagues put …

With their governments behind them, companies in the UK and China have been working hard to achieve the two countries’ net zero targets across fields from green finance to clean transportation and the urban energy transition – even working in partnership in some cases. The news that the UK saw its warmest year on record in 2022 – and the prediction that this year could be even hotter – is …

The UK finance sector is well positioned to take advantage of the surge in activity around models of green finance in China, and its use as an enabler of green growth The news that the UK saw its warmest year on record in 2022 – and the prediction that this year could be even hotter – is yet another reminder of the urgent need to enable a low-carbon future. One …