China Environ Prot (EP) Industry, Technology, Solid Waste Mgt, Liquid Treat: News & Discussions
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China beats annual target for cutting carbon emissions in 2018
Source: Xinhua| 2019-11-27 16:44:35|Editor: mingmei
BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) were down by about 4 percent in 2018, beating the annual target by 0.1 percentage points, an official said Wednesday.
By 2018, China had slashed carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon emissions per unit of GDP, by 45.8 percent from 2005 levels, meeting the target of a 40 to 45 percent decrease by 2020 ahead of schedule, Zhao Yingmin, vice-minister of ecology and environment, told a press conference.
The figure can be translated to 5.26 billion fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted since 2005.
The share of non-fossil fuels in China's primary energy consumption stood at 14.3 percent at the end of last year, Zhao said.
Power generated from renewable energy sources accounted for 26.7 percent of total power output in 2018, according to Zhao.
"Tasked with missions like improving the people's livelihood and eradicating poverty, we will remain committed to addressing climate change and deliver on our promises 100 percent," said Zhao.
China will staunchly uphold multilateralism in implementing the Paris Agreement, said Zhao, making the remarks before the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Source: Xinhua| 2019-11-27 16:44:35|Editor: mingmei
BEIJING, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) were down by about 4 percent in 2018, beating the annual target by 0.1 percentage points, an official said Wednesday.
By 2018, China had slashed carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon emissions per unit of GDP, by 45.8 percent from 2005 levels, meeting the target of a 40 to 45 percent decrease by 2020 ahead of schedule, Zhao Yingmin, vice-minister of ecology and environment, told a press conference.
The figure can be translated to 5.26 billion fewer tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted since 2005.
The share of non-fossil fuels in China's primary energy consumption stood at 14.3 percent at the end of last year, Zhao said.
Power generated from renewable energy sources accounted for 26.7 percent of total power output in 2018, according to Zhao.
"Tasked with missions like improving the people's livelihood and eradicating poverty, we will remain committed to addressing climate change and deliver on our promises 100 percent," said Zhao.
China will staunchly uphold multilateralism in implementing the Paris Agreement, said Zhao, making the remarks before the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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Drive to clean up soil nationwide succeeding
By HOU LIQIANG | China Daily | Updated: 2019-11-30 03:20
File photo: a remediation area of soil pollution in Wuhan, Hubei province on May 26, 2018. [Photo/IC]
With heavy metal pollution increasingly being curbed in agricultural areas, the country will be able to safely utilize at least 90 percent of its arable land by the end of 2020, senior environmental officials said on Friday.
More than 1,300 heavy metal-related enterprises have been shut down nationwide, and more than 900 projects to reduce discharge of the pollutants have been rolled out over the past three years, said Su Kejing, a director at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
"Emissions of heavy metal pollutants have been effectively curbed," Su said at a news conference.
Su said the ministry has particularly beefed up efforts to control heavy metal pollution after the State Council, the country's Cabinet, published an action plan to control soil contamination in May 2016.
In a campaign mainly targeting cadmium contamination, the ministry located about 2,000 polluting sources in its inspection of over 13,000 companies. So far, rectification work on 700 of the sources has been completed, cutting off polluters' access to arable lands, he said.
Su said a national survey on pollution in cultivated land across the country is nearly complete and shows a generally good situation.
Begun in 2017, the survey involves some 35,000 people with samples collected from around 558,000 locations.
"The current survey results show that the soil environment of the country's arable land is in generally stable condition, though some areas are still plagued by soil pollution risks," he said.
Su acknowledged that it's a pressing task to bring pollution under tight control in some affected areas. "Currently, local governments are adopting differentiated management in accordance with the survey results to enhance safe utilization," he added.
Zhong Bin, a deputy director general at the ministry, said that as national risk assessment on contaminated land continues, more than 550 plots of land around the nation have been listed as areas that need risk controls or restoration measures.
Risk control or restoration work has been accomplished on 460 of the plots, and the ministry has garnered instructive and successful experiences from about 200 pilot programs in the sector, Zhong said.
Pollution in arid zones
At Friday's news conference, the ministry also revealed that about 130,000 metric tons of pollutants had been found at an unauthorized dumping site on the edge of the Tengger Desert.
As of Monday, about 93 percent of the pollutants had been removed and sealed in waterproof bags, said Liu Youbin, a ministry spokesman.
"A monitoring and survey plan for underground water has been drafted, and workers are constructing wells needed for the installation of monitoring facilities to take water samples," Liu said.
The pollutants were discovered by a group of environmental volunteers as they were conducting a survey near Shapotou National Nature Reserve in Zhongwei, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.
The pollutants came from a paper mill, which went bankrupt in 2015. The waste covered an area of about 120,000 square meters, according to China Environment News.
While urging the Zhongwei government to accelerate work on identifying the pollutants, the ministry has also required relevant authorities to hold those responsible accountable for the incident and provide information in a timely manner.
Liu said the ministry will launch a campaign to comb through the Tengger Desert and crack down on environmental violations.
By HOU LIQIANG | China Daily | Updated: 2019-11-30 03:20
With heavy metal pollution increasingly being curbed in agricultural areas, the country will be able to safely utilize at least 90 percent of its arable land by the end of 2020, senior environmental officials said on Friday.
More than 1,300 heavy metal-related enterprises have been shut down nationwide, and more than 900 projects to reduce discharge of the pollutants have been rolled out over the past three years, said Su Kejing, a director at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
"Emissions of heavy metal pollutants have been effectively curbed," Su said at a news conference.
Su said the ministry has particularly beefed up efforts to control heavy metal pollution after the State Council, the country's Cabinet, published an action plan to control soil contamination in May 2016.
In a campaign mainly targeting cadmium contamination, the ministry located about 2,000 polluting sources in its inspection of over 13,000 companies. So far, rectification work on 700 of the sources has been completed, cutting off polluters' access to arable lands, he said.
Su said a national survey on pollution in cultivated land across the country is nearly complete and shows a generally good situation.
Begun in 2017, the survey involves some 35,000 people with samples collected from around 558,000 locations.
"The current survey results show that the soil environment of the country's arable land is in generally stable condition, though some areas are still plagued by soil pollution risks," he said.
Su acknowledged that it's a pressing task to bring pollution under tight control in some affected areas. "Currently, local governments are adopting differentiated management in accordance with the survey results to enhance safe utilization," he added.
Zhong Bin, a deputy director general at the ministry, said that as national risk assessment on contaminated land continues, more than 550 plots of land around the nation have been listed as areas that need risk controls or restoration measures.
Risk control or restoration work has been accomplished on 460 of the plots, and the ministry has garnered instructive and successful experiences from about 200 pilot programs in the sector, Zhong said.
Pollution in arid zones
At Friday's news conference, the ministry also revealed that about 130,000 metric tons of pollutants had been found at an unauthorized dumping site on the edge of the Tengger Desert.
As of Monday, about 93 percent of the pollutants had been removed and sealed in waterproof bags, said Liu Youbin, a ministry spokesman.
"A monitoring and survey plan for underground water has been drafted, and workers are constructing wells needed for the installation of monitoring facilities to take water samples," Liu said.
The pollutants were discovered by a group of environmental volunteers as they were conducting a survey near Shapotou National Nature Reserve in Zhongwei, the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.
The pollutants came from a paper mill, which went bankrupt in 2015. The waste covered an area of about 120,000 square meters, according to China Environment News.
While urging the Zhongwei government to accelerate work on identifying the pollutants, the ministry has also required relevant authorities to hold those responsible accountable for the incident and provide information in a timely manner.
Liu said the ministry will launch a campaign to comb through the Tengger Desert and crack down on environmental violations.
JSCh
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10:10, 29-Dec-2019
Six men's legacy continues in desertification control in China
CGTN
In 1981, six men at Gulang County in northwest China's Gansu Province decided to stop the expanding Tengri Desert. Moving at the rate of seven meters every year, sand was making the region's farmland barren, decimating crop production and affecting the livelihood of locals.
The men had scare resources. They had only a donkey, a truck and a few rusted shovels in their seemingly impossible attempt to stop the march of sand affecting more than 30,000 farmers. They started by collecting meager collections from the community to buy saplings.
A few months later, they decided to get into a contract under the Northwest-North-Northeast China Shelter Forest Belt Project for desertification control.
CGTN Infographic
In the last four decades, community efforts have built a 300-kilometre protective belt, consisting of 14,446 hectares of forest and 25,067 hectares of grassland. With barely any technical knowledge about desertification control, their initial efforts ended with disappointment.
"At first, the work was extremely hard. We placed wheat straw around the saplings to fix the soil, otherwise a strong wind could blow away 60 percent to 70 percent of them," Zhang Runyuan, the youngest of the six men told China Daily
"We lived in caves and worked in shifts to prevent the saplings from being eaten by local farmers' sheep. This is even more important sometimes than planting trees," he added.
In order to prevent the loss of saplings, they started placing wheat straws as a barrier between the wind and the planted shrubs. After a few months of trials, they found the idea works.
CGTN Infographic
Of the six who initiated the desertification control efforts, four have died, passing the baton of environmental protection to the remaining two and the next generation. Though not all of them have survived to witness the result of their hard work, their legacy has been carried forward by the next generation.
"My father told me that he felt sorry he had left me nothing apart from a few trees before he died in 1991. He fell sick because of overwork," said He Zhongqiang, a son of one of the six, who works as a tree planter at the farm.
Degraded land due to climate change, heavy use of groundwater and excessive grazing, spans 800-1,000 million hectares of the country and is responsible for economic losses to the tune of 6.9 billion U.S. dollars a year.
More than 27.4 per cent of China's territory has been directly affected by desertification, with nearly 400 million people in 11 provinces and autonomous regions: Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Hebei getting affected.
CGTN Infographic
Innovations like one in Gulang County have added to the national and global knowledge in combating desertification. Today, after a voluntary plantation of 350,000 trees, total afforestation area has swelled up to 54,667 hectares, bringing a tinge of greenery in the region.
The efforts have stabilized the groundwater level, and soil fertility and farmers have regained their confidence to grow wheat, corn, melons and tomatoes.
The communique issued by the fourth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in October last year once again highlighted the need to uphold the system of ecological civilization, saying it is the key to the sustainable development of the whole nation.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the country has allocated 10 billion yuan (about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars) for funding pilot ecological conservation and restoration projects this year. The central fiscal funds went towards improving the ecology of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes and grasslands in 10 key areas.
Six men's legacy continues in desertification control in China
CGTN
In 1981, six men at Gulang County in northwest China's Gansu Province decided to stop the expanding Tengri Desert. Moving at the rate of seven meters every year, sand was making the region's farmland barren, decimating crop production and affecting the livelihood of locals.
The men had scare resources. They had only a donkey, a truck and a few rusted shovels in their seemingly impossible attempt to stop the march of sand affecting more than 30,000 farmers. They started by collecting meager collections from the community to buy saplings.
A few months later, they decided to get into a contract under the Northwest-North-Northeast China Shelter Forest Belt Project for desertification control.
In the last four decades, community efforts have built a 300-kilometre protective belt, consisting of 14,446 hectares of forest and 25,067 hectares of grassland. With barely any technical knowledge about desertification control, their initial efforts ended with disappointment.
"At first, the work was extremely hard. We placed wheat straw around the saplings to fix the soil, otherwise a strong wind could blow away 60 percent to 70 percent of them," Zhang Runyuan, the youngest of the six men told China Daily
"We lived in caves and worked in shifts to prevent the saplings from being eaten by local farmers' sheep. This is even more important sometimes than planting trees," he added.
In order to prevent the loss of saplings, they started placing wheat straws as a barrier between the wind and the planted shrubs. After a few months of trials, they found the idea works.
Of the six who initiated the desertification control efforts, four have died, passing the baton of environmental protection to the remaining two and the next generation. Though not all of them have survived to witness the result of their hard work, their legacy has been carried forward by the next generation.
"My father told me that he felt sorry he had left me nothing apart from a few trees before he died in 1991. He fell sick because of overwork," said He Zhongqiang, a son of one of the six, who works as a tree planter at the farm.
Degraded land due to climate change, heavy use of groundwater and excessive grazing, spans 800-1,000 million hectares of the country and is responsible for economic losses to the tune of 6.9 billion U.S. dollars a year.
More than 27.4 per cent of China's territory has been directly affected by desertification, with nearly 400 million people in 11 provinces and autonomous regions: Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Hebei getting affected.
Innovations like one in Gulang County have added to the national and global knowledge in combating desertification. Today, after a voluntary plantation of 350,000 trees, total afforestation area has swelled up to 54,667 hectares, bringing a tinge of greenery in the region.
The efforts have stabilized the groundwater level, and soil fertility and farmers have regained their confidence to grow wheat, corn, melons and tomatoes.
The communique issued by the fourth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in October last year once again highlighted the need to uphold the system of ecological civilization, saying it is the key to the sustainable development of the whole nation.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the country has allocated 10 billion yuan (about 1.4 billion U.S. dollars) for funding pilot ecological conservation and restoration projects this year. The central fiscal funds went towards improving the ecology of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes and grasslands in 10 key areas.
JSCh
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'Good quality' water up to 79%: ministry14:47, 19-May-2019
China's water quality improvement uneven in first quarter of 2019
CGTN
Despite an overall improvement in its water quality in the first quarter, China saw water quality deteriorate in some major lakes, rivers and reservoirs, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
The ministry said the improvement was imbalanced across the country, and the plunge in water quality happened in some rivers in Shanxi, Liaoning, Hubei and Heilongjiang Provinces, which dropped from grade II during this period last year to "inferior to Grade V," the lowest level in China's water quality grading system.
China aims to basically eliminate water "inferior to Grade V" in the Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Bay area by 2020.
In the first quarter, six national monitoring sections in the Yangtze River Delta were out of the "inferior to Grade V" level, while six in Jingmen city, Hubei Province remained the lowest level, with one in Yichang City newly added into the level.
The delta faces prominent total phosphorus pollution, said the ministry. It lacks urban sewage treatment capacity, and supporting pipe network is incomplete, with some sewage discharged directly into rivers.
Conditions were severe as well in the Bohai Bay area, as four national monitoring sections remained the "inferior to Grade V" level, plus six newly-classified ones.
The Fuxian Lake in southwest China's Yunnan Province. /VCG Photo
Fuxian Lake in southwest China's Yunnan Province is the country's largest deep freshwater lake, accounting for 9.16 percent of the storage of all domestic freshwater lakes. However, phosphorus and nitrogen run-offs have lowered its water quality, with the level of total phosphorus beyond the acceptable limit in the first three months.
The ministry also called for strengthening forecasts and early warnings of water condition, as well as water quality monitoring of drinking water sources, and timely taking measures to dispose cyanobacteria in major lakes and reservoirs to secure water quality.
Water quality grades
According to the Environmental Quality Standard for Surface Water, China has classified its water into five grades, from I to V, according to the function.
The first level has the highest requirement for water quality and is mainly applicable to source water and national nature reserves.
The higher the grade, the worse the water quality is.
The water at Grade V is for agriculture and general landscape usage, and water "inferior to Grade V" is what people call "unusable."
(Cover via VCG)
By Zhang Han Source:Global Times Published: 2019/12/29 19:39:34
Some 78.9 percent of China's surface water was deemed "good quality" by the environment authorities as of November, an increase of 2.6 percentage points on last year and a result which Chinese analysts cited as evidence of an improving overall environment across the country.
China has a water quality ranking system: from best I to worst V. Levels I-III accounted for 78.9 of all surface water, according to data from the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Level I-III means water is directly drinkable or drinkable after processing, according to national standards; while level V water is unusable and unsuitable for human contact.
Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Global Times that the increasing percentage of drinkable water showed that efforts at addressing water pollution have yielded results in China.
"Improvement in water quality also generates benefits like a more active water ecosystem and higher biodiversity, as well as an overall environment more hospitable for human residence," Ma said.
In 2015, China launched a 10-pronged campaign against water pollution including regulations, legal and administrative responsibilities.
A designated official, usually local Party chief, was assigned responsibility to tackle water pollution.
Water pollution is more difficult to address than air pollution, Ma noted. "Even if the polluter is controlled, pollutants in water are more difficult to dissolve, not to mention restoring the waterbed soil where contaminants accumulate," he said.
And curbing the pollution of underground water costs more and takes longer than surface, Ma said.
More than half of China's underground water has been polluted while about 80 percent of shallow underground water is undrinkable, according to media reports.
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All global sustainability is local
In a Nature cover story, Jianguo "Jack" Liu and CSIS members use groundbreaking methods to discover sustainability, like politics, is local
Sue Nichols - January 1, 2020
Nations across the world are following a United Nations blueprint to build a more sustainable future – but a new study shows that blueprint leads less to a castle in the sky, and more to a house that needs constant remodeling.
Sustainability scientists have developed systematic and comprehensive assessment methods and performed a first assessment of a country’s progress in achieving all 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) not just as a nation, but also at the regional levels, and not just as a snapshot – but over time.
In “Assessing progress towards sustainable development over space and time” in this week’s Nature, scientists from Michigan State University (MSU) and in China show that indeed all sustainability, like politics, is local. Even as a country can overall claim movement toward a sustainable future, areas within the country reflect the gains and losses in the struggle with poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation and for prosperity, and peace and justice. Most striking, the study found, is the disparities between developed regions and ones that are developing.
“We have learned that sustainability’s progress is dynamic, and that sometimes gains in one important area can come at costs to another area, tradeoffs that can be difficult to understand but can ultimately hobble progress,” said Jianguo “Jack” Liu, MSU Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and senior author. “Whether it’s protecting precious natural resources, making positive economic change or reducing inequality – it isn’t a static score. We must carefully take a holistic view to be sure progress in one area isn’t compromised by setbacks in other areas.”
The group assessed China with methods that can be applied to other countries. China’s vast size and sweeping socioeconomic changes at national and provincial levels showed how progress in sustainability can shift. Between 2000 and 2015, China has improved its aggregated SDG score.
At the provincial level, however, there is disparity between the country’s developed and developing regions. East China – which is home to the country’s economic boom -- had a higher SDG Index score than the more rural west China in the 2000s. In 2015, south China had a higher SDG Index score than the industrialized and agricultural-intensive north China.
Zhenci Xu, a recent PhD graduate from MSU’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (MSU-CSIS) who led the study, notes that countries are tasked with urgent goal of achieving sustainability even as populations grow, economies develop unevenly, natural resources like water and energy become scarce, land degrades, and income and gender inequities intensify.
Developed provinces had higher (and thus better) SDG Index scores than developing provinces throughout the study period of 2000-2015. But the average SDG Index scores in developing provinces were increasing faster compared to developed provinces.
“China’s eastern region began developing during the reform and opening-up policy in the late 70s to spur economic development along the coasts, which was accompanied by better social services,” Xu said. “In 1999, China started to address the rural western parts which had lagged in progress. That saw improvements both in infrastructure and ecological conservation, which seems to have boosted their sustainable development. The eastern parts have begun to struggle with the consequences of rapid economic growth – such as pollution and inequities.”
The authors note that overall sustainability is advancing thanks to better education, healthcare and environmental conservation policies. The study points out that even amidst progress, it is important to scrutinize what is happening at regional levels to know where to direct resources and attention.
In addition to Liu and Xu, the article was authored by Sophia Chau, Yingjie Li, Thomas Dietz, Julie Winkler, Shuxin Li, Anna Herzberger and Ying Tang from MSU and Jian Zhang, Jinyan Wang, Xiuzhi Chen, Fan Fan, Baorong Huang, Shaohua Wu, Dequ Hong and Yunkai Li from Chinese universities and academies. Xu currently is a research intern at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability.
The work was funded by the National Science Foundation, MSU, Michigan AgBioResearch, and China Scholarship Council.
All global sustainability is local - Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability | Michigan State University
Zhenci Xu, Sophia N. Chau, Xiuzhi Chen, Jian Zhang, Yingjie Li, Thomas Dietz, Jinyan Wang, Julie A. Winkler, Fan Fan, Baorong Huang, Shuxin Li, Shaohua Wu, Anna Herzberger, Ying Tang, Dequ Hong, Yunkai Li, Jianguo Liu. Assessing progress towards sustainable development over space and time. Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1846-3
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JSCh
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China expands use of laser radar to combat smog
Xinhua | Updated: 2020-01-03 16:05
HEFEI - Chinese researchers are expanding the use of a new laser radar device to monitor and analyze air pollutants such as PM2.5, fine particulate matter that causes smog, in densely populated areas.
The device, developed by several organizations including the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), can monitor the distribution and analyze the composition of smog in the air up to 10 km from the ground in real time.
Around 500 such laser radar devices have been installed to form smog monitoring networks across the country, including in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta.
This year, more than 100 laser radar devices are expected to be sold nationwide, according to Zhang Tianshu, a researcher from the Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics under the CAS, one of the developers.
"Through network observation, researchers can acquire key data of smog such as its distribution, transmission channels and density, so as to establish a three-dimensional simulation model for pollutants," Zhang said.
High concentrations of ozone near ground level is one of the main causes of smog and major secondary pollutants. The laser radar equipment can also carry out real-time monitoring of ozone to provide technical support for smog control.
Laser radar is one of the most advanced technologies in smog monitoring. In the future, the technology will be mounted on vehicles, aircraft and even satellites.
Xinhua | Updated: 2020-01-03 16:05
HEFEI - Chinese researchers are expanding the use of a new laser radar device to monitor and analyze air pollutants such as PM2.5, fine particulate matter that causes smog, in densely populated areas.
The device, developed by several organizations including the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), can monitor the distribution and analyze the composition of smog in the air up to 10 km from the ground in real time.
Around 500 such laser radar devices have been installed to form smog monitoring networks across the country, including in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Yangtze River Delta.
This year, more than 100 laser radar devices are expected to be sold nationwide, according to Zhang Tianshu, a researcher from the Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics under the CAS, one of the developers.
"Through network observation, researchers can acquire key data of smog such as its distribution, transmission channels and density, so as to establish a three-dimensional simulation model for pollutants," Zhang said.
High concentrations of ozone near ground level is one of the main causes of smog and major secondary pollutants. The laser radar equipment can also carry out real-time monitoring of ozone to provide technical support for smog control.
Laser radar is one of the most advanced technologies in smog monitoring. In the future, the technology will be mounted on vehicles, aircraft and even satellites.
JSCh
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NEWS RELEASE 3-JAN-2020
China's inland surface water quality significantly improves
CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS
Increases in the percentage of China's inland surface water bodies at quality levels I, II and III (generally signifying protected potable water sources) from 2003-2017, based on two key water quality parameters. CREDIT: Prof. MA Ting's group
A new study shows that China's inland surface water quality improved significantly from 2003-2017, coinciding with major efforts beginning in 2001 to reduce water pollution in the country.
The research was conducted by a team led by Profs. MA Ting and ZHOU Chenghu from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Their findings were published in Science Advances.
The researchers analyzed the nationwide variability of inland surface water quality across China during this 15-year period and the response to anthropogenic pollution. They found that annual mean concentrations of two important water quality parameters - chemical oxygen demand and ammonium nitrogen - declined at the national level by 63% and 78%, respectively, during the period.
At the regional level, northern river basins showed relatively fast rates of decline in both of these parameters, while water quality in most southern river basins maintained favorable levels.
Improved inland surface water quality across the country is mainly attributable to reduced pollution emissions in the industrial, rural, and urban residential sectors.
A cross-regional comparison conducted as part of this investigation showed conspicuous interregional variations in water pollution. In general, northern regions showed relatively poor water quality due to intense human pressure on local environments. In contrast, most southern river basins showed better water quality due to relatively low levels of human disturbance.
The study confirms the effectiveness of massive environmental protection efforts aimed at controlling pollution discharge and improving water quality in China over the past nearly two decades, notwithstanding growing pressure from human activity.
The researchers believe China's inland surface waters will achieve good ecological status in the near future if current trends hold.
They also suggested that water quality dynamics and the forces propelling such dynamics should determine strategies used to control water pollution, while taking regional variations into account.
China's inland surface water quality significantly improves | EurekAlert! Science News
China's inland surface water quality significantly improves
CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS
A new study shows that China's inland surface water quality improved significantly from 2003-2017, coinciding with major efforts beginning in 2001 to reduce water pollution in the country.
The research was conducted by a team led by Profs. MA Ting and ZHOU Chenghu from the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Their findings were published in Science Advances.
The researchers analyzed the nationwide variability of inland surface water quality across China during this 15-year period and the response to anthropogenic pollution. They found that annual mean concentrations of two important water quality parameters - chemical oxygen demand and ammonium nitrogen - declined at the national level by 63% and 78%, respectively, during the period.
At the regional level, northern river basins showed relatively fast rates of decline in both of these parameters, while water quality in most southern river basins maintained favorable levels.
Improved inland surface water quality across the country is mainly attributable to reduced pollution emissions in the industrial, rural, and urban residential sectors.
A cross-regional comparison conducted as part of this investigation showed conspicuous interregional variations in water pollution. In general, northern regions showed relatively poor water quality due to intense human pressure on local environments. In contrast, most southern river basins showed better water quality due to relatively low levels of human disturbance.
The study confirms the effectiveness of massive environmental protection efforts aimed at controlling pollution discharge and improving water quality in China over the past nearly two decades, notwithstanding growing pressure from human activity.
The researchers believe China's inland surface waters will achieve good ecological status in the near future if current trends hold.
They also suggested that water quality dynamics and the forces propelling such dynamics should determine strategies used to control water pollution, while taking regional variations into account.
China's inland surface water quality significantly improves | EurekAlert! Science News
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Chinese netizens welcome Greta Thunberg to visit and learn
Source:Global Times Published: 2020/1/6
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, waves upon arrival at harbor in New York, the US on Wednesday after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in a zero-carbon yacht to attend the UN Climate Action Summit in September. Photo: VCG
Chinese netizens recommend the Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, if she ever comes to the country, to go to Northwest China to gain a better understanding of how Chinese people effectively combat desertification in real life, and she might as well help plant some trees there herself.
The 17-year-old, in an interview on Friday with Japan's Kyodo News, said she would travel to different parts of the world to deliver her message, including Asian destinations such as China and Japan.
Thunberg sparked a global youth movement when she began her "school strike for the climate" campaign in 2018, skipping school on Fridays to protest outside the Swedish parliament in an effort to highlight global environmental problems.
Thunberg's activism propelled her onto the world stage and in 2019 she addressed major UN climate conferences in New York and Madrid, which she described as an "incredible" opportunity. She was also named Time magazine's Person of the Year, the youngest recipient in the history of the award.
The Swedish teenager was also involved in a high-profile online interaction with Hong Kong separatist and activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung in December 2019, which encountered criticism from not only Chinese netizens but also global internet users.
However, Chinese net users still extended welcome to the controversial activist online on Monday, with many commenting that she should come to take a look at how the Chinese people effectively control desertification in the Northwest China herself.
Official statistics showed that the area of desertified land in China shrinks by an annual average of 2,424 square kilometers, compared to an expansion of 10,400 square kilometers at the end of the last century, the Xinhua News Agency reported in December 2019.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1175871.shtml
Source:Global Times Published: 2020/1/6
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, 16, waves upon arrival at harbor in New York, the US on Wednesday after sailing across the Atlantic Ocean in a zero-carbon yacht to attend the UN Climate Action Summit in September. Photo: VCG
Chinese netizens recommend the Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg, if she ever comes to the country, to go to Northwest China to gain a better understanding of how Chinese people effectively combat desertification in real life, and she might as well help plant some trees there herself.
The 17-year-old, in an interview on Friday with Japan's Kyodo News, said she would travel to different parts of the world to deliver her message, including Asian destinations such as China and Japan.
Thunberg sparked a global youth movement when she began her "school strike for the climate" campaign in 2018, skipping school on Fridays to protest outside the Swedish parliament in an effort to highlight global environmental problems.
Thunberg's activism propelled her onto the world stage and in 2019 she addressed major UN climate conferences in New York and Madrid, which she described as an "incredible" opportunity. She was also named Time magazine's Person of the Year, the youngest recipient in the history of the award.
The Swedish teenager was also involved in a high-profile online interaction with Hong Kong separatist and activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung in December 2019, which encountered criticism from not only Chinese netizens but also global internet users.
However, Chinese net users still extended welcome to the controversial activist online on Monday, with many commenting that she should come to take a look at how the Chinese people effectively control desertification in the Northwest China herself.
Official statistics showed that the area of desertified land in China shrinks by an annual average of 2,424 square kilometers, compared to an expansion of 10,400 square kilometers at the end of the last century, the Xinhua News Agency reported in December 2019.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1175871.shtml
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Tibet sets up 490 weather stations to enhance meteorological disaster monitoring
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-09 14:07:01|Editor: zh
LHASA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A total of 490 automatic weather stations have been set up and put into operation in poverty-stricken areas across southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
These stations cover 685 impoverished towns, the regional meteorological bureau said Thursday, adding that the move has fundamentally changed the scarcity of ground meteorological observation stations in Tibet and strengthened meteorological disaster monitoring in poor towns.
The bureau said that by the end of 2019 all towns in the region had been covered by automatic weather stations, compared with 28.47 percent coverage rate in 2018. So far, the region's ground weather stations total 756.
"The stations have strengthened meteorological disaster prevention and reduction, as well as ecological civilization construction," said Lazhoe with the regional meteorological bureau.
Source: Xinhua| 2020-01-09 14:07:01|Editor: zh
LHASA, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- A total of 490 automatic weather stations have been set up and put into operation in poverty-stricken areas across southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
These stations cover 685 impoverished towns, the regional meteorological bureau said Thursday, adding that the move has fundamentally changed the scarcity of ground meteorological observation stations in Tibet and strengthened meteorological disaster monitoring in poor towns.
The bureau said that by the end of 2019 all towns in the region had been covered by automatic weather stations, compared with 28.47 percent coverage rate in 2018. So far, the region's ground weather stations total 756.
"The stations have strengthened meteorological disaster prevention and reduction, as well as ecological civilization construction," said Lazhoe with the regional meteorological bureau.
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Jan 10, 2020
New China TV
In 2019, 8 sq km of desert was transformed into an oasis in Gulang County, northwest China's Gansu, thanks to hard work of an afforestation team. Here is their story...
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New obstacles ahead in China's pollution fight: report - France 24
Issued on: 16/01/2020 - 02:42 Modified: 16/01/2020 - 02:40
Beijing (AFP)
China's fight against pollution faces new threats from rising levels of harmful ozone gas despite an "impressive" reduction in other airborne particles, according to a report released Thursday.
The country cut its national average level of airborne PM2.5 -- tiny particles that can penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream -- by 27 percent between 2015 and 2019, according to the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
China also reduced its average sulphur dioxide levels by 55 percent during this period, which CREA said was "very impressive progress".
However, levels of ozone gas, which is linked to drops in cognitive performance and educational outcomes, rose 11 percent over this period despite national efforts to fight pollution, the report said.
Ozone, along with nitrogen dioxide, "could be the next frontiers in China’s war on pollution", CREA said.
China's air quality gains were mostly achieved through "end of pipe" measures that filter out pollutants right before they enter the environment, CREA lead analyst and the report's author Lauri Myllyvirta said.
In the past few years, "most of the existing coal-fired power plants have been retrofitted to comply with new emissions standards, and currently the focus is on implementing similar retrofits in the iron and steel industry," Myllyvirta told AFP.
But "once these retrofits are completed, if coal consumption keeps rising, it will be harder and harder to make progress on air quality".
Ozone and nitrogen dioxide are also "harder to control with filters", according to the report, which said exposure to the two gases caused hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in China every year.
China built enough new coal-fired plants between January 2018 and June 2019 -- nearly 43 gigawatts worth of capacity -- to cancel out the decrease in the rest of the world, a report in November by US-based Global Energy Monitor found.
The country also plans to add an additional 147.7 gigawatts of coal plants, nearly as many as the European Union's entire gigawatts of existing capacity, the report said.
In September, Swiss air purification technology company IQAir said Beijing was expected to drop out of the list of the world's 200 most polluted cities in 2019.
But PM2.5 levels in the city are still four times higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization.
© 2020 AFP
Issued on: 16/01/2020 - 02:42 Modified: 16/01/2020 - 02:40
Beijing (AFP)
China's fight against pollution faces new threats from rising levels of harmful ozone gas despite an "impressive" reduction in other airborne particles, according to a report released Thursday.
The country cut its national average level of airborne PM2.5 -- tiny particles that can penetrate the lungs and enter the bloodstream -- by 27 percent between 2015 and 2019, according to the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
China also reduced its average sulphur dioxide levels by 55 percent during this period, which CREA said was "very impressive progress".
However, levels of ozone gas, which is linked to drops in cognitive performance and educational outcomes, rose 11 percent over this period despite national efforts to fight pollution, the report said.
Ozone, along with nitrogen dioxide, "could be the next frontiers in China’s war on pollution", CREA said.
China's air quality gains were mostly achieved through "end of pipe" measures that filter out pollutants right before they enter the environment, CREA lead analyst and the report's author Lauri Myllyvirta said.
In the past few years, "most of the existing coal-fired power plants have been retrofitted to comply with new emissions standards, and currently the focus is on implementing similar retrofits in the iron and steel industry," Myllyvirta told AFP.
But "once these retrofits are completed, if coal consumption keeps rising, it will be harder and harder to make progress on air quality".
Ozone and nitrogen dioxide are also "harder to control with filters", according to the report, which said exposure to the two gases caused hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in China every year.
China built enough new coal-fired plants between January 2018 and June 2019 -- nearly 43 gigawatts worth of capacity -- to cancel out the decrease in the rest of the world, a report in November by US-based Global Energy Monitor found.
The country also plans to add an additional 147.7 gigawatts of coal plants, nearly as many as the European Union's entire gigawatts of existing capacity, the report said.
In September, Swiss air purification technology company IQAir said Beijing was expected to drop out of the list of the world's 200 most polluted cities in 2019.
But PM2.5 levels in the city are still four times higher than those recommended by the World Health Organization.
© 2020 AFP
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The extensively restored Yingwuzhou wetland (pictured) in Shanghai, China, emits less methane than a nearby wild wetland. Credit: Xuechu Chen
BIOGEOCHEMISTRY | 16 JANUARY 2020
The manicured wetland that sucks up more carbon than a natural marsh
Restoration and strict controls help a saltwater marsh in China to absorb greenhouse gases.
A restored and carefully managed wetland on the Chinese coast is a much larger carbon sink than a natural marsh nearby.
Since 1970, 35% of global wetland habitat has disappeared, largely owing to human activity. Researchers say that wetlands restoration is crucial for both maintaining biodiversity and combating climate change.
Jianwu Tang at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Xuechu Chen at East China Normal University in Shanghai and their colleagues measured the flows of three powerful greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — in two coastal marshes in Shanghai. The first marsh was relatively untouched; the second had been restored by planting local vegetation and installing erosion controls.
The team found that the rehabilitated wetland took up more carbon dioxide and emitted much less methane than the natural one. As a result, the restored habitat has the net effect of soaking up 13 times more carbon than the natural marsh.
The authors call for similar restorations of degraded wetlands to store carbon.
The manicured wetland that sucks up more carbon than a natural marsh : Research Highlights | Nature
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Chinese Scientists Develop A System to Monitor Harmful Gases for Industrial Parks
By ZHANG Nannan | Jan 16, 2020
Chinese scientists developed a comprehensive monitoring system that is based on optics technology to monitor toxic and harmful gases for industrial parks.
This work was done by a team led by LIU Jianguo with Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics under Hefei Institutes of Physical Science. And their work was awarded the second prize of National Scientific and Technological Progress Award by the State Council of People's Republic of China on January 10, 2020.
The team has made enormous work to develop this comprehensive monitoring system on their own.
They systematically studied the high temperature spectral database and then created the analytical algorithms for toxic and harmful gases, as well as took a closer look at harsh conditions in industrial environment by spectral application technology.
According to the team, an overall monitoring that covers all-dimensional of point-line-flat-area gases emissions could be set up with the system, thus to catering the technical need of pollution source identification, total emission monitoring, and emergency early warning in industrial parks.
China has been going through a leap in its industrial development and a large number of industrial parks have been founded across the vast land. Its rapid industrial growth brings the country a great deal of wealth but also side effects, the air pollution is one of them. This system may provide an effective method to face the pollution challenge and also basic data for further scientific study.
Chinese Scientists Develop A System to Monitor Harmful Gases for Industrial Parks----Chinese Academy of Sciences
By ZHANG Nannan | Jan 16, 2020
Chinese scientists developed a comprehensive monitoring system that is based on optics technology to monitor toxic and harmful gases for industrial parks.
This work was done by a team led by LIU Jianguo with Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics under Hefei Institutes of Physical Science. And their work was awarded the second prize of National Scientific and Technological Progress Award by the State Council of People's Republic of China on January 10, 2020.
The team has made enormous work to develop this comprehensive monitoring system on their own.
They systematically studied the high temperature spectral database and then created the analytical algorithms for toxic and harmful gases, as well as took a closer look at harsh conditions in industrial environment by spectral application technology.
According to the team, an overall monitoring that covers all-dimensional of point-line-flat-area gases emissions could be set up with the system, thus to catering the technical need of pollution source identification, total emission monitoring, and emergency early warning in industrial parks.
China has been going through a leap in its industrial development and a large number of industrial parks have been founded across the vast land. Its rapid industrial growth brings the country a great deal of wealth but also side effects, the air pollution is one of them. This system may provide an effective method to face the pollution challenge and also basic data for further scientific study.
Chinese Scientists Develop A System to Monitor Harmful Gases for Industrial Parks----Chinese Academy of Sciences
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