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

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1304480032052703232

Global Times @globaltimesnews
China state-affiliated media

Desertification control team works along first desert highway in #Ningxia, NW China. https://bit.ly/33l1ETF





2:00 AM · Sep 12, 2020

Desertification control team works along first desert highway in Ningxia
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-11 14:13:22|Editor: huaxia

Desertification control workers make straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

ZHONGWEI, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway is under construction, of which an 18-kilometer-long section going through the Tengger Desert is the first desert highway in Ningxia.
A desertification control team works along the highway construction site, using straw checkerboard barriers and planting vegetation to stop the dunes from moving or expanding.

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Aerial photo taken on Sept. 7, 2020 shows the sand barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

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Desertification control workers make straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Jia Haocheng)

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Desertification control workers make straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

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Desertification control workers make straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Aug. 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)

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Desertification control workers make straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Jia Haocheng)

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Desertification control workers make straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

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Aerial photo taken on Sept. 7, 2020 shows the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

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A desertification control worker drinks water during the break while making straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Aug. 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)

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Desertification control workers have meals in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)

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Desertification control workers make straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)

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Desertification control workers make straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)

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A desertification control worker makes straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Sept. 7, 2020. (Xinhua/Feng Kaihua)

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Aerial photo taken on Sept. 7, 2020 shows desertification control workers making straw checkerboard barriers in the Tengger Desert along the construction site of the Qingtongxia-Zhongwei section of the Wuhai-Maqin highway in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Wang Peng)

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1306454080538042368

China Economy@CE_ChinaEconomy
China state-affiliated media

On Sept 16, China's leading academic institution for natural sciences said it launched a special research project to solve problems of how ozone pollution forms and how to control it. It will provide scientific and technological support to win fight against serious air pollution.


12:45 PM · Sep 17, 2020

 

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Spotlight: China's pledge to cut CO2 emissions boosts global confidence in tackling climate change
Source: Xinhua| 2020-09-25 17:55:25|Editor: huaxia

Workers check equipment at a wind power plant in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 18, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge)

"There is no doubt that efforts from China will play a major role in shaping how the rest of the world progresses on climate action, especially in the absence of U.S. federal leadership."

BRUSSELS, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping has announced an ambitious climate target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, which is expected to accelerate the world's transition to green and low-carbon development.

China aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, Xi said Tuesday at the General Debate of the 75th Session of the UN General Assembly via video.

Experts worldwide have hailed the Chinese move as realistic and important, saying China's pledge will lead collective actions on global warming and encourage the rest of the world to progress on climate action.

Aerial photo taken on Sept. 14, 2020 shows the Dalad Photovoltaic Power Base in the Kubuqi Desert in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

REALISTIC GOAL
The new ambition marks two significant changes to China's climate pledge under the 2015 Paris Agreement, according to Refinitiv, a global provider of financial market data and infrastructure.

Firstly, China has previously committed to peak emissions "around" 2030, which is now replaced by "before" 2030; Secondly, the ambitious goal of carbon neutrality with a specific time-stamp is revealed to the public for the first time.

"The sheer size of China's energy consumption and emissions will require significant efforts to reach the goal," said Yuan Lin, senior analyst at Refinitiv Carbon Research.

"This is a landmark announcement as China has set out an ultimate end-point emissions target," said Helen Clarkson, CEO of the London-based Climate Group, an international non-profit organization.

On China's pledge to take more vigorous and effective approaches when pursuing green and sustainable development, Clarkson said "Leaders from across the world will be keen to understand the details of how China will progress in achieving these actions."

Jarl Krausing, international head of the green think tank Concito, believes the goal is realistic.

Tourists visit the Shanwangping Karst National Ecological Park in southwest China's Chongqing, Aug. 21, 2019. (Xinhua/Liu Chan)

Tree planting will become part of China's strategy, Krausing told Denmark's newspaper Politiken, adding that China expects to replant an area equivalent to four times the size of England through its "existing plan."

"Here in Europe, we reach for the stars, aim high and do what we can to get there. In China, there is a tradition of setting lower goals, and then you over-implement it. That history reassures me that they take it seriously," Krausing was quoted as saying by Politiken.

Jeffrey Sachs, an economics professor at Columbia University and a senior UN advisor, said he expects China will achieve the goal even ahead of the date, "as China is in the process of establishing world-class technologies" in green energy and high-tech industries.

According to Climate Action Tracker (CAT), if China's goal is achieved, it will lower global warming projections by around 0.2 to 0.3 degrees Celsius alone, the biggest single reduction ever estimated by CAT.

"I welcome China's ambition to curb emissions and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. It's an important step in our global fight against climate change under the Paris Agreement," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Wednesday.

"We will work with China on this goal," she added.

Photo taken on Oct. 17, 2018 shows trees in the Chishan forest farm in Dongshan County, southeast China's Fujian Province. (Xinhua/Jiang Kehong)

INSPIRING PLEDGE
China's pledge was announced days after the European Commission updated its Green Deal that envisions climate neutrality by 2050, which will inspire more countries to contribute to higher emission reduction targets.

"These commitments from China and the EU could raise the pressure on other large emitters and benefit the climate negotiations at the COP 26 in Glasgow in 2021," said Refinitiv.

"With the EU also looking to increase its target, this is helping to ensure the world stays aligned to the goals of the Paris Agreement," Clarkson said.

"There is no doubt that efforts from China will play a major role in shaping how the rest of the world progresses on climate action, especially in the absence of U.S. federal leadership," she said.

A construction worker builds a 1.3-million-KW wind power plant that is part of a clean energy transmission project linking the Qinghai and Henan provinces in Gonghe County, northwest China's Qinghai Province, June 24, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Hongxiang)

Noting that President Xi said major countries have a greater responsibility, William Jones, Washington bureau chief of the U.S. publication Executive Intelligence Review, said "that was also a telling remark with regard to the United States, which has been talking about what they're going to do for their own country, but not what they're going to do for the other countries."

Speaking of China's actions to fulfill its international responsibilities for climate change and environmental protection, the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations said Wednesday that China attained its 2020 climate action targets two years ahead of schedule, a major contribution to the global response to climate change.

Non-fossil fuels now take up nearly 15 percent in China's total energy consumption. China has 30 percent of the world's installed capacity of renewable energy, accounting for 44 percent of the world increase. Its new energy vehicle stock is more than half the world's total. China has contributed 25 percent to the increased afforestation areas worldwide since 2000, it said.

Staff members check the facilities at a transformer substation in Turpan, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sept. 18, 2018. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge)

Xi's pledge to update and enhance its nationally determined contribution targets, introduce stronger policies and measures and strive for the peaking of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 are consistent with China's vision of a vibrant, clean and beautiful world through joint efforts and its commitment to fostering a community with a shared future for mankind, it said.

"We need decisive action from every country to keep temperatures under control, tackle climate change, and keep our planet inhabitable," Frans Timmermans, European Commission's executive vice president responsible for the European Green Deal, tweeted late on Tuesday.

 

[JSCh]

Looking for the key to predict heatwaves over the Yangtze River basin 20 days in advance

Under global warming, the frequent occurrence of summer heatwaves has exerted an increasing impact on human health and public infrastructure. For example, Europe experienced a severe heatwave in 2003 with more than 70,000 heat-related casualties. Western Russia was struck by its hottest summer...

phys.org

 

[JSCh]

China's CO2 emission could plateau by 2025 with reinforced policies: report
By Shan Jie Source: Global Times Published: 2020/10/13 1:08:03

Several workers check out electricity power generators on a floating photovoltaic power station in Tianchang city in East China’s Anhui Province. File Photo: IC

China's CO2 emissions could plateau by 2025 before beginning to decline around 2030 with reinforced management policies in emission reduction, according to a report on China's low-carbon development published by a top environment institute on Monday.

China is showing the country is capable of maintaining fast economic development even while reducing carbon emissions, said Xie Zhenhua, a top Chinese climate advisor.

The report, titled China's Long-term Low-carbon Development Strategy and Pathway, brought forward suggestions for China's strategy, path, technology and policy for low-carbon development to 2050. The project gathered China's top experts in environment and energy, and was published by the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development of Tsinghua University.

The report discussed four scenarios for achieving China's goal in cutting carbon emission, He Jiankun, Deputy Director of the National Committee of Experts on Climate Change and former president of Tsinghua University, said at a press conference on Monday.

By reinforcing China's emission reduction strategy, the reduction of CO2 intensity per unit of GDP could keep at around 20 percent during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), the report reads.

China aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

The policies and actions to confront climate change do not hinder economic development, and can lift the quality of economic growth, foster and promote new industries and markets, enlarge employment, improve livelihoods, protect the environment and improve people's health, said Xie Zhenhua, Special Advisor on Climate Change Affairs of China, Ministry of Ecology and Environment and President of the Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development of Tsinghua University.

Compared with 2005, CO2 emissions per unit of GDP has dropped 48 percent by 2019 in China, equaling a reduction of 5.62 billion tons of CO2 emission, 11.92 million tons of SO2 emission and 11.3 million tons of NOx, according to Xie.

Meanwhile, China's GDP increased more than four times, and 95 percent of poverty-stricken population has shaken off poverty during the period. Coal consumption dropped to 55.7 percent of energy production from 72.4 percent and non-fossil energy accounted for 15.3 percent of energy production, according to Xie.

Xie stressed that China faces huge challenges in realizing low-carbon development. The manufacturing industry is still a high-energy consumer, making economic restructuring and industrial upgrading an arduous task.

Coal consumption still accounts for more than 50 percent energy production in China, and the CO2 intensity per energy unit is 30 percent higher than world average. Energy consumption per unit of GDP remains high, at about 1.5 times the world average and 2 to 3 times that of developed countries, Xie noted.

Zhao Yingmin, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, revealed at the conference that the ministry will work with relevant departments to study and put forward a strong 14th Five-Year Plan carbon emission target, formulate an action plan for CO2 emissions to peak, and accelerate the promotion of a national carbon market.

China will have to make greater efforts to realize carbon neutrality than developed countries, He said. Though green economic revival has been an international consensus, the US is obviously intent on suppressing and isolating China in the post-pandemic era, and confronting climate change will be a key area of competition between big powers, He noted.

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1322017884453793792

NEWS RELEASE 28-OCT-2020
International collaboration reveals China's carbon balance | EurekAlert! Science News
Between 2010 and 2016, China reabsorbed about 45% of the country's estimated annual human-made CO2 emissions.

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

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Southwest China is populated by fast-growing and high-yielding tree species with high potential biomass carbon sequestration.
CREDIT: Yaogao Huang

An international team of researchers has compiled and verified newly available data on the country's CO2 sink, and, for the first time, they have quantitatively estimated the effect of China's carbon mitigation efforts.

The researchers published their results on October 28 in Nature.

"China is currently one of the world's major emitters of CO2, but China's forest resources have been growing continuously for the past 30 years," said paper author Yi Liu, professor with the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. "In this study, we achieve a better understanding of CO2 fluxes over China."

Previously, the CO2 monitoring stations on the ground over China were few and far between, resulting in CO2 flux estimates with large uncertainties. One monitoring station could represent a significant area that included distinctly different land use types. The lack of data resulted in fewer studies on CO2 in China, as well.

"Therein lies the crux of the challenge faced by science and policy communities: effective mitigation of fossil fuel CO2 emissions within a large-scale dynamic natural carbon cycle that we do not quantitatively understand," Liu said.

"Without good data, it was nearly impossible to assess how China's forestry efforts to mitigate CO2 emissions were actually faring," added Jing Wang, lead author of the study from the same institute.

That changed when the China Meteorological Administration started collecting weekly and hourly continuous atmospheric CO2 measurements between 2009 and 2016 available.

Liu and his team found that, between 2010 and 2016, China reabsorbed about 45% of the country's estimated annual human-made CO2 emissions.

They corroborated that data with independent satellite remote-sensing measurements of vegetation greenness, soil water availability, satellite column observations of CO2 and forest censuses.

"While our results still have large uncertainties, it's clear that China's forest ecosystem has a huge carbon sequestration effect," said paper author Paul I. Palmer from the School of GeoSciences at the University of Edinburgh in the UK.

The researchers plan to fine tune their results with more ground and satellite data, with the ultimate goal of improving their calculation methods to be able to determine the carbon budget of smaller areas, such as cities.

 

[JSCh]

China's carbon trading scheme will be the world's largest | World Economic Forum

Reuters | Breaking International News & Views

Find latest news from every corner of the globe at Reuters.com, your online source for breaking international news coverage.

uk.reuters.com

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1336188760095141890

 

[JSCh]

Plant fiber turning desert to oasis
By Tan Yingzi | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2017-11-06 14:54

Turning a desert into an oasis is not a dream anymore. Yi Zhijian, a professor at Chongqing Jiaotong University, and his team have invented a plant fiber binder to transform sand into soil for farming, and the experiment is going smoothly in Inner Mongolia, Chongqing Daily reported.

The Ulanbuh Desert, about 14,000 square kilometers in area, lies on the west bank of the Yellow River in Alshaa League, Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Every spring, Beijing's sandstorms originate here.

In May 2016, the team successfully made about 16,667 square meters survive in the edge of the Ulanbuh Desert, two kilometers from the west bank of the Yellow River. In 2017, another experimental area of 2 square kilometers is now covered with hundreds of plants planted in February, such as trees, grass and crops.

video -> China daily video

重庆发布​

12月8日 16:22 来自 微博 weibo.com​

【亩产614公斤！沙漠中的高粱丰收了】12月7日，重庆交通大学消息，该校“力学治沙”科研团队在新疆和田塔克拉玛干“沙漠土壤化”试验基地上种植的“晋糯3号”高粱，经过专家田间测产，平均亩产为614公斤。这一测产数据是全国高粱平均亩产的近两倍。（来源/重庆日报）​

City of Chongqing
At 16:22 on December 8 from Weibo

[614 kg per mu! A bumper harvest of sorghum in the desert]

On December 7th, Chongqing Jiaotong University reported that the school’s “mechanical sand control” research team planted “Jinnuo No. 3” sorghum at the “desert soilization” test base in Taklimakan, Hotan, Xinjiang. According to expert field assessment, the average yield per mu is 614 kg. This production data is nearly twice the national average yield of sorghum per mu.
(Source/Chongqing Daily)

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1345614774214619137

 

[JSCh]

China's carbon trading scheme will be the world's largest | World Economic Forum

Reuters | Breaking International News & Views

Find latest news from every corner of the globe at Reuters.com, your online source for breaking international news coverage.

uk.reuters.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/1346413213806600193

Global Times @globaltimesnews
China state-affiliated media

China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Tuesday announced pilot rules for carbon emission trading management, which will come into effect on February 1.


7:08 PM · Jan 5, 2021

 

[JSCh]

Chinese researchers develop new machine for desert control
Source: Xinhua| 2021-02-05 10:35:26|Editor: huaxia

A farmer is trying a newly-developed walk-behind paving machine in Liangzhou District in Wuwei City, northwest China's Gansu Province, Nov. 19, 2020. (Photo provided by the Desert Control Research Institute of Gansu Province)

LANZHOU, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have developed a walk-behind paving machine that can more efficiently "plant" straw nets in desert areas to combat desertification.

The machine has proved capable of reducing the high labor costs involved in the deployment of checkerboard barriers, which are large straw nets placed on the surface of deserts to reduce the wind speed and fix moving sand dunes, according to the Desert Control Research Institute of Gansu Province, which developed the machine.

This checkerboard barrier technique is widely used in China's arid inland areas, especially to protect traffic arteries from the incursion of deserts.

The institute said the machine makes the hand-planting process mechanized, by digging trenches and paving straw through its drive system, and can be used in varied terrain. The efficiency of the paving machine is estimated to be four to six times that of manual work, said Zhao Peng with the institute.

China started research on combating desertification in the 1950s and has managed to reverse its desertification trend.

China's experience and technologies for combating desertification have also been extended to other countries facing the same challenges. Since 1993, the institute has provided training courses on desertification prevention and control for more than 1,000 officials and scholars from some 80 countries.

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1365586268885762053

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1369700145307258883

 

[JSCh]

Report: China plants 6.77m hectares of forests in 2020
By Yang Wanli | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2021-03-12 13:24

China planted 6.77 million hectares of forests and controlled more than 2 million hectares of sandy land through vegetation improvement last year. [Photo/Xinhua]

China planted 6.77 million hectares of forests and controlled more than 2 million hectares of sandy land through vegetation improvement last year, according to a greening report unveiled Friday.

As Friday marks the country's 43rd Tree Planting Day, the National Greening Commission released a report, which showed that 82,700 hectares of farmland and more than 1.68 million hectares of pastures had been turned into forest or grassland within the last year.

Currently, the green area per capita in urban areas in China is 14.8 square meters on average. And 441 cities have joined in the campaign to build national forest cities by multiple greening methods.

Moreover, last year the country initiated its first pilot program to construct grassland natural parks, with 39 pilots having been launched covering a total of 147,000 hectares of grassland in 11 provinces and autonomous regions.

Greening has not only improved the country's environment but also benefited its people.

Within last year, the total output value of the forestry industry hit 7.55 trillion yuan ($1.16 trillion) while the country's import and export trade volume totaled more than $160 billion.

The report said more than 3 million people had been lifted out of poverty thanks to the green industry. And currently, more than 1.1 million people are employed as environmental conservationists and had their living conditions largely improved.