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

[ahojunk]

This looks to be a good practice. But IMHO, rubbish bins are still needed in the entrances/exits.

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Hong Kong family walks, nature trails to become bin-free by year’s end

The government push is aimed at encouraging hikers to take their rubbish home

Elizabeth Cheung
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 27 August, 2016, 8:00am
UPDATED : Saturday, 27 August, 2016, 8:00am

All family walks and nature trails will become bin-free by the end of this year as part of the government’s effort to reduce rubbish in country parks.

The new measure follows a sharp reduction in trash collected at trial sites where all bins were removed in the first phase of the “Take Your Litter Home” programme, which was launched in September last year.

The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department told a Country and Marine Parks Board meeting on Friday that it planned to remove 256 bins – around half of the current number of bins – along trails in country parks – by the end of the year.

They include all bins along family walks and nature trails and some bins along long hiking trails.

But the bins will not be totally removed from the city’s 24 country parks for the time being.

In the first phase of the programme, all litter bins were removed from five trial sites in different country parks to encourage hikers to take away their litter.

“The amount of litter collected at the trial sites from October 2015 to July 2016 dropped significantly by 72 to 97 per cent ... We therefore consider there is scope for the removal of more litter bins,” a spokesman for the department said.

Ma On Shan country trail recorded the greatest drop of 97 per cent compared to the same period in the previous year.

He said the second phase of the programme, starting next month, would target students, youngsters and junior hikers as hiking had recently become a popular activity for families and young people.

The department and 21 supporting organisations will hold activities for people of different age groups during the second phase to raise public awareness about waste reduction.

 

[TaiShang]

China to establish green financing mechanism
Xinhua, September 1, 2016

China will establish a green financing mechanism to facilitate the economy's transition to sustainable growth, becoming the first country worldwide to make such a move.

The decision aims to encourage more private capital into green sectors and stem investment that might pollute the environment, according to the guidelines released Wednesday by the People's Bank of China (PBOC) and six other central authorities.

"Green growth is now part of China's development strategy and the demands for green financing keep growing as China enters a critical period for economic restructuring," Chen Yulu, PBOC deputy governor told Xinhua in an exclusive interview.

Supportive policies will promote green financing, such as offering government interest subsidies via refinancing and professional guarantees and setting up national green development fund, which will reduce investors' financing cost or improve their profit, according to Chen.

Chen believed that enterprises would welcome the move as their green investment might improve their reputation as responsible investors.

China also decided to define standards for green bonds, pledged support for qualified green firms to get listed and refinanced, and put in place compulsory information disclosure mechanism regarding environmental issues to solve information asymmetry problems.

China is the world's largest green bond market, with green bonds issued in the first half of the year reaching 75 billion yuan (US$11.2 billion), or 33 percent of the world's total.

Green bonds can ease financing demands for medium-and-long-term green projects as banks are limited in offering such services, said Chen.

The government is also considering developing green insurance and environmental rights trading markets to enrich green financing tools. China has decided to launch a national carbon trading market in 2017 to offer financing tools for green firms.

Local governments should also take measures such as setting up funds to encourage more social capital to invest in green sectors, according to the guidelines.

Meanwhile, as one of the world's three economies with green credit index system, China will continue to enhance international cooperation in this field and steadily promote the two-way opening up of green bond markets.

China has put green financing on the G20 agenda for the first time to mobilize more investment in environmentally friendly projects. The G20 has set up a research team on the issue based on a proposal by China.

The establishment of a sound green financing mechanism will be a systemic project that requires the coordination among central authorities, local governments, financial institutions and enterprises, Chen pointed out.

The central authorities will enhance related infrastructure and urge local governments to include green financing into their annual task list while guarding against possible risks to ensure financial stability, Chen added.

 

[Zhu Rong Zheng Yang]

With this Terraforming science + 1B1R
Soon, GanSu province and GoBi desert will be the new Green Belt.
Terraforming Moon and Mars are getting more and more feasible.



SCIENCE
Chinese Scientists successfully convert
Sand into Fertile Soil
to grow Rice, Corn, Tomatoes, Watermelon and Sunflowers

The new method is a breakthrough in combating desertification and
may prove fundamental in transforming deserts into fertile land.

Beijing - Chinese scientists have claimed to have converted sand into fertile soil
by using a new method which they hope will be useful to fight desertification.

A team of researchers from Chongqing Jiaotong University, has developed a paste made of plant cellulose that, when added to sand, helps it retain water, nutrients and air. A 1.6-hectare sandy plot in Ulan Buh Desert in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China, has been transformed into fertile land, yielding rice, corn, tomatoes, watermelon and sunflowers, after being treated with the new method.

An issue of the English-language journal "Engineering," published by the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), will publish the research by the Chongqing scientists Yi Zhijian and co-author Zhao Chaohua.

"The new method will hopefully help turn desert areas into an ideal habitat for plants," state run Xinhua quoted Yi as saying.

The plants in the sandy test plot needed about the same amount of water as those grown in regular soil, but required less fertilizer and bore higher yields, according to estimates by experts.

Since 2013, scientists have been experimenting with outdoor cultivation at two sites with areas of approximately 550 and 420 square meters in Chongqing, where scientists simulated desert land form conditions.

According to the scientists, the plants have survived the heavy rain and high temperatures, the typical climate conditions in Chongqing. The crops, including rice, corn and potatoes, flourished in the newly converted soil.

To verify the method, a large-scale planting experiment in Ulan Buh Desert began in April this year. There is very little rainfall in the area. The converted sand has proved to be an ideal habitat for plant species with a strong resistance to wind erosion, according to the research findings.

The cost of sand conversion is between 22,500 yuan and 40,500 yuan (USD 3,373 to 6,071) per hectare, Yi said. The new method is an important breakthrough in combating desertification and may prove fundamental in transforming deserts into fertile, arable land, said Zhong Zhihua, an academic with the CAE.

Source: Deccan Chronicle

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/scie...ists-successfully-convert-sand-into-soil.html

 

[TaiShang]

Chinese scientists convert sand into soil with new method
Xinhua, September 5, 2016

Chinese scientists announced they have converted sand into fertile soil using a new method they developed, which they hope to use to fight desertification.

A 1.6-hectare sandy plot in Ulan Buh Desert in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China, has been transformed into fertile land. [Photo/www.cqnews.net]

A team of researchers from Chongqing Jiaotong University has developed a paste made of plant cellulose that, when added to sand, helps it retain water, nutrients and air.

A 1.6-hectare sandy plot in Ulan Buh Desert in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, north China, has been transformed into fertile land, yielding rice, corn, tomatoes, watermelon and sunflowers, after being treated by the new method.

A forthcoming issue of the English-language journal "Engineering," published by the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), will publish the research by the Chongqing scientists Yi Zhijian and co-author Zhao Chaohua.

The new method will hopefully help turn desert areas into an ideal habitat for plants, said Yi.

The plants in the sandy test plot needed about the same amount of water as those grown in regular soil, but required less fertilizer and bore higher yields, according to estimates by experts.

Since 2013, scientists have been experimenting with outdoor cultivation at two sites with areas of approximately 550 and 420 square meters in Chongqing, where scientists simulated desert landform conditions.

The plants have survived the heavy rain and high temperatures, the typical climate conditions in Chongqing.

The crops, including rice, corn and potatoes, flourished in the newly converted soil, according to the scientists.

To verify the method, a large-scale planting experiment in Ulan Buh Desert began in April this year. There is very little rain fall in the area.

The converted sand has proved to be an ideal habitat for plant species with a strong resistance to wind erosion, according to the research findings.

The paste is non-toxic, environmentally friendly, cheap, and suitable for mass production, they said.

The cost of sand conversion is between 22,500 yuan and 40,500 yuan (3,373 to 6,071 U.S. dollars) per hectare, Yi said.

Hopes, cautions

Enabling plants to thrive in deserts just like in soil is a major breakthrough said, Li Jia'na, with the China Agro-technological Extension Association.

The new method is an important breakthrough in combating desertification and may prove fundamental in transforming deserts into fertile, arable land, said Zhong Zhihua, an academic with the CAE.

Desert control is a global challenge. If the sand conversion method could be used on a large-scale for agriculture it could help address several environmental problems, such as deforestation, bio-diversity loss and climate change, the paper said.

There have been no publicized studies internationally about this method, according to Zhong, and the paper itself cautioned that its experiments had all been carried out in places with underground water.

Despite the lack of rainfall, Ulan Buh Desert has abundant underground water reserves, perfect to support irrigation.

Large-scale desert control through the sand-to-soil conversion "must take into consideration the risks of excessive or undue exploitation of underground water resources," the paper said.

Before the large-scale application, planning and assessment must be carried out, and this might start in areas with access to adequate water resources, the paper added.

 

[TaiShang]

NW China's ancient jujube garden better protected
September 08, 2016
Xinhua



Villagers walk in an ancient jujube garden in Nihegou Village of Jiaxian County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 7, 2016. The garden has more than 1,100 trees, with some over 1,000 years old. The orchard was put on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) list by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nationsin 2014 for its innovative and sustainable system. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)



A villager walks in an ancient jujube garden in Nihegou Village of Jiaxian County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 7, 2016. The garden has more than 1,100 trees, with some over 1,000 years old. The orchard was put on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) list by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2014 for its innovative and sustainable system. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)



Villagers chat in an ancient jujube garden in Nihegou Village of Jiaxian County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 7, 2016. The garden has more than 1,100 trees, with some over 1,000 years old. The orchard was put on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) list by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2014 for its innovative and sustainable system. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)



Tourists encircle a tree with 3.45-meter in diameter at an ancient jujube garden in Nihegou Village of Jiaxian County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 7, 2016. The garden has more than 1,100 trees, with some over 1,000 years old. The orchard was put on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) list by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2014 for its innovative and sustainable system. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)

Tourists visit an ancient jujube garden in Nihegou Village of Jiaxian County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Sept. 7, 2016. The garden has more than 1,100 trees, with some over 1,000 years old. The orchard was put on the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) list by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2014 for its innovative and sustainable system. (Xinhua/Tao Ming)

 

[TaiShang]

China phases out over 250,000 tonnes of ozone depleting substances
September 10, 2016

China has phased out 250,000 tonnes of ozone depleting substances (ODS) in the past five years, accounting for over a half of the total amount phased out by all developing countries, the Ministry of Environmental Protection(MEP) said Friday.

On Friday, a meeting commemorating this year's International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer on Sept. 16 was held in Beijing by the ministry, the United Nations environment and development programs.

During the meeting, MEP vice minister Zhao Yingmin said more than one million tonnes of ODS had been phased out globally.

China will encourage and support research into alternative technological substitutes for ODS, he said.

 

[TaiShang]

Beijing tops pollution transparency list
September 13, 2016

[File photo]

Beijing has been declared the most transparent city out of the 120 analyzed in terms of information regarding pollution in 2015, a newly released report stated on Sept. 12. This is in contrast to many other Chinese cities, where pollution data remains more limited and murky.

According to the Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI) jointly released by two non-governmental organizations on Sept. 12, the capital ranked first in all-around performance, with a score of 77.1. The maximum PITI score is 100, though only 21 cities on the list earned scores of over 60. More than half scored below 50, apparently failing to provide the public with important pollution bulletins.

“The public should have timely and open access to information regarding pollution. This will not weaken the government’s environmental supervision, but can actually encourage society to participate in environmental protection,” said Jia Feng, director of the Center for Environmental Education and Communication under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, at a press conference on Sept. 12.

Jointly issued by the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) andthe Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) located in New York, PITI was firstreleased in 2009. Cities are evaluated on factors including the disclosure of environmental violations and the availability of enterprises' emissions data.

No cities in central or western China have met even the minimum standard for pollution disclosure since PITI was released seven years ago. Those cities that scored above 60 are all developed cities in eastern China, noted Wang Can, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law. Wang made his remarks during an interview with thepaper.cn on Sept. 12.

“The Ministry of Environmental Protection should establish its own evaluation system forthe disclosure of information regarding pollution. This would create public access to suchinformation in central and western China,” Wang suggested.

 

[ahojunk]

'Sponge city' program to continue despite waterlogging: ministry
2016-09-13 14:54 | Ecns.cn | Editor: Mo Hong'e

A subway station floods after rain in Wuhan City, the capital of Hubei Province, July 6, 2016.
(Photo/China News Service)​

(ECNS) -- China plans to accelerate its development of "sponge cities" even though 19 of 30 cities in a pilot program suffered waterlogging this summer, Beijing Times reports.

It will not show immediate effects and its success will take time, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development said in a statement posted on its website on Monday.

The sponge city idea aims to allow cities to absorb and store rainwater using their own resources to prevent floods in the rainy season, and release this water for use during dry times. It also intends to help ease water shortages.

According to a guideline on development, 20 percent of urban areas in Chinese cities should meet targeted requirements by 2020 and 80 percent by 2030.

Efforts should be made to coordinate construction of new urban areas to improve water security, resources, the environment and ecosystem, while renovation of old urban areas should focus on easing floods, treating polluted water and addressing urban heat islands to improve living conditions, said an official with the ministry.

Xie Yingxia, vice president of the Institute of Urban Water and Engineering at the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, said sponge cities could still be saturated even when they meet new standards, so heavy rainfall can still result in flooding. China should not stop the program just because some pilot cities failed to prevent floods this past summer, she added.

The Chinese ministries of water resources, finance, housing and urban-rural development approved 30 pilot cities to go "sponge" in 2015 and 2016.

 

[ahojunk]

China praised for renewable energy investment
2016-09-15 10:13 | Xinhua Editor: Xu Shanshan

The International Energy Agency (IEA) on Wednesday launched here its first detailed report of global energy investment, with China singled out for praise.

In the first detailed analysis of investment across the global energy system, the IEA reported that global energy investment fell by 8 percent in 2015, with a drop in oil and gas upstream spending outweighing continued robust investment in renewable energies, electricity networks and energy efficiency.

Total investment in the energy sector reached 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars in 2015, down from 2 trillion U.S. dollars in 2014, according to the IEA's World Energy Investment 2016 report.

The new annual report provides a comprehensive and detailed picture of the current investment landscape across fuels, technologies and countries.

It shows that the energy system is undergoing a broad reorientation toward low-carbon energy and efficiency but investment in key clean energy technologies needs to be further ramped up to put the world economy on track for climate stabilisation.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, told Xinhua in an interview: "China's investment is mainly in the power sector, but China also becomes the largest investor for renewable energies across the world. As such it is a very complimentary number; it shows the Chinese commitment towards climate change and tackling air pollution.

"There is a political commitment and this is the answer in terms of putting the money in low carbon technologies. Renewable energy, energy efficiency but also it is nuclear power as well."

With energy supply spending of 315 billion U.S. dollars, China was the world's largest energy investor, thanks to robust efforts in building up low-carbon generation and electricity networks, as well as implementing energy efficiency policies.

Birol said: "China became last year the largest energy investor and this is mainly coming from the renewable energies followed by other sources. China is the largest investor of solar, largest investor in terms of wind technology and also a major investor in terms of hydro power. For renewable energies China is the champion energy investor."

Investment in the US's energy supply declined to about 280 billion U.S. dollars, falling nearly 75 billion U.S. dollars because of low oil prices and cost deflation, representing half of the total decline in global energy spending.

The Middle East and Russia emerged as the most resilient regions to spending cuts, thanks respectively to lower production costs and currency movements. As a result, national oil companies accounted for 44 percent of overall upstream investments, an all-time high.

Renewable energy investments of 313 billion U.S. dollars accounted for nearly a fifth of total energy spending last year, establishing renewable energies as the largest source of power investment.

While spending on renewable power capacity was flat between 2011 and 2015, electricity generation from the new capacity rose by one third, reflecting the steep cost declines in wind turbines and solar photo voltaic. The investment in renewable power capacity in 2015 generates more than enough to cover global electricity demand growth.

Birol said: "These changes have significance for energy security and climate change. Especially for low carbon technologies they show me that government policies can work to provide direction for investment in the markets but much more is needed to meet our climate goals."

He added: "After 2015 and 2016 we may see three years in a row, oil investments are declining. We have never seen, in the history of oil, that the investments for oil have declined three years in a row. We expect there will be a decline in 2017."

 

[TaiShang]

China to build 6 national forest city groups by 2020
(People's Daily Online) September 20, 2016

Zhang Jianlong, administrator of China’s State Forest Administration. (Photo/Zhang Ke)

The number of urban forests in China has increased rapidly in recent years, and China is striving to enhance the urban greening process. The country's new goal is to build six national forest city groups by 2020, said Zhang Jianlong, administrator of China’s State Forestry Administration. Zhang made his remarks in Xi’an, Shaanxi province on Sept. 19.

According to Zhang, 118 cities in China have been classified as "national forest cities," with 80 more working to gain the title. Thirteen provinces have held activities to kickstart their own provincial forest cities. Statistics show that the annual afforestation area in each forest-building city is about 200,000 mu (32,947 acres). This number is equivalent to 1 percent of the total city area, which is much higher than the national average of forest growth over the same period.

(Photo/Xinhua)

The State Forest Administration has included forest development in its 13th Five-Year Plan. According to the plan, six national forest city groups, together with 200 national forest cities and 1,000 representative forest counties, will be built by 2020.

Zhang pointed out that the key is to take mountains, water, road networks and forests, facilitating interconnectivity of regional ecosystems through urban greening and the construction of an ecological corridor.

On the national level, China will focus on the construction of six forest city groups including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei province, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. Forests and wetlands will be installed in these regions in order to support sustainable urban development.

@AndrewJin , @Jlaw , @+4vsgorillas-Apebane

 

[Jlaw]

China to build 6 national forest city groups by 2020
(People's Daily Online) September 20, 2016

Zhang Jianlong, administrator of China’s State Forest Administration. (Photo/Zhang Ke)

The number of urban forests in China has increased rapidly in recent years, and China is striving to enhance the urban greening process. The country's new goal is to build six national forest city groups by 2020, said Zhang Jianlong, administrator of China’s State Forestry Administration. Zhang made his remarks in Xi’an, Shaanxi province on Sept. 19.

According to Zhang, 118 cities in China have been classified as "national forest cities," with 80 more working to gain the title. Thirteen provinces have held activities to kickstart their own provincial forest cities. Statistics show that the annual afforestation area in each forest-building city is about 200,000 mu (32,947 acres). This number is equivalent to 1 percent of the total city area, which is much higher than the national average of forest growth over the same period.

(Photo/Xinhua)

The State Forest Administration has included forest development in its 13th Five-Year Plan. According to the plan, six national forest city groups, together with 200 national forest cities and 1,000 representative forest counties, will be built by 2020.

Zhang pointed out that the key is to take mountains, water, road networks and forests, facilitating interconnectivity of regional ecosystems through urban greening and the construction of an ecological corridor.

On the national level, China will focus on the construction of six forest city groups including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei province, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. Forests and wetlands will be installed in these regions in order to support sustainable urban development.

@AndrewJin , @Jlaw , @+4vsgorillas-Apebane

once China reforest its desert, China's arable land mass will increase. This is a good sign that government is focusing more on reforestation.

 

[+4vsgorillas-Apebane]

China to build 6 national forest city groups by 2020
(People's Daily Online) September 20, 2016

Zhang Jianlong, administrator of China’s State Forest Administration. (Photo/Zhang Ke)

The number of urban forests in China has increased rapidly in recent years, and China is striving to enhance the urban greening process. The country's new goal is to build six national forest city groups by 2020, said Zhang Jianlong, administrator of China’s State Forestry Administration. Zhang made his remarks in Xi’an, Shaanxi province on Sept. 19.

According to Zhang, 118 cities in China have been classified as "national forest cities," with 80 more working to gain the title. Thirteen provinces have held activities to kickstart their own provincial forest cities. Statistics show that the annual afforestation area in each forest-building city is about 200,000 mu (32,947 acres). This number is equivalent to 1 percent of the total city area, which is much higher than the national average of forest growth over the same period.

(Photo/Xinhua)

The State Forest Administration has included forest development in its 13th Five-Year Plan. According to the plan, six national forest city groups, together with 200 national forest cities and 1,000 representative forest counties, will be built by 2020.

Zhang pointed out that the key is to take mountains, water, road networks and forests, facilitating interconnectivity of regional ecosystems through urban greening and the construction of an ecological corridor.

On the national level, China will focus on the construction of six forest city groups including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei province, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. Forests and wetlands will be installed in these regions in order to support sustainable urban development.

@AndrewJin , @Jlaw , @+4vsgorillas-Apebane

Lets hope that they plant quality trees instead of bulk planting eucalyptus and poplars and pines. Sun Tzu said numbers alone confer no advantage and this applies to reforestation as well.

Also I hope that they try planting from seeds as well as the commonly used grafted types tend to have a much shorter life expectancy and maybe even less genetic diversity.

They say that in past dynasties elephants use to to roam just north of Beijing which was full of old primeval forest cover. Sad to think of how things were and how they are now.

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

Fantastic scenery in China's Genhe Wetland Park
Source: Xinhua | 2016-09-19 14:29:39 | Editor: Yamei Wang

A tourist takes photos of autumn scenery in Genhe Wetland Park, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Sept. 18, 2016. (Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

The photo taken on Sept. 17, 2016 shows the autumn scenery of a forest in Jinhe Township of Genhe, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

g

The photo taken on Sept. 18, 2016 shows the autumn scenery of Genhe Wetland Park, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

Colourful marigolds seen at scenic spot in Xinghua City, Jiangsu
Source: Xinhua | 2016-09-08 19:17:55 | Editor: Xiang Bo

These aerial photos taken on Sept. 8, 2016 shows colourful marigolds at a scenic spot in Xinghua City, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Xinhua/Meng Delong)

 

[Three_Kingdoms]

Densely-forested Simian Mountain Scenic Area in SW China's Chongqing
Source: Xinhua | 2016-09-08 13:51:13 | Editor: An

A tourist walks in a wood of cryptomeria fortunei in the Simian Mountain Scenic Area in Jiangjin District of southwest China's Chongqing, Sept. 7, 2016. (Xinhua/Li Renzi)

Tourists go kayaking in the Simian Mountain Scenic Area in Jiangjin District of southwest China's Chongqing, Sept. 7, 2016.(Xinhua/Li Renzi)

Photos taken on Sept. 7, 2016 shows the Wangxiangtai Waterfall in Simian Mountain Scenic Area in Jiangjin District of southwest China's Chongqing. (Xinhua/Li Renzi)

Photo taken on Sept. 7, 2016 shows an ancient family compound in Simian Mountain Scenic Area in Jiangjin District of southwest China's Chongqing. (Xinhua/Li Renzi)