Environment China

In this episode, we discuss the important topic of green finance in China, especially as it relates to China's investments abroad on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Our guest today is Christoph Nedopil-Wang, Associate Professor and Director of the Green Finance & Development Center, Fudan University, where he works on green finance. Christoph also previous worked in Beijing at the Internationa...

Today, we're looking at the topic of environmental standards for different industries in China, and in particular talking to Prof. Yixian Sun of the University of Bath in the U.K. about the findings of his new book published by MIT Press: Certifying China: The Rise and Limits of Transnational Sustainability Governance in Emerging Economies The book explores the potential and limits of transnationa...

Today, we're looking at the issue of phasing out coal power in China, looking at a report issued recently by scholars at the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability and the California-China Climate Initiative at UC Berkeley. Our guest is Dr. Ryna Cui, who is an expert in global coal transition and climate and energy policies in China. Her research focuses on climate change mitigati...

In today's Chinese language Environment China podcast episode, we turn to the topic of women working in environmental and sustainability fields. We join two professionals to talk about their unique and interesting experiences and stories, and explore what's new in their particular fields. Today's guests are Si Jialing, who works on green finance at the British Embassy, and Zhang Miao, founder of R...

In today's episode of Environment China, we bring you up to date on recent climate and energy developments in China, especially how the renewed quest for energy security affects clean energy and carbon goals. We also address how coal price reforms affect renewables, and the situation of green power trading and corporate renewable energy procurement. We'll also briefly touch on the results of the T...

Today we're speaking to Andy Klump, the CEO and Founder of Clean Energy Associates, a company that provides services in the field of solar PV and battery storage quality assurance, supply chain management, and engineering. He founded the company in 2008 after working for several years at Trina, in an era before China was even a leader in solar manufacturing. Andy is an expert in world solar supply...

In today's episode of Environment China, host Anders Hove hosts a special, work-related talk with Ye Ruiqi (Angel) of Greenpeace East Asia, Prof Zhang Sufang of North China Electric Power University, and Katerina Simou of the German Energy Agency (dena) about the topic of data centers, which are having an increasing effect on the environment and climate due to their rapidly rising energy consumpti...

Today, for the BEN 2021 Year-in-Review Podcast, the core Beijing Energy Network team discusses the most exciting events and learnings from 2021. The Beijing Gang includes Alice, Cale, Cecilia, Florent, Hailey, Helena, Joyce, Li, Nick, Nina, Richard, Sally, and Xi Xi. In this podcast we discussed: - What brought each of us to the Beijing Energy Network - Our picks for most informative 2021 BEN even...

By popular request, the podcast turns to the topic of electric vehicles and trying to look at this from a market perspective instead of a policy perspective, and really examine how the market works and how it breaks down in terms of EV characteristics and market shares. Today we are speakng to two EV experts: Tu Le of Sino Auto Insights, a mobility consultancy, and of China Evs and More podcast; a...

https://twitter.com/derznovich Access our Live event on the link above!! Just a short teaser to tell you about an experiment we are planning to try on Monday morning BJ time, Sunday night U.S. time. Joyce and I will be hosting a Twitter Live interview with James Gao of BEN and Tu Le of Sino Auto Insights and the China EVs and More podcast. If we manage to figure out the technical stuff, it will st...

The food industry has a major ecological and climate impact. A wide variety of efforts are underway to reduce that impact, including regenerative 'agriculture, development and promotion of new or existing plant-based foods, and organic agriculture. In the EU and UK, for example, 40% of agricultural land use is influenced by the top 10 food brands and supermarkets. While many are currently part of...

Today we are back talking about global climate policy with Li Shuo of Greenpeace East Asia. The COP26 or Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change just wrapped up a bit more than a week ago and we've had time to take stock and see some of the media coverage of that, a lot of which was critical. We discuss the shortcomings of other countries' climate commitments, su...

Today's episode is a very special episode for us, as we're honored to have three founding members of Beijing Energy Network, Brendan Acord, Jason Lee, and Julian Wong, with us to celebrate our approximately 100th episode at Environment China.  The episode has 3 very different parts. These time stamps should help you navigate: In the first segment, starting at 0:03, we discuss how BEN got started,...

This year has been packed with China environmental and climate news, and there's no way this podcast could keep up. But today we're going to try! Our guests today are Li Shuo of Greenpeace East Asia and Christoph Nedopil-Wang of Shanghai Fudan University (and Global Bavarian). We're going to tackle the following hot topics: The biodiversity COP in Kunming The upcoming Glasgow COP The China announc...

Today, we have a fascinating discussion about corporate sustainability at one of China's most famous Internet companies. Guan Li, who joins on her own behalf, discusses her work on corporate sustainability in both the US and China and the status of Meituan's efforts on corporate sustainability and waste reduction/recycling. Guan Li works as Senior Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility at Meit...

Today we will be talking about a new report that discusses one of the most critical topics for global emissions reduction: How China's most carbon-intensive industries are planning to decarbonize. Since September 2020 when President Xi Jinping announced that China would aim to peak emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060, some of China's biggest companies have committed to new cl...

Today we will be talking about China's new carbon market, from the market perspective, with Jeff Huang of AEX, a Hong Kong based company seeking to create a transparent and neutral forward trading facility for hedging power and emissions in China. AEX empowers China power and emissions market participants with market data and analytical tools, market insight, and by sharing international trading a...

[Special note: due to microphone issues, the audio quality on this episode was somewhat poor, and may require listening in a quiet place. We think you will find the content compelling nonetheless.] Today we will be talking about some recent issues related to climate change in China, especially the launch of trading on China's national carbon trading system, as well as coverage of recent flooding i...

Today we will be talking about debt swaps and China's role in the global financial landscape, with Rebecca Ray and Blake Alexander Simmons of BU. Although China has only recently become a major creditor, it has already built a strong record of bilateral debt relief and has even begun to advocate for linking actions to promote biodiversity and fighting climate change with international finance and...

Today, we're talking about climate litigation against private companies and the implications for China. We have recently seen the burgeoning of climate-related law-suits, including earlier ones such as Kivalina v. ExxonMobil in 2009, and more recent cases in Norway against oil drilling in the Arctic, and the case of New York City v. Chevron. There's also an on-going case against BP in the UK right...

Today we are having a wide-ranging discussion with Faye Lu of the China Youth Climate Change Action Network, where we explore her work on a forthcoming film about climate that traces the route of early human migration out of Africa, and about her work with Celu Studios on the issue of bird collisions. We are also joined by BEN member and organizer Melanie Coerver. See videos of the bird-safe UV gl...

Today, we are talking about the institutions and international politics of China's climate policy with Professor Miranda Schreurs, Chair of Environmental and Climate Policy at the Bavarian School of Public Policy, and vice dean of Technical University of Munich's school of governance, where she has served since 2016. Prior to this she was Director of the Environmental Policy Research Center and Pr...

Today, we're talking about a type of clean energy that doesn't get much attention these days: concentrating solar power. For the past decade, solar photovoltaic or PV panels have dominated the world solar market, and China has installed over 200 GW of PV, currently adding a whopping 40 GW of PV every year. Distinct from PV, concentrating solar power, or CSP, takes a bunch of different forms: long...

A lot has happened in China climate and energy policy just in the weeks since the release of the outline of the national 14th Five-Year Plan. Provinces, state-owned energy giants, cities, and companies are announcing carbon neutral plans, ministries are issuing new policies, and there are new discussions around accelerating the carbon market to include more sectors and add auctions. Yet without th...

Today's podcast looks in detail at the market's expectations for carbon pricing in China, based on the results of the China Carbon Pricing Survey 2020, at http://www.chinacarbon.info/ .  The survey has been around for long enough to provide a view of how market expectations have changed over time and what types of companies are seeing the most changes. We get into a lot of discussion that goes bey...