Environment China

Although Beijing still frequently suffers from stretches of heavy air pollution, the city has made astonishing improvements since the Airpocalypse of 2013, when for several days readings of PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter, the most dangerous type of pollution in regional air pollution) literally went off the charts of the U.S. Embassy air quality monitor, which tops out at the U.S. EPA Air Quality Index value of 500. Today, Beijing averages around 40-50 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter over the course of a year. That's still worse than international standards (the World Health Organization guideline is 10 micrograms/m3 on an annual basis for PM2.5), but showing steady improvement since 2013, when the annual average was well above 100. Progress elsewhere in China has been less dramatic. In this episode, we sit down to discuss air quality in Beijing and China with Lauri Myllyvirta, Lead Analyst with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Lauri has over 10 years of experience as an air pollution and climate expert, and has led numerous research projects on air pollution, assessing air quality and health impacts of energy policies, including more than a dozen modeling studies of the air quality and health impacts of coal-fired power plants. This research has been published and utilized in numerous countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Europe, Turkey, South Africa and others. Lauri has also contributed to numerous publications around energy solutions and air pollution and is asked frequently to attend seminars and conferences as an expert speaker. He served as a member of the Technical Working Group on regulating emissions from large combustion plants in the EU and currently serves as a member of the expert panel on regulating SO2 emissions in South Africa.  For a more visual look at the improvement and other changes in Beijing air quality, see this table of monthly Beijing air quality average readings derived from U.S. Embassy data: https://twitter.com/derznovich/status/1215877238094061569 CREA recently published data on the pollution trend in cities across China, showing how SO2 has seen the greatest improvement, along with PM2.5, while ozone has worsened: https://twitter.com/CREACleanAir/status/1217620620730609666/photo/1 The full report is available from CREA here: https://energyandcleanair.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CREA-brief-China2019.pdf. Finally, CREA has also analyzed which Chinese cities are on track to meet the most recent air quality targets for this winter: https://twitter.com/CREACleanAir/status/1217620635398156295/photo/2.      

In this episode, our panel sits down with Edmund Downie to discuss China’s vision for a Global Energy Interconnection, or 全球能源互联网 in Chinese. Downie is an energy analyst with the Analysis Group in Boston, and former Fulbright Scholar at Yunnan University in Southwest China.  In past roles with Yale and the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, Downie has written extensively on South and Southeast Asia political and social issues, including for Foreign Policy magazine. While many Western analysts are skeptical about the Global Energy Interconnection plan, and its fantastical map of a world crossed by ultra-high voltage transmission lines stretching from New Zealand to Greenland and everywhere in between, Downie takes a nuanced view: “There are many things that GEI can achieve reflecting the interests driving GEI… The key is to think of [GEIDCO, the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization] as a planning and research body that’s occupying a niche between global energy governance debates and more on-the-ground work [with countries] to figure out how they want to do their energy planning.” Various versions of the Global Energy Interconnection world map can be found online. Here is one from a 2019 GEIDCO slide showing the 9 horizontal and 9 vertical grids proposed under the plan: https://twitter.com/damienernst1/status/1136574555995148289. Ultra-high voltage (UHV) refers to alternating-current lines over 1,000 kV or over 800 kV for direct-current lines, under a Chinese definition. A summary of UHV development in China can be found here: https://www.caixinglobal.com/2018-11-06/china-to-speed-up-construction-of-ultrahigh-voltage-power-lines-101343605.html. A typical high-voltage transmission line in the U.S. would be 360 kV AC, and the U.S. operates a handful of high-voltage (+/- 500 kV) DC lines such as the Pacific DC Intertie, built in 1982, that connects California to the hydroelectric dams in the Pacific Northwest.  Edmund Downie, “Sparks fly over ultra-high voltage power lines,” China Dialogue, January 29, 2018, at https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/10376-Sparks-fly-over-ultra-high-voltage-power-lines. Edmund Downie, “China’s Vision for a Global Grid: The Politics of Global Energy Interconnection,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, February 3, 2019, at https://reconnectingasia.csis.org/analysis/entries/global-energy-interconnection/. Biography of Liu Zhenya via Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Zhenya Ned references Michael Skelly of Clean Line Energy. Here is a recent article about the company’s recent demise: Ros Davidson, “Ambitious Clean Line Energy ‘wrapping up’,” Windpower Monthly, February 1, 2019, at https://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1523646/ambitious-clean-line-energy-wrapping-up. The scenario analysis game this time features a report from the Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science research agency. The report is P. Graham et al., “Modelling the Future Grid Forum scenarios,” CSIRO and Roam Consulting, 2013, at https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/download?pid=csiro:EP1311347&dsid=DS3. Note that the scenarios are highly simplified and the summaries we read out are not direct quotations from the CSIRO report.

Biodiversity loss and climate change have may of the same causes: ecosystem destruction both releases carbon into the atmosphere and shrinks the area available for threatened species to survive. Nature-based solutions are emerging as a framework to address these challenges together. Most recently, China and New Zealand were named co-chairs of the Nature-Based Solutions Track for the Climate Action Summit, one of nine areas the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is focusing on for solutions to the climate crisis. In this podcast, we sit down with Xi Xie from the Nature Conservancy to discuss Nature-Based Solutions in China and China's role in promoting NBS worldwide.  Xi Xie is the Climate Change and Energy Director for TNC China. She has 12 years of experience working on international climate efforts, both in government and NGO roles. She holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from Xi'an Jiaotong University. In the show, participants discuss a paper written in part by authors from TNC, Bronson W. Griscom et al., "Natural climate solutions," Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), September 5, 2017, at https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2017/10/11/1710465114.full.pdf.  Other terms discussed in the show are:  The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Union_for_Conservation_of_Nature The World Resources Institute (WRI): https://www.wri.org/.

This week we join past guest and recent host, Anders Hove, for a journey to Inner Mongolia, Northern California, and Central Europe, where he recently tested the charging infrastructure on three long-distance electric vehicle road trips. We examine how EVs compare on fueling cost, emissions, and convenience, and discuss how the experience compared across the three regions, along with potential recommendations for policy-makers. Anders is a non-resident fellow with Columbia University's Center for Global Energy Policy as well as Project Director at GIZ China.  He is the co-author with Prof David Sandalow of Columbia University of the recent paper "Electric Vehicle Charging in China and the United States": https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/report/electric-vehicle-charging-china-and-united-states https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/11172-Electric-vehicle-charging-What-can-the-US-and-China-learn-from-each-other- Yiyang Chenzi and Cynthia Wang serve as co-hosts this week. We hope you enjoy the program!

Li Shuo, Senior Global Policy Advisor at Greenpeace East Asia, gives a preview of the biggest issues on the table at the climate COP (Conference of the Parties) this year in Madrid, and what role China will likely play in the proceedings.  Li Shuo's official bio: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/li-shuo Li Shuo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lishuo_gp?lang=en Link to COP 25 official web page: https://unfccc.int/cop25 (Note: episode republished due to sound issues.) The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a carbon trading mechanism that has enabled developed countries to offset their own emissions by investing in or purchasing credits from carbon reduction projects in developing countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clean_Development_Mechanism.  

China's data centers currently consume over 2% of China's electricity production and that share is growing quickly. In today's episode, we sit down with Greenpeace East Asia's Ye Ruiqi to discuss how some companies are turning to renewable energy to meet the growing need for clean energy to power data centers.  A link to the report Powering the Cloud: How China's Internet Industry Can Shift to Renewable Energy, from September 2019, can be found here: https://www.greenpeace.org/international/press-release/24112/electricity-consumption-from-chinas-internet-industry-to-increase-by-two-thirds-by-2023-greenpeace/  Ruiqi is a climate and energy campaigner from Greenpeace East Asia, and covers topics like China’s renewable energy development, power market reform, and IT sector sustainability. Before joining Greenpeace, Ruiqi worked as a grassroots organizer at the US Public Interest Network after graduated from University of California Santa Barbara. In the episode, we reference Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs). You can find an explanation of different types of PPAs (physical and virtual) from the Rocky Mountain Institute here: Physical PPA https://rmi.org/insight/virtual-power-purchase-agreement/  Ruiqi also mentions the career of Li Junfeng. An older bio can be found here ( http://www.thejei.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/205-697-1-PB.pdf ), but we note that Li is now retired from the positions mentioned here, though he is still very active on issues of renewable energy and climate change policy.

Professor David Sandalow is the Inaugural Fellow at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy. Prior to Columbia, David served in senior positions in the US government – at the White House, State Department and US Department of Energy. He’s also served in various roles at the Brookings Institution, the Clinton Global Initiative, and the World Wildlife Fund. In this episode we discuss developments in China climate policy over the past year, as well as the most recent news concerning China’s carbon trading system as well as a prominent speech on energy security by the Premier of China, Li Keqiang. David Sandalow, Guide to China Climate Policy 2019, Columbia University https://energypolicy.columbia.edu/explore-guide-chinese-climate-policy-2019-david-sandalow https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Chinese-Climate-Policy-Sandalow/dp/1726184307 Yao Zhe and Tom Baxter, The 14th Five Year Plan: what ideas are on the table? China Dialogue, August 2019 https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/11434-The-14th-Five-Year-Plan-what-ideas-are-on-the-table-

We sit down to talk about the recent history and far future of urban planning and design in China and worldwide with Sebastian Ibold, Project Director for the project Sino-German Cooperation on Low Carbon Transport, GIZ. Sebastian has a rich past life as a consultant on urban planning issues and consulting in Asia, and his current work relates to rethinking urban mobility, shaping the city around an integration of the needs of users, technology, and sustainability.  At the end of the episode, we play a scenario analysis betting game based on a report, "The Politics and Practices of Low-Carbon Urban Mobility in China," from the Centre for Mobilities Research, Lancaster University, and the Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University. The report is available at https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/42416653.pdf.  The episode's title is from a poem by William Cowper: https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/god-made-country. Sebastian references Dutch-American sociologist Saskia Sassen. Her biography, bibliography, and various links can be found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskia_Sassen.  

As the way China eats transforms, food activism and education are rising to address these changes. This week’s episode of Environment China collaborates with Erwin Li of Chewing the Fat, a podcast from Yale’s sustainable food program, to interview Zhou Wanqing about her research and grassroots organizing in China. Starting with an overview of the country’s food system, we then discuss the ways Chinese people have historically eaten, and what this means for a trend like a plant-forward diet. In other words, in what ways should place and culture inform or complicate our approaches to food and agriculture, even ones sometimes seen as universal? How do collaborations then emerge to transform the relationships between people, food, farming, and the environment?