Environment China

Dear listeners, we hope you missed us during the long summer break! Now, we're back, and hope you'll join us again for another in-depth episode dealing with a rapidly expanding element of China's energy transition: offshore wind.

Today, we’re talking about China’s offshore wind sector and how it compares to the strategies pursued by Western countries, typified perhaps by the example of Norway. Our guest is longtime Beijing Energy Network member Erlend Ek, who was posted to Beijing and lived in China for over 15 years. He is now senior research strategy and energy lead with China Policy. Erlend has over this time headed a long list of commissioned research projects across a diverse range of topics, including China’s industrial development, trade policy, regional economic coordination, and the economic zones system. His master's thesis is entitled: "China and Norway: who leads in offshore wind energy and why? A study in motivation."

Key points addressed in the podcast:

Episode produced by: Anders Hove

In the latest episode of Environment China's podcast, we speak to Ruixin Li as part of our Young Professionals in Sustainability series. Ruixin currently works as the lead climate specialist at ICF International Consulting (Beijing). He has eight years of experience working on climate change issues and more than four years of experience implementing international cooperation projects. His focuses include carbon market, green finance, and sustainable aviation. Previously, Ruixin worked for Greenovation Hub and China Youth Climate Action Network. He has also assisted several international NGOs in climate communication and local climate action. Since 2014, he has been tracking international climate negotiations under the UNFCCC and witnessed the reach of the Paris Agreement and the Paris Rulebook. His negotiation tracking articles can be found in several media, such as China Economic Herald, Caixin Globus News, and Ming Pao.

This episode is in Chinese and is produced by our Executive Producer Xiaodan Yuan.

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Today, we have a special cross-over episode with the podcast called Preparing for AI, which is hosted by Matt Cartwright and Jimmy Rhodes. The guest for this episode is Anders Hove, long-time host of the Environment China podcast, and Beijing-based Matt Cartwright interviews him about the impact of AI on the clean energy transition. Anders ‘references several points related to China, such as efforts to locate data centers in colder regions, and the results of experiments seeking to make data centers respond to the output of renewables. We hope you enjoy it!

You can read a full transcript of the episode on the Preparing for AI website here: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2320704/14945514

Today's episode looks at the complex topic of corporate climate disclosures. Our guests today are Erica Downs, Ned Downie, and Lou Yushan. They are the authors of a recent report, published by the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), entitled “China’s Climate Disclosure Regime: How Regulations, Politics, and Investors Shape Corporate Climate Reporting.”

Erica Downs is senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University; Edmund Downie is PhD Candidate in Public Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; and Yushan Lou is Research Associate at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

In the podcast we discuss:

For further reading:

Edmund Downie, Erica Downs, Yushan Lou, “China’s Climate Disclosure Regime: How Regulations, Politics, and Investors Shape Corporate Climate Reporting," Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy, 29 November 2023, at https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/publications/chinas-climate-disclosure-regime-how-regulations-politics-and-investors-shape-corporate-climate-reporting/.

Edmund Downie, Erica Downs, Yushan Lou, "Better disclosure rules can help China’s financial markets work for the climate," China Dialogue, 4 January 2024, at https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/better-disclosure-rules-can-help-chinas-financial-markets-work-for-the-climate/. 

Episode produced by: Anders Hove

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In the latest episode of Environment China's podcast, we speak to Wen Yi as part of our Young Professionals in Sustainability series. Wen Yi is a doctoral graduate in Transportation Engineering from the University of Tennessee in the United States and a master's degree in statistics. He previously received a master's degree in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Wen Yi has been deeply involved in the environmental field since his undergraduate degree. During his PhD, Wenyi’s main research area was micro-mobility, especially the study of the impact of bike-sharing on the transportation system, environmental ecology, and personal health. 

Episode production: Joyce Yuan

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This is an emergency podcast about the Sunnylands Statement on Enhancing Cooperation to Address the Climate Crisis, which was released just a day ago. Top US and China climate negotiators Xie Zhenhua and John Kerry have held several days of talks at the Sunnylands estate near Palm Springs in California, and released this joint US-China statement in the lead-up to COP28 in Dubai.

Just a few months ago, Kerry had visited BJ to negotiate similar topics, and President Xi had used the occasion to emphasize that China would set its own path on climate, and not give in to pressure. So this joint statement comes as a bit of a positive surprise.

Topics we discuss:

Further reading: 

Li Shuo, "What Does China Want From COP28?" Asia Society Policy Institute, November 2023, at https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/what-does-china-want-cop28. 

This episode was produced by Anders Hove.

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In the latest episode of Environment China’s Young Professionals in Sustainability Series, we talk with Qiwen Cui, the China editor at China Dialogue, which in 2024 will launch its new flagship website called Dialogue Earth. Qiwen has worked in various media outlets covering climate action, technology, and entrepreneurship. Her focuses at Dialogue Earth are biodiversity, food systems, energy and climate change. Before moving to London, Qiwen worked at Shanghai-based sustainable social enterprise BottleDream and Curiosity Daily, among others. In the podcast, we will discuss Qiwen’s early academic and work background, career planning path, a day at Dialogue Earth’s London office, and sustainable societies and events in London.

This episode is in Chinese and is produced by our Executive Producer Xiaodan Yuan

Please consider supporting us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/EnvironmentChina 

我们一生中有将近三分之一的时间都在工作中度过，所以我们要的不仅仅只是一份工作，而是一个与我们的目标、优势和价值观相一致的职业。2022年我们发起了“可持续宝藏青年都在做什么”圆桌并邀请了来自环境、能源和可持续发展领域的小伙伴们分享他们的工作机构和内容、职业发展规划及在工作上遇到的挑战。在经历了2022年每月一期的活动后，我们觉得还是非常有必要把这些宝贵的经验以文字或者播客的形式记录下来，所以环境能源可持续圈打工人系列播客诞生了！

在环境中国最新一期的播客中，我们邀请到了Dialogue Earth的中文编辑崔绮雯——绮雯在伦敦以写作为生，主要关注生物多样性，食物系统，能源和气候变化等议题。搬来伦敦前，绮雯在上海的可持续社会企业 BottleDream 和好奇心日报等机构任职。我们在播客中将探讨绮雯早期的学业和工作背景、职业规划路线、在 Dialogue Earth 伦敦办公室的一天，和伦敦的可持续社团和活动等。

您可以在各大播客平台、小宇宙上、和北京能源网络公众号收听环境中国播客。本集播客制作人：Xiaodan Yuan

Coal in China is seeing a multi-year resurgence after years in which the government seemed ready to dial back and ultimately halt coal power construction. Indeed, just months after the 2020 announcement by Xi Jinping on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, in early 2021 a Central Environmental Inspection Team report criticized the National Energy Administration for approving too much coal and ignoring environmental policy goals (albeit on air quality, not carbon). The report stated that NEA had ‘built what shouldn’t be built (coal, coal power lines), and not built what should be built.’ China also committed internationally to ‘strictly control’ new coal capacity through 2025, after which coal power should decline. Ironically, that CEIT report was just months before a major new coal boom in China began, which kicked off even before power shortages in late 2021 that were caused by high coal prices and then further power cuts in 2022 caused by hydro shortfalls in some regions. 

Our guest for this episode is Sam Clissold, analyst with Carbon Tracker. Sam has deep expertise and experience looking at the pipeline of coal power projects in China and analyzing the potential economic risks of stranded assets they pose.

Topics we discuss:

For further reading:

Sam Clissold, ‘Balancing Act: Stranded Assets and Flexibility in China’s Power Sector,’ Carbon Tracker, 30 March 2023, at https://carbontracker.org/reports/balancing-act-stranded-assets-and-flexibility-in-chinas-power-sector/.

Episode producers: Joyce Yuan (production) and Anders Hove (host)

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The Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI) has reached the ripe old age of 10 this month. Those 10 years have seen a lot of change, including on topics like the relative focus on clean energy versus fossil fuels and the interest in and incentives for applying ESG criteria to BRI investments. Today we are joined by frequent guest and longtime friend of the pod, Professor Christoph Nedopil-Wang. This year he became the Director Griffith Asia Institute and is also Professor at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Previously, he was Associate Professor and Director of the Green Finance & Development Center, Fudan University. He previous worked in Beijing at the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF), as well as at GIZ.

Cheat sheet:

For further reading:

Christoph Nedopil Wang, ‘China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Investment Report 2023 H1,’ Green Finance & Development Center, Fudan University, 1 August 2023, at https://greenfdc.org/china-belt-and-road-initiative-bri-investment-report-2023-h1/

Cecilia Springer et al., ‘Elevating ESG: Empirical lessons on environmental and social governance implementation of Chinese projects in Africa,’ Boston University, 30 August 2023, at https://www.bu.edu/gdp/2023/08/30/elevating-esg-empirical-lessons-on-environmental-social-and-governance-implementation-of-chinese-projects-in-africa/

Andrew Hayley, 'China's Belt and Road energy projects set for "greenest" year, research shows,' Reuters, 2 August 2023, at https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-belt-road-energy-projects-set-greenest-year-research-2023-08-02/ 

In this episode of our Women in Sustainability series, we are speaking again with Dr Liu Xiao about marine waste and the broader topic of waste and recycling in general. We talk with Dr Liu about a typical day at work on her projects at GIZ.

Dr Liu is Project Manager at GIZ of the Rethinking Plastic-Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter (China), Integrated Waste Management NAMA (Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions) Project, and Textile Compass Project. She is also a member of Recycling and Waste Minimisation Committee of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA). She has more than 15 years’ experience on municipal solid waste (MSW) management and sustainable development especially on policy research and technology consulting. Her research is mainly about integrated waste management and low carbon transition, plastic waste management and pollution control, with a special focus on sustainable business model establishment in the waste sector.

我们一生中有将近三分之一的时间都在工作中度过，所以我们要的不仅仅只是一份工作，而是一个与我们的目标、优势和价值观相一致的职业。2022年我们发起了“可持续宝藏青年都在做什么”圆桌并邀请了来自环境、能源和可持续发展领域的小伙伴们分享他们的工作机构和内容、职业发展规划及在工作上遇到的挑战。在经历了2022年每月一期的活动后，我们觉得还是非常有必要把这些宝贵的经验以文字或者播客的形式记录下来，所以“环境能源可持续圈打工人”系列播客诞生了！

在环境中国最新一期的播客中，我们邀请到了刘晓博士——刘晓是德国国际合作机构（GIZ）的项目执行主任，她主要负责城市生活垃圾综合管理、循环经济与海洋垃圾、和纺织行业绿色转型这三个项目。她在城市生活垃圾管理领域有15年的政策及技术咨询经验，并关注废弃物管理及可持续商业模式的建立。我们在播客中将探讨刘晓早期的学业和工作背景、加入德国国际合作机构的契机、在德国国际合作机构工作的一天等。

Episode producer: Joyce Yuan

Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/EnvironmentChina 

In this episode of our Women in Sustainability series, we are talking about the evolution and underpinnings of China's climate diplomacy. Our guest is Taylah Bland, Schwarzman Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. She specializes in China’s domestic climate politics and international environmental law. She is a graduate of New York University, Shanghai and Tsinghua University as a Schwarzman Scholar.

In this episode we cover:

Further reading:

Taylah Bland, "Key Factors Shaping China’s Engagement With International Environmental Law," Asia Society Policy Institute, April 2023, at https://asiasociety.org/policy-institute/key-factors-shaping-chinas-engagement-international-environmental-law. 

Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/EnvironmentChina

Episode produced by: Anders Hove

Today's episode looks at the topic of electric vehicles and their impact on both carbon emissions and urban air quality. China has the world’s largest market for electric vehicles, and it is the largest maker of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles manufactured worldwide. Hence, the environmental impact of EVs, even outside of China, often goes back upstream to China.

Our guest is Zhang Shaojun, Associate Professor at the Tsinghua University School of the Environment. His research examines the environmental impacts of emissions from road transportation systems on air quality, climate and public health. Before joining Tsinghua University, he was a Postdoctoral Associate at University of Michigan and Atkinson Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Cornell University. 

Shaojun and his colleagues have published two important papers on these topics this year. The first, in the journal PNAS Nexus, looks at the upstream greenhouse gas emissions from battery manufacturing as well as a regional breakdown of power sector emissions from EV charging. The second paper, in Environmental Pollution, looks at the impact of EVs on air quality, employing Tsinghua's CMAQ model to look at how EVs affect ozone and PM2.5, in particular considering the seasonal effects on air chemistry, which relates to the formation of secondary pollution. (Primary emissions refer to pollutants directly emitted from vehicles or power plants, whereas secondary pollutants are formed in the atmosphere through mixing of chemical precursors.)

For further reading:

Fang Wang, Shaojun Zhang, Yinan Zhao, Yunxiao Ma, Yichen Zhang, Anders Hove, and Ye Wu, “Multisectoral drivers of decarbonizing battery electric vehicles in China,” PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 5, May 2023, https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/2/5/pgad123/7159885.

Yiliang Jiang, Xinyu Liang, Shaojun Zhang, Zechun Hu, Anders Hove, and Ye Wu, “The future air quality impact of electric vehicle promotion and coordinated charging in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,” Environ Pollut., 1 September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121928.

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Episode Executive Producer: Anders Hove

Today's podcast looks at the topic of sustainable forestry and the role of China, particularly at the role of Chinese banks. Our guest is Beibei Yin, who researches the intersection of China’s policies on forestry practices abroad and policies on green finance. Two years ago she founded her own consultancy called Bambu Consulting. Previously, she served for many years as Senior Policy Advisor at Global Witness based in London, where she researched topics such as addressing financing from China that leads to deforestation in Southeast Asia, stopping illegal timber trade, and the role of global supply chains in addressing deforestation and illegal timber. She previously joined the podcast in May 2018 to talk about her research following the 9000-mile path of illegal timber from Papua New Guinea to markets. 

For further reading:

Beibei Yin, "China’s new green finance guidelines have a deforestation blind spot," 1 August 2022, at https://chinadialogue.net/en/business/chinas-new-green-finance-guidelines-have-a-deforestation-blind-spot/. 

Beibei Yin, "Who is Who No. 3 - Chinese Commercial Banks: an NGO Guide," Urgewald, January 2023, at https://www.urgewald.org/sites/default/files/media-files/WhoIsWho-No3-ChineseCommercialBanks.pdf. 

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Episode Executive Producer: Anders Hove

Last week, China came out with a dramatic new policy on green certificates, radically reforming what had been a sleepy aspect of the clean energy transition in China. We don't usually do breaking news here on Environment China, but it happens that our co-producer, Anders Hove, has just published a paper on the topic as well as a short reaction article to the new policy. (Links below.)

The new green certificate policy, issued by the National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Finance, and National Energy Administration, expands China's domestic renewable energy certificate scheme from onshore wind and solar to all types of renewables. The expansion means that all renewable projects will now be able to generate Green Electricity Certificates, or GECs, though only some will be traded. The policy reforms how GECs are priced and it also bans domestic generators from selling international renewable energy certificates to prevent double counting. 

Further reading:

Anders Hove and Gary Sipeng Xie, "Green certificates with Chinese characteristics: Will green certificates help China’s clean energy transition?" Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, 8 August 2023, at https://a9w7k6q9.stackpathcdn.com/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CE9-Green-certificates-with-Chinese-characteristics.pdf.

Anders Hove, "After China's new green certificate policy, major questions remain," Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (LinkedIn article), 11 August 2023, at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/after-chinas-new-green-certificate%3FtrackingId=ZOupiyoVR1GeYGktG%252BCJjw%253D%253D/?trackingId=ZOupiyoVR1GeYGktG%2BCJjw%3D%3D. 

In this latest installment in our Young Professionals in Sustainability series, we talk with Minjie LU, Energy Advisory Consultant at S&P Global Commodity Insights consulting group. He has six years of experience in the energy industry. His technical expertise includes oil and gas field development, project economics, and investment valuation. Prior to joining S&P, Minjie was a reservoir engineer at Totalenergies' Geoscience Centre in Scotland. He holds an MSc in petroleum engineering from Imperial College London and an ME in structural engineering and a BSc in engineering science from University College Dublin.   In this episode we'll explore: 

His academic and work background Career change: research-oriented work to consulting S&P Global Commodity Insightsw's energy upstream research business A Day in the Life of an Energy Advisory Consultant Interesting energy consulting projects Recent major industry events and changes in the energy market

2022年我们萌生了一个想法：为什么不把北京能源网络的职场青年人聚起来，做一系列“可持续宝藏青年都在做什么”的圆桌，一起来聊一聊环境和能源圈独特又好玩的工作经历，探一探大家所在行业的新鲜事呢？在经历了2022年每月一期的活动后，我们觉得还是非常有必要把这些宝贵的经验以文字或者播客的形式记录下来，所以“环境能源可持续圈打工人”系列播客诞生了！

在环境中国最新一期的播客中，我们邀请到了陆旻杰——旻杰是标普全球的大宗商品能源咨询师，他在能源上游、油气田勘探开发、项目评估等领域有超过6年的经验。在加入标普前，他在道达尔能源苏格兰科研中心任职。旻杰在英国帝国理工学院获得石油工程的硕士学位，在爱尔兰都柏林大学获得土木与环境工程的硕士和学士学位。请下滑查看播客文字版记录。

1. 旻杰最初是怎么对环境能源领域的学习和工作感兴趣的？可以和我们具体分享一下你在英国和爱尔兰的学业和工作背景吗？

我一直比较喜欢理科类的学科，所以本科就选择了在爱尔兰都柏林大学就读土木与环境工程专业。那段时间爱尔兰正在大力发展海上和陆上风电，所以在学习中我也接触到了很多能源相关的话题。同时，那段时间也是美国“页岩油气”发展的高峰，凭借“页岩油气革命”，美国从全球“第一大能源进口国”变成了“能源出口国”。“非常规油气”的开发也成为了一个全球热议的话题，其中，「水力压裂」对环境的影响也是我们专业学习的一个重要部分，我也开始研究更多关于能源开采的内容。

之后我在英国帝国理工大学就读了石油工程研究生课程。其实在更多深入学习了这个专业之后，我曾经对于石油天然气的刻板印象也发生了改变，当然，或许现在仍然有很多人对于石油天然气这些传统的化石能源持有着很大的反对意见，但我认为在人类能源需求不断攀升的情景下，如何合理的使用石油天然气作为一个“过渡能源”，来帮助人们从高污染高排放的煤炭能源消耗过渡到新能源，是一个相当重要的话题。

毕业后， 我加入了法国道达尔能源在苏格兰的研发中心，主要负责油气工程建模的研究工作，这也让我对国际大型油气公司的运营模式和企业战略有了更多的了解。

2. 旻杰刚刚提到「水力压裂技术」对环境的影响，知乎上有一个帖子名字叫做“你所不知道的水力压裂技术（知识量巨大、烧脑、慎入！）”，你可以用最简单的语言和我们科普一下这个技术，以及它对环境的影响吗？

简单来说，“水力压裂法”指的是在页岩层注入高压的液体，使页岩层产生裂缝，好让我们获得油气的一种技术。在压裂之后，一般会在裂缝中继续注入支撑剂和化学物质，能使地下的裂缝保持张开，这样石油和天然气就可以从这些裂缝中释放出来。“非常规油气”的开采是近几年的事情，所以很多人认为“水力压裂法”是一项新技术，但其实早在70年前在常规油气开发中就有应用了。

环境影响方面的话，目前来看，水力压裂可能造成的环境影响主要问三大类：一是压裂活动需要消耗大量的淡水，那样会对周边群众日常生产活动所需的淡水资源消耗产生竞争或者是占用。二是如果压裂液或者支撑剂泄漏，可能会对地下和地表水资源造成污染，但其实压裂的页岩油气层往往在地下两千米甚至更深以下，除了地上的设备造成的泄漏之外，其实水力压裂可能对地表水资源造成环境影响的可能性很小。第三就是可能会引发小型的地震，但目前来看记载的相关地震影响都很小，尚未有过因为水力压裂引发人员或者财产损失的地震的相关报道。

3. 从苏格兰回国之后，你是怎么加入到标普全球的北京团队的呢？

我是在2019年的下半年加入埃信华迈（IHS Markit）亚太区能源咨询团队的。当时团队的主要负责人还是在美国和新加坡，所以面试基本在线上进行。面试筛选还是挺严格的，公司对我们行业洞察和咨询分析能力都有着非常高的要求，而我也很幸运通过层层筛选加入了团队。2022年，标普全球（S&P Global）和埃信华迈（IHS Markit）合并，我们也从此加入了标普全球的大家庭，另外标普全球大宗商品普氏能源资讯（Platts）所提供的市场信息、基准价格服务等可能大家也都比较耳熟能详了。

4. 旻杰可以和我们分享一下公司在能源上游的业务吗？

我们公司的能源上游业务主要分为三大板块：

第一是研究团队，他们主要负责定期发布一些行业的研究洞察，能源公司战略研究报告及能源收并购相关的研究；

第二是数据团队，主要负责收集全世界各地的上游勘探开发数据，包括油气田、油气井及生产平台的相关数据等等；

第三个就是我所在的能源咨询板块，我们的工作主要是为客户提供一些定制化的能源咨询服务，依靠我们公司能源上游其他两个板块所提供的公司内部数据的支撑，加上额外的数据搜集及研究分析给客户提供油气田勘探开发、项目评估、能源项目收并购技术尽调及目前比较新的“碳捕集、利用和封存技术CCUS”相关的研究工作。

5. 你在标普的职称是“大宗商品能源咨询师”，你可以具体地和我们科普一下你的工作内容吗？

我是在2019年下半年加入公司的，我记得我参与的第一个项目是“深海油气田勘探开发方式及成本”的研究，这也是我们团队一般承接的典型项目类型。我们在项目开展之前就会与客户确定好研究的大纲、内容、方法和项目时间线，从而根据计划逐步开展项目。

在项目开展过程中，我平时主要的工作内容就是搜集研究所需的数据。之前我也提到过，我们数据的主要来源还是我们公司内部的数据库。在信息数据搜集的过程中，我们会随时与公司的研究和数据团队联系，同时也会从外部专家的交流中获取更多的洞察和信息，然后融入到我们的报告中。对于部分需要更深入研究的内容，我们则会进行额外的调研和数据搜集，从而确保研究内容的完整及深度。

在过去四年中，我参与的咨询项目周期从3个月到半年不等，我们也会定期的与客户召开周会及月会来汇报我们的工作进展，也同时获取客户的反馈，对我们的研究内容进行调整和完善。

6. 要不要和我们分享一个最近你觉得比较有趣的项目？

我想和大家分享的是我最近参与的一个项目——随着疫情的放开，我们与客户的交流和分享也得以更多的以线下的方式开展，在最新的这个项目中，我以驻场办公的方式在东南亚某国的客户公司工作了两个多月。

在这期间和客户开展了很多非常高效的互动和交流，一方面我们可以实时的与客户交流项目进展，另一方面客户也可以随时与我们反馈他们的需求，我们可以及时的帮助客户解决很多棘手的问题。我觉得后疫情时代，可能这类的项目会越来越多，我个人感觉很多时候面对面的交流确实会高效许多。

7. 对比之前在道达尔的研究型工作经历，你觉得现在在标普做咨询，工作内容上的主要变化是什么？

我在道达尔研发中心的主要工作是油气工程建模相关的研究，可以说是相当的专业和“定制化”。往往几个月中，我的研究对象就是一个单一的油气藏。主要的工作内容就是编写程序，根据很多的流体公式编制自动化的油气藏模型流体模拟实验。而且因为主要还是以研发为主，一般项目也没有严格的时间线和deadline。

7.1. 要不和我们迅速简单地科普一下“油气藏”吧？

简单来说，“油气藏”就是油气聚集的一个封闭空间，你可以把它想象成一个装着油或者天然气“房子”。油气藏往往会有一个渗透率很低的岩石盖层，你可以把它想象为“屋顶”，他们的作用是阻止油气的流失，把他们妥善的保存起来。

那我现在接着回答之前的问题。相比来说，在标普能源咨询团队的工作就会更偏向能源行业的宏观层面一些，我们会随时追踪全球的能源发展趋势、油气勘探开发新项目和能源转型发展。需要实时的掌握能源行业的动态，挖掘潜在的咨询项目需求，而且与此同时也需要完成手头的咨询项目。正如之前提到的，咨询项目往往都有着严格的时间线规定和研究大纲，因此项目管理也是一门必不可少的技能。

相比之前在道达尔从事比较单一的油气藏建模研究而言，我在标普全球能源咨询团队所涉及的研究内容也更为丰富一些，近些年来我们的研究内容包含了深水油气田勘探开发研究、前沿油气勘探开发技术调研、数字油气田、能源投资决策尽调、能源市场收并购调研及“碳捕集、利用和封存技术CCUS”的调研，等等。

8. 听你分享感觉在咨询行业的工作会更加丰富有趣些，但是consulting总归是consulting，你觉得做咨询比较苦恼的地方在哪里？

因为咨询项目往往需要紧跟客户当下的需求，或许也是因为一般的现成的研究报告已经无法满足客户的要求和定制化解决方案，所以咨询项目有时候需要研究和分析的数据往往难以简单的获得，很多时候需要通过其他相关联的的数据或者信息进行推算或者加入很多合理假设，所以有时候会信息或者数据的获取比较棘手。

另外，咨询项目往往和客户需要开展的某项业务平行的进行，例如客户可能正在着手开展某项投资项目的可行性研究，而请到我们做技术相关的尽调研究。所以客户的需要往往也会随着时间发生改变，有时候可能会提出一些他们看似简单但确需要我们投入很多人力和时间要求，如何最好的满足客户的额外需求但是同时保证项目内原定工作量的完成也是往往需要面对的棘手问题。

但是其实在完成一个个咨询项目的过程中也会有很多rewarding的瞬间，例如我们在咨询项目中给客户提出的建议被他们采纳并付诸现实，并且帮助客户取得了很好的收益汇报。我们往往也会在咨询项目中帮助客户建立一些解决问题的流程和方法，也经常会被客户采纳并融入到他们日常的业务流程之中。

所以怎么说呢，咨询其实是一个令人爱恨交加的行业或者工作吧。

9. 最后和我们分享一下你们行业近期的大事件吧？

去年俄乌冲突的爆发，我们看到了世界能源转型的进程的加速，许多国家开启了加强支持可再生能源的政策，包括欧盟委员会提出“REPowerEU”计划，美国提出的“通胀削减法案（Inflation Reduction Act）“等等都推动了全球新能源产业链发展的进程。

但是与此同时，大家可能忽略了另外一个能源行业大事件：2022年全球煤炭消费和燃煤发电均创历史新高。据国际能源署（IEA）和标普全球大宗商品的研究调查，俄乌战争极大地改变了2022年煤炭市场的价格水平以及供需格局，2022年全球煤炭的总体需求将增长超过1%，达到历史新高。

欧洲是受能源危机影响最严重的地区之一。由于天气条件，水力和核电产量下降，也给欧洲的电力系统带来了额外的压力。作为应对，部分欧洲国家增加了煤炭发电，一些已关闭或处于备用状态的煤炭厂重新进入市场。与此同时，中国、印度、印度尼西亚等煤炭生产、消费大国也创下历史新高。举个例子，自2007年以来，印度的煤炭消费量翻了一番，年增长率达到了惊人的6%，并将继续成为全球煤炭需求的增长引擎。再举个例子，印尼作为全球第三大煤炭生产国，2022年的煤炭的产量也创下了历史新高。

10. 播客开头你也提到自己之前对化石能源的刻板印象。虽然现在全球能源转型加速，但也因为种种原因我们对化石能源的依赖居高不下。我身边很多在传统能源领域工作的朋友们总是自嘲自己在“夕阳行业”，尽管他们完全不需要担心失去工作的问题，这一点你是怎么想的呢？

正如我在播客一开始提到的那样，全球的发展是必然趋势，在因此带来的能源需求不断攀升的情景下，如何合理的使用石油天然气作为一个“过渡能源”，来帮助人们从高污染高排放的煤炭能源消耗过渡到新能源，是一个相当重要的话题。

能源转型需要循序渐进，新能源的投入不但要满足能源需求的增长，也需要填补逐步被淘汰的传统化石能源需求的空缺。因此，个人认为，在新能源尚未形成安全可靠的替代态势之前，传统化石能源仍将占据重要位置。合理地利用石油和天然气资源作为“过渡燃料”，加上科学、适当的开展一些碳捕集、利用和封存项目，是完成全球碳中和事业必不可少的一部分。

In this episode of our Women in Sustainability series, we’re talking with the Grantham Institute's Chunping Xie, looking at the topic of China’s carbon neutrality from a wider economic perspective. Specifically, we discuss a paper published earlier this year by the Grantham Institute entitled: "Embracing the new paradigm of green Development: China Carbon Neutrality Policy Framework research report."

One of the report's several authors, Chunping Xie is a Senior Policy Fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, a programme to inform decision-making about China’s policies on climate change, energy, economics and development. She holds a PhD in Energy Economics, and her research interests focus on promoting clean energy transition and sustainable economic development. She has multidisciplinary expertise in economics, energy technologies and energy/climate policy.

The report we discuss today also builds on a report from 2022 entitled, "China's New Growth Story: Linking the 14th Five-Year Plan with the 2060 Carbon Neutrality Pledge." We discuss both reports in the episode.

Topics we discuss are:

Further reading:

Min Zhu et al., “Embracing the new paradigm of green development China Carbon Neutrality Policy Framework research report,” Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, February 2023, at https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Embracing-the-New-Paradigm-of-Green-Development-in-China.pdf.

Nicholas Stern & Chunping Xie, "China’s new growth story: linking the 14th Five-Year Plan with the 2060 carbon neutrality pledge," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, 2022, at https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/publication/chinas-new-growth-story-linking-the-14th-five-year-plan-with-the-2060-carbon-neutrality-pledge-2/.

In this latest installment of our Women in Sustainability series, we talk with Yuan LIN,  Senior Specialist in Institutional Carbon Management at Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). She works closely with climate initiatives toward the Bank’s green mission as embraced in AIIB’s corporate strategy. She has 15 years of experience in Environmental Impact Assessments, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), carbon trading, and corporate carbon emission management. Before joining AIIB, she worked at the London Stock Exchange, the World Bank China office, and the Energy Foundation. She graduated from Imperial College London with an MSc in Environmental Technology and from the University of Cambridge with an MPhil in Engineering for Sustainable Development.   In this episode we'll explore:  

Today we will be talking about China’s efforts to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCS), a class of refrigerant with huge impacts on the climate. Our guest today is an expert on the topic, Prof Hu Jianxin. Professor Hu holds bachelor's and masters degrees in Chemistry from Peking University. He has been on the faculty at Peking University since 1986, and is currently professor at the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, and also the Institute of Carbon Neutrality, Peking University. He has published numerous academic studies of HFCs, focusing on potential emissions reductions pathways as well as the cost of mitigation in various sectors. He was involved in the negotiations leading up to the Kigali Amendment as well as several other international agreements.

Topics addressed in this episode:

For further reading:

Fuli Bai et al., “Pathway and Cost-Benefit Analysis to Achieve China's Zero Hydrofluorocarbon Emissions,” Environmental Science and Technology 57(16), April 2023, at https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c00166. 

Liya Guo et al., "Projected increases in emissions of high global warming potential fluorinated gases in China" Communications Earth & Environment, June 2023, at htttps://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00859-6. 

Lisha Liu et al., “Historical and projected HFC-410A emission from room air conditioning sector in China,” May 2019Atmospheric Environment 212(4), May 2019, at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2019.05.022.

Feng Hao, "Chinese manufacturers under pressure to phase out HFCs," China Dialogue, 28 November 2016, at https://chinadialogue.net/en/pollution/9426-chinese-manufacturers-under-pressure-to-phase-out-hfcs/. 

Some useful acronyms:

HFCs: Hydrofluorocarbons (replacement for CFCs but a dangerous greenhouse gas and hence targeted for reduction under the Kigali Amendment)

HCFCs: hydrochlorofluorocarbons (an ozone-depleting refrigerant)

CFCs: Chlorofluorocarbons (ozone-depleting refrigerant phased out by the original Montreal Protocol)

HFOs: Hydrofluoolefins (current and future substitute for HFCs)

UNEP: United Nations Environment Programme, pronounced "you-nep"

EPA: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

In this episode, we talk about China’s carbon emissions and go in for a detailed mid-2023 update, thanks to the data compiled from various Chinese statistical sources by the analysts at CREA, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. We’re talking to Qin Qi, an analyst at CREA and the co-author with Lauri Myllivirta of a recent Carbon Brief article on this subject. 

Qin Qi recently joined CREA as an analyst. Before joining CREA she was at the UN Environment Programme for three years, and before that she was in Chinese state media for about 10 years, mainly serving at overseas bureaus in Nairobi and Washington, DC. She graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University in the field of simultaneous interpretation. 

For further reading:

Qin Qi and Lauri Myllyvirta, "Analysis: China’s CO2 emissions hit Q1 record high after 4% rise in early 2023," Carbon Brief, 12 May 2023, at https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-co2-emissions-hit-q1-record-high-after-4-rise-in-early-2023/. 

Today, we’re coming back to the power sector to discuss a new report about the pathways for scaling up renewables as China pursues its policy to peak CO2 emissions by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

The report is entitled Renewable Energy Pathways to Carbon Neutrality in China, and it’s the fruit of a collaboration between scholars at Tsinghua School of the Environment, California China Climate Institute at Berkeley Law, Power Transformation Lab hosted at the UCSD. The report was released in May 2023.

Michael Davidson is an assistant professor joint with the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego, where he leads the Power Transformation Lab. Dr. Davidson’s teaching and research focus on the engineering implications and institutional conflicts inherent in deploying low-carbon energy at scale to mitigate environmental harms, specializing in applications to China, India, and the U.S.

Zhenhua is a PhD Student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California in San Diego, and he is focusing on power systems modeling, electricity markets, and energy policy issues.

We address:

What makes this forecast and model different from others, in terms of methods and also results. What its forecast for renewable capacity and renewable share is, out to 2060. What the relative role for distributed energy is, compared to current trends. What the model assumes for the cost of transmission, and how it models transmission compared to present policy, which considers mainly utilization in considering the costs and benefits of new lines. What the role of power market reform is. What we expect for power outages this summer.

Further reading:

Michael Davidson et al., “Renewable Energy Pathways to Carbon Neutrality in China,” Tsinghua School of the Environment, Berkeley Law-California China Climate Institute, Power Transformation Lab, May 2023

In this latest instalment in our Young People in Sustainability series, we talk with with Chen Zhibin, senior manager at Adelphi and ICAP, the International Carbon Action Partnership. Zhibin has also engaged in carbon market policy research and corporate carbon asset management at the State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) and at Sino-Carbon Investment. He is also a member of the expert pool of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Zhibin participated in the system design and management of China’s national carbon market and carbon trading pilots, and provided carbon emission management consulting services for major companies.

In this episode we'll explore:

Starting from 2020, Beijing Energy Network has held an offline second-hand swap market in Beijing every quarter. In the fifth podcast of our Sustainability Professionals series, Joyce discusses the BEN swap market with Nina Ning, senior researcher at the Global Energy Interconnection Development Corporation (Geidco). 

Nina is currently working as a senior researcher at GEIDCO, and her main research areas include energy transition, power system transition and carbon neutrality. She received a Ph.D. in Economics from Peking University in 2016 and is currently the head of the Beijing Energy Network.

Topics discussed in the episode include: the origin of the BEN swap market, what makes swap markets important as compared to online markets for used items, and how BEN organizes swap events.

In today's episode we’re talking about hydrogen development in China, and its potential – or not – for helping with the country’s dual carbon goals: carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

Our guest is Arabella Miller-Wang, recently an Aramco fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and also a Research Assistant at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. She has recently published a paper entitled, "China’s Hydrogen Development: A Tale of Three Cities," which discusses the issue of China’s hydrogen strategy based on the experiences and plans of the pilot hydrogen clusters located in Datong, Shanxi province, Chengdu in Sichuan province, and Zhangjiakou in the northern part of Hebei province, which surrounds Beijing.

The paper can be found here: https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/chinas-hydrogen-development-a-tale-of-three-cities/ 

Building on our 2022 series of Beijing Energy Network roundtables on young professionals in the field of sustainability and sustainable energy, Environment China has been interviewing various sustainable energy young professionals about their experiences and outlooks. In this episode of the series, we talk to Lai Shengling of Vestas. Shengling is a wind resources and micro-site selection engineer for the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas in the Asia-Pacific region. He is mainly responsible for the pre-sales technical support of Vestas, including wind resource and climate condition assessment of the wind farm, calculation of power generation, load verification and safety. In this episode of our podcast we'll explore:

In the third episode of our Women in Sustainability podcast series, we speak to Yang Yifan, the sustainability manager of Oatly. Yang Yifan is concerned about the sustainable development of Oatly's entire value chain in the Asia-Pacific region, meaning she is responsible for the company's sustainable procurement, operations and carbon emission management. 

In this Chinese language program we will explore:

第三期播客系列我们邀请到了”Oatly“的可持续经理人一帆——她是Oatly中国区可持续发展经理，关注Oatly亚太区全价值链的可持续发展。一帆主要负责公司的可持续采购、运营和碳排放管理等。我们在节目中将探讨：

Today, we’re talking about China’s low-carbon energy transition and the unique role of State Owned Enterprises, or SOEs.

Our guest is Erlend Ek, Lead Analyst for Energy at China Policy. From 2018-2022 Erlend served as advisor for energy affairs at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in BJ. Prior to that role, he served in various consulting roles at China Policy. He has degrees from the University of Oslo, he studied Chinese at Xiamen University, and he is now at Stavanger University. You can find his content at China Policy.

As sometimes happens, Erlend and I ended up having a longer conversation after I shut off the recording, and I took a few notes from that conversation and I’m inserting it here as an intro to our talk:

In this episode, we’re continuing on the theme of food sustainability, this time looking at the huge topic of the food system and climate change. It’s a topic that gets a lot less attention than emissions from industry and the energy sector, but, as we shall see, food system emissions are significant, and the task of addressing those emissions quite challenging. 

We’re speaking with Sally Qiu and David Sandalow, and again starting with the Guide to Chinese Climate Policy, which we also covered in episode 116. This time, we’re narrowing in on one chapter in the Guide: Chapter 22 on the food system.

Sally Qiu is a research associate at the Center on Global Energy Policy of Columbia University. Most recently, she is the co-author of the 2022 version of the Guide to Chinese Climate Policy. Her research focuses on issues related to U.S.-China Climate Collaboration as well as the Food Systems.

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 is the author of numerous reports and articles about China energy and environmental policies and trends. He is the lead author of the Guide to Chinese Climate Policy.

Today, we’re speaking about the topic of sustainable fishing, and especially the role of finance, with Alice Chen. Qianming (Alice) Chen is a researcher at the International Institute of Green Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing. She and colleagues at IIGF and WWF recently authored a series on Financing Sustainable Seafood, and she is also the author of a column summarizing the report’s findings and other related ideas in China Dialogue.

For further reading:

https://chinadialogueocean.net/en/fisheries/finance-is-crucial-to-making-fishing-and-aquaculture-sustainable/

https://iigf-china.com/financing-sustainable-seafood-a-baseline-study-of-sustainable-seafood-finance-in-china

https://iigf-china.com/financing-sustainable-seafood-a-study-of-environment-related-financial-risks-in-chinas-seafood-sector 

In today’s episode, we are looking at Shanxi province, known as the country’s most coal-intensive provincial economy. Over the past several years, various research cooperation efforts have looked at how Shanxi could transition away from its heavy emphasis on coal, and eventually phase down coal in line with China’s 2030-2060 goals. Today, we are talking to Zhou Yang, Advisor at Agora Energiewende’s China programme, which has just published a Chinese-language report, Experience and Lessons learned from Regional Coal Transitions in Germany. A link to the report is below. In the podcast, we will discuss a few of the potential lessons described in the report, namely (1) the importance of breaking energy monopolies and diversifying energy supply and markets to include regular citizens, (2) ways to diversify the local economy away from resource-intensive sectors, including tourism, drawing on the example of Lusatia in eastern Germany, and (3) reducing the cultural emphasis on the resource economy by boosting education and innovation in non-resource-intensive industries, drawing on the example of the Ruhr Valley economic transformation.

Zhou Yang is based in Beijing and works as Advisor China at Agora Energiewende. She manages Agora’s projects on regional energy transition and power sector decarbonization. Before joining Agora, Zhou worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council Beijing Office for three years on the Oil Cap Project and Coal Cap Project. Prior to joining NRDC, Zhou was with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C., where she conducted research and prepared publications on China’s energy-water nexus issues.

Report link:

Zhou Yang, “Low-Carbon Energy Transition in Shanxi: Experience and Lessons from Regional Coal Transitions in Germany,” Agora Energiewende, 2022, at https://www.energypartnership.cn/fileadmin/user_upload/china/media_elements/publications/2022/Agora/Low-Carbon_Energy_transition_in_Shanxi_and_lessons_from_Germany_CN.pdf.

Today, we're discussing the newly released Guide to Chinese Climate Policy, published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. The book is available for free download at https://chineseclimatepolicy.oxfordenergy.org/. We are welcoming two past guests back onto the podcast: David Sandalow and Michal Meidan, who co-authored the Guide along with Anders Hove (OIES), Philip Andrews-Speed, Edmund Downie (Princeton), and Sally Qiu (Columbia).

In our discussion, we touch on the following:

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. He is the author of numerous reports and articles about China energy and environmental policies and trends, and he’s very knowledgeable about China. He joined us on episode 62, to talk about the 2019 version of the Guide.

Dr Michal Meidan is Director of the China Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Before joining OIES in July 2019, she headed cross-commodity China research at Energy Aspects. Prior to that, she headed China Matters, an independent research consultancy providing analysis on the politics of energy in China. She is the author of numerous academic papers, articles, and books related to China, energy, and political economy.

Today, we’re coming back to the topic of China’s power system, the recent power outages in Sichuan, and the role of flexibility. Our guest today is Professor Yuan Jiahai of North China Electric Power University.

Professor Yuan a Professor of Management Science at the North China Electric Power University, where his research focuses on the low-carbon transition of China's power sector, with a particular emphasis on coal power. He has published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is listed in Scopus 2020 and 2021 Highly Cited Chinese Researchers. Professor Yuan received his PhD in 2006, and since then has been active as an independent Chinese energy policy analyst, publishing not only academic journal articles, but also influential policy reports and media articles on the low-carbon transition.

On that note, Prof Yuan has recently published two very interesting items: The first is a report published by NCEPU and NRDC on power system flexibility, and the second is an article in Caixin about the Sichuan power shortages. In this episode, we discuss both the Sichuan power shortages as well as the report. 

The references are here:

Yuan Jiahai et al., “四川高温限电痛点在何处，如何防止重演？[What are the pain points of Sichuan's power supply under the heat wave and how to prevent them recurring?], Ciaxin, 6 September 2022, at http://zhishifenzi.blog.caixin.com/archives/260319.

Yuan Jiahai and Zhang Jian, “电力系统灵活性提升：技术路径、经济性与政策建议” [Improving power system flexibility: technology pathways, economic analysis, and policy suggestions], Natural Resources Defense Council, July 2022, at http://www.nrdc.cn/Public/uploads/2022-07-18/62d4c2e313df1.pdf.

Today, we’re talking about China’s evolving market for green energy and renewable power purchases, with Sharon Feng, at Director of Advisory Services and Research at Azure International. Sharon is an expert in China’s power markets, including renewables, energy storage, power trading, and clean energy procurement. She has worked in previous roles at GE, Siemens, and the philanthropy Save the Children, and holds degrees from Peking University and the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. Not least, she has spoken at several Beijing Energy Network events and is based in the lovely Ditan Park of Beijing.

In today's podcast we cover:

For further reading:

https://www.azure-international.com/

Today, we’re going back to the hot topic of the past two years, namely the energy transition away from coal and how it relates to energy security concerns, especially the recent power outages that have affected parts of the country.

Our guest is Xi Xi, an analyst at the innovative Green Development Program, or iGDP, based in Beijing. At iGDP she works on energy modeling with the Energy Policy Simulator (EPS), an energy systems model that informs policy makers on decarbonization pathways. She also assists in low carbon development strategy for provincial governments, while also researching energy and electricity investment in Belt and Road Initiative Countries. Previously, Xi Xi was a consultant for the U.S. EPA at Abt Associates, and she also served as an investment analyst at the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, where she looked at cleantech startups for investment and grant opportunities. In addition, Xi Xi is executive director of the BJ Energy Network!

Today, we’re going to discuss the huge problem of marine plastics. Millions of tons of pastic waste enter the world’s oceans every year, and according to the UN Environmental Programme, 85% of marine litter is plastic. Plastic in the ocean is everywhere, and it has consequences for all life at sea, and on land ecosystems and climate as well.

Our guest is Dr LIU Xiao, the Project Manager at GIZ. She is in charge of the GIZ China implemented Rethinking Plastic-Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter. She is a Member of Recycling and Waste Minimization Committee, and she has more than 15 years of experience on municipal solid waste management and sustainable development, especially on policy research and technology consulting. Her work mainly focuses on the integrated waste management and low carbon transition, plastic waste management and pollution control, and sustainable business models in the waste sector.

For further reading:

https://rethinkingplastics.eu/

About the project (video series): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ11NCNYupw 

可持续女性系列第二期 - Eco Buyer创始人思晴

实在是听过到太多次"环保和可持续圈还是女生多”（也确实是事实），我们萌生了一个想法：那为什么不干脆做一系列在"可持续议题工作的女性”播客，一起来聊一聊她们独特又好玩的经历和故事，探一探她们所在行业的新鲜事呢？

第二期播客系列我们邀请到了”一棵Eco Buyer“的联合创始人思晴。Eco buyer是一家关心身体健康、动物福祉和地球环境的纯素、纯净美妆和植物基美食的集合店。店里只提供和推荐不含动物成分、不做动物测试的可持续纯素产品。我们在节目中将探讨：

节目的最后，两位主播和嘉宾将共同探讨作为”可持续资深人士“的糟心瞬间和怨念；以及作为三档不同播客的主理人她们的播客制作经验分享。赶紧收听吧！

You've likely heard there are more and more women in environmental and sustainability circles, which is indeed the case! This is the topic of Environment China's podcast series, Women in Sustainability, where we talk with unique and interesting experiences and stories of women across the sustainability field, and what's new in their industries.

For the second podcast in the series, we invited Si Qing, co-founder of Eco Buyer. Eco Buyer is a collection of vegan, pure beauty and plant-based food that cares about health, animal welfare and the planet. The store only offers and recommends sustainable vegan products that are free of animal ingredients and not tested on animals. In the show we will explore:

At the end of the show, the two hosts and our guest discuss their experiences of being eco-friendly human beings, as well as their podcast production experience as the hosts of three different podcasts. 

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 International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF), as well as at GIZ. He also joined us here at Environment China in December 2020 to introduce the traffic light system of evaluating BRI projects.

One of the reasons we’re coming together to talk today is the recent publication of an article in the Asia Pacific Policy Studies journal, which Christoph wrote together with Mathias Lund-Larson, Mengdi Yue and Yao Wang. You can find a link to the article in the show notes, but the full title is “Prospects of the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) to catalyse infrastructure financing.”

Other topics we discuss are:

Other links:

Christoph Nedopil, et al., "Prospects of the Multilateral Cooperation Center for Development Finance (MCDF) to catalyse infrastructure financing," Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, 27 April 2022, at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/app5.345. 

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 transnational eco-certification in moving the world's most populous country toward sustainable consumption and production. Dr Sun identifies the forces that drive companies from three sectors—seafood, palm oil, and tea—to embrace eco-certification. The success of eco-certification, Dr Sun writes, will depend on the extent to which it wins the support of domestic actors in fast-growing emerging economies.

Yixian Sun is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in International Development at the University of Bath, UK. He has a Ph.D. and Master's degree in International Relations / Political Science, from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID) in Geneva. He’s a Research Fellow of the Earth System Governance (ESG) Project and a co-convener of the ESG taskforce on SDGs. He studies transnational governance, environmental politics, and sustainable consumption, and his research seeks to explain the changing role of China in global environmental governance, including sustainability transitions within China as well as sustainability impacts of China's overseas engagement.

For further reading:

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/certifying-china

https://direct.mit.edu/books/oa-monograph/5271/Certifying-ChinaThe-Rise-and-Limits-of

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 mitigation, and sustainable energy transition, and she is experienced in global and national integrated assessment modeling of China, India and the United States. She is a contributing author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report on the topic of global coal transition. And notably, she joined us on Podcast 84 in November 2019!

The report we're discussing today is: "A Decade of Action: A Strategic Approach to Coal Phase-Down for China."

It discusses a strategic plan to retire China's old or outdated capacity even as the country builds new coal plants. This is in line with government strategies, which posit that new coal should help meet peak loads and ensure stable electricity supplies even as clean energy should supply most incremental energy or electricity overall.

The report has three recommendations: 1. Conduct a plant-level review to identify an early retirement schedule and strategy. 2. Combine this strategy with an analysis of renewable energy, grid, storage and transmission investment to fund these investments and to replace any lost tax revenues. 3. Evaluate the job losses and their composition at the county level, and provide support for job training.

Questions we cover:

How does this study build on the work we discussed two years ago, with the five criteria for prioritizing retirements? How do carbon prices and water come into the calculation? How do you quantify/assess the benefits of the retirements, especially those related to human health? How are the retirements distributed across provinces? Are flexibility retrofits really necessary and economical? Are you assuming that provinces will do a lot more trading of electricity? How do you think the present push for energy security will affect coal plant retirements? What types of jobs are lost when coal plants retire? What types of jobs would they qualify for retraining on? Or do they mostly end up taking buy-outs and just moving to completely different industries? Do coal industry workers generally move in search of new work? What’s new in the latest IPCC chapter you co-authored on energy systems?

For further reading:

Ryna Cui et al., “A Decade of Action: A Strategic Approach to Coal Phase-Down for China,” Center for Global Sustainability, 2022, at https://cgs.umd.edu/research-impact/publications/decade-act-policy-opportunities-china-begin-coal-phase-down-while.

Jiang Lin et al., “Large balancing areas and dispersed renewable investment enhance grid flexibility in a renewable-dominant power system in China,” Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, February 2022, DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2022.103749, at https://eta-publications.lbl.gov/publications/large-balancing-areas-and-dispersed.

IPCC AR6 Chapter 6 (Energy Systems): https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6wg3/pdf/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_FinalDraft_Chapter06.pdf.

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 Cubic, who is sometimes known as the Walking Wastepedia. In terms of career paths, the two represent the extremes of having entered the field by chance, or having  cultivated a topic on a straight line from academic study to professional career. We ask what challenges they face in their respective fields, and what advice they have for newcomers to the workplace. 

实在是听过到太多次"环保和可持续圈还是女生多”（也确实是事实），我们萌生了一个想法：那为什么不干脆做一系列在"可持续议题工作的女性”播客，一起来聊一聊她们独特又好玩的经历和故事，探一探她们所在行业的新鲜事呢？

于是「环境中国」便有了个这期节目，在这次初尝试中，我们请到了在英国大使馆做绿色金融的佳灵和行走的“垃圾百科”张淼。她们或误打误撞入了圈，或从读书到工作一直在这个领域深耕，都逐渐在可持续议题的工作中找到了自己所关注和热爱的地方。她们在各自领域都有着什么样的挑战？对初入职场的小伙伴又有着什么样的建议呢？欢迎收听本期「环境中国」播客。

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 Two Sessions of the National People's Congress. Today our guests are Liu Yujing, China Power Manager at RMI China, and Caroline Zhu, Senior Low Carbon Electricity Analyst at S&P Global, and a past colleague of Yujing's at RMI.

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 chains who is frequently quoted in publications such as PV Tech / PV Magazine, as well as in mainstream media.  

In today’s episode, we cover:

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 consumption. In this episode, we talk not only about how data center operators are trying to go green (a topic we discussed with Angel on Environment China back in November 2019), but also the related topic of flexibility. Data center flexibility is potentially important because it enables data centers to modulate their load to better meet the needs of the grid, which in turn would enable greater uptake of renewable energy such as wind and solar. Since data centers in China are now considered one of the energy-intensive industries subject to the Dual Control policies—which limit energy consumption and energy intensity of production—data centers are already facing pressure to become more efficient. In the future, China's carbon neutrality policies will undoubtedly push data centers to adopt renewable energy to support their growing energy loads—which, in turn, will require more flexible operations.

In this podcast, Anders and his guests discuss their joint research of data center flexibility in China and Europe. The research was performed under the Sino-German Energy Transition Project, which is implemented by GIZ on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, in partnership with the China National Energy Administration, and German and Chinese implementation partners including the report's lead author, dena. The research includes interviews with industry experts and companies on topics such as time-shifting of data and cooling loads, real-time geographic shifting of loads, the pros and cons of relocating data centers to colder climates for greater cooling efficiency, and using on-site energy storage to participate in power markets. They also discuss whether the many obstacles data center operators currently see to becoming more flexible are likely to be overcome—and what policies would help.

Links:

“China 5G and Data Center Carbon Emissions Outlook 2035,” Greenpeace East Asia, 2021, at  https://www.greenpeace.org/eastasia/press/6608/electricity-consumption-from-chinas-digital-sector-on-track-to-increase/.

“Clean Cloud 2021, Greenpeace East Asia, 2021, at https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-eastasia-stateless/2021/04/03a3ce1a-clean-cloud-english-briefing.pdf.

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 events

- Interesting people we met at BEN

- The biggest change BEN brought to our life in 2021

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; and James Gao (Gao Tianjian) of Mercedes and the Beijing Energy Network.

In this podcast we discuss:

Why EV sales in China are surging What types of vehicles are seeing the most growth, and how similar Chinese vehicles are to EVs abroad How the market breaks down in terms of foreign vs domestic How China is able to scale up manufacturing of potentially globally competitive products, and which EVs have the most export potential The situation with battery swap, which is now expanding from NIO and BAIC to new players The charging situation for China's apartment dwellers

We end the podcast with a game of buy-sell-or-hold, where we challenge our guests to identify the probability of different future EV scenarios, such as whether a Chinese EV will be a top seller worldwide (outside of China) in 2025.

China EVs and More is available on all the finest podcasting platforms. You can follow Sino Auto Insights and listen to their live podcasts on Twitter Spaces here:

https://twitter.com/SinoAutoInsight

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 start at 8:00 am Monday China time, and that’s 7 pm Eastern, 4 pm Pacific on Sunday.

In this upcoming episode, we are going to talk about the China EV market, which is poised to surpass 3 million vehicles this year and 5 million next year. We’re going to talk about China’s EV startups, international brands, and what makes China so disruptive in the EV space. We’ll touch on some issues like range, design, battery size, and charging. We’ll bring it back to the issue of emissions and the environment, and take your questions. If all goes well, we’ll play a game of buy-sell-or-hold with our esteemed guests, and our audience will get to play too!

So looking forward to seeing you there with us, LIVE, on the Environment China podcast on Twitter Spaces, Sunday night US time, Monday morning China time! You can access the Live event on the link above.

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 the problem, given their size and influence, they can be, and need to be part of the solution.

Our guests today are Jinqi Yu of the Ellen Macarthur Foundation and Yifan Yang of Oatly.

Jinqi currently works as consultant for Food Program at the Ellen Macarthur Foundation. She is dedecated to accerlerate the transition towards a circular economy and has been working with the foundation since 2016.

Yifan is the sustainability manager at Oatly. She is responsible for the holistic sustainability in the value chain of Oatly. Founded in the 1990s, Oatly is a Swedish food company that produces alternatives to dairy products from oats. Oatly has boomed in Shanghai since entering the China market in 2018. The Swedish oat-based drink is one of the fastest growing milk alternatives in the market and has a devoted fan base worldwide.

"The Big Food Redesign," Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2021, at https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/resources/food-redesign/overview. 

Oatly Sustainability Report 2021: https://a.storyblok.com/f/107921/x/5f77aca2c2/oatly-sustainability-report-2021-web.pdf 

"Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Dairy Sector A Life Cycle Assessment," United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report on Dairy Carbon Emissions, 2010, at https://www.fao.org/3/k7930e/k7930e00.pdf 

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, such as on climate finance. We are also digesting the communique issued by China and the US about climate cooperation.

In the podcast we referenced the optimistic scenario of Carbon Action Tracker, which projects 1.8 degrees C of climate change if all targets and commitments are fully implemented: https://climateactiontracker.org/global/temperatures/.

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, what made it different, and what it was like working on energy and the environment in 2008-09. At 0:22, Joyce and Helena discuss BEN in the past few years and how it has evolved. At 0:26, we look out to the next 13 years of world climate and energy futures, by playing a game of buy-sell-or-hold.

Our guests:

Brendan Acord came to China after graduating from UCSD, He worked at AES consulting and later BrightSource Energy, and he is currently in Chengdu where he manages a solar PV consultancy which has projects in China and abroad.

Julian Wong is a corporate lawyer, currently at QuantumScape, a company in Silicon Valley developing advanced battery materials. He’s been passionate about environmental issues since growing up. He moved to China in 2008. He returned to DC and worked at the Center for American Progress, and then worked with David Sandalow at the Department of Energy on US-China issues.

Jason Lee, works in business strategy at AirBnB. He came to China under the Fulbright program working on China energy policy research. Afterwards he did energy consulting at McKinsey.

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:

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 Meituan Waimai, one of China's largest online food delivery apps. She leads the Meituan Green Tech fund program (greentech.meituan.com). Li has over six years of experience as a corporate sustainability professional. After graduation from Macalester College in St Paul, MN, she worked in sustainability roles at Metro Transit in Minnesota, at Amazon, and at the Chinese food delivery app Ele.me. She has expertise in energy efficiency, carbon emissions calculation, renewable energy, supply chain labor rights, and circular economy.

Time stamps:

0:55 - About Guan Li's work at Meituan

2:16 - The two main strategies: waste reduction and recycling

5:02 - Meituan's role in reducing waste

7:58 - What the data show (or don't show) on waste from food delivery

10:32 - Meituan and carbon neutrality

12:10 - Waste sorting in different cities

13:19 - Green Tech Fund

15:05 - US-China differences

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 climate targets to meet that national goal. In this report, Columbia Center for Global Energy Policy Non-Resident Fellow and Princeton PhD student Ned Downie looks at the three of the highest emitting industries in China: electricity, steel, and cement and helps us understand exactly what those announcements add up to. 

Further reading:

Edmund Downie, "Getting to 30-60: How China’s Biggest Coal Power, Cement, and Steel Corporations Are Responding to National Decarbonization Pledges," Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy, 25 August 2021, at https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/report/getting-30-60-how-china-s-biggest-coal-power-cement-and-steel-corporations-are-responding-national.

“Major News | A Carbon Emissions Declaration from the World’s Biggest Steel Firm, China Baowu: Aiming for ‘Carbon Peaking’ in 2023 and for Achieving ‘Carbon Neutrality’ in 2050,” January 20, 2021, at http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5MDEzNzA5Ng==&mid=2654852246&idx=1&sn=d479656526315c56691b0101482a16af&chksm=bd801af18af793e733b0f5cdd0d7d101eef0150feb831bddf9d705673f715b6128e57e0619d0#rd.

“HBIS Announces Low-Carbon Green Development Action Plan,” HBIS WeChat channel, March 12, 2021, at http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzA5MjA2Mjk3MA==&mid=2653109712&idx=1&sn=9539988bd1af53094e892177fc7752db&chksm=8ba54845bcd2c1533f04fc3a53789adb1e68c0dc5c3674a4007aea087b970cbaa2de89d27e83#rd.

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 and risk-management best-practices.

Here are a few things we cover in this episode:

[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 in Henan province. Our guest today is Liu Hongqiao, China Specialist with Carbon Brief.

Hongqiao holds a masters in international relations (specialising in international energy) from Sciences Po in France. She previously worked as an independent consultant covering water, climate change and wildlife. Prior to that, Hongqiao was a Beijing-based journalist and analyst writing for publications such as Caixin and China Dialogue.

Carbon Brief is a UK-based website covering the latest developments in climate science, climate policy and energy policy, specialised in data-driven articles and graphics to help improve the understanding of climate change, both in terms of the science and the policy response. 

Topics we cover in detail today: 

Important references from Carbon Brief:

You Xiaoying, "China issues new ‘single-game’ instructions to guide its climate action," Carbon Brief,  4 August 2021, at https://www.carbonbrief.org/china-issues-new-single-game-instructions-to-guide-its-climate-action.

Liu Hongqiao, "In-depth Q&A: Will China’s emissions trading scheme help tackle climate change?," Carbon Brief, 24 June 2021, at https://www.carbonbrief.org/in-depth-qa-will-chinas-emissions-trading-scheme-help-tackle-climate-change.

Geert Jan van Oldenborgh et al., "­­­Lessons learned from five years of extreme weather ‘rapid attribution’," Carbon Brief, 12 May 2021, at https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-lessons-learned-from-five-years-of-extreme-weather-rapid-attribution.

Liu Hongqiao et al., "Q&A: What does China’s 14th ‘five year plan’ mean for climate change?," Carbon Brief, 12 March 2021, at https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-does-chinas-14th-five-year-plan-mean-for-climate-change.

"China Briefing, 29 July 2021: Lessons from deadly flooding; Definition of ‘carbon neutrality’; UK-China nuclear tensions," Carbon Brief, 29 July 2021, at https://www.carbonbrief.org/china-briefing-29-july-2021-lessons-from-deadly-flooding-definition-of-carbon-neutrality-uk-china-nuclear-tensions.

Other reports mentioned by Hongqiao:

Valerie J. Karplus, "China’s CO2 Emissions Trading System: History, Status, and Outlook," Harvard Belfer Center, June 2021, at https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/chinas-co2-emissions-trading-system-history-status-and-outlook. 

International Energy Agency analysis of China ETS: https://www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-chinas-ets-in-power-sector-decarbonisation 

Transition Zero analysis of China ETS: https://www.transitionzero.org/insights/putting-chinas-carbon-market-in-perspective

Twitter thread from Liu Hongqiao on weather attribution: https://twitter.com/LHongqiao/status/1420784539547340811 

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 debt relief.

Guests:

Rebecca Ray is a Senior Academic Researcher at the Global Development Policy Center, at Boston University. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and an MA in International Development from the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. Since 2013, she has focused on the nexus of international development finance, particularly China’s role in reshaping the global financial landscape, and sustainable development, particularly in Latin America. She produces the annual China-Latin America Economic Bulletin series and the China’s Overseas Development Finance database. She was lead editor for the books China and Sustainable Development in Latin America: the Social and Environmental Dimension and Development Banks and Sustainability in the Andean Amazon.

Blake Alexander Simmons is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Global Development Policy Center. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Queensland (Australia) and his M.S. from the University of Antwerp (Belgium). His research focuses on how environmental, political, and psychosocial factors influence conservation decisions in social-ecological systems, and how we can change behaviors to achieve positive outcomes for people and nature. At the GDPC, Blake is investigating the impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative on biodiversity and indigenous peoples.

References:

Blake Alexander Simmons, Rebecca Ray, Yang H, Kevin P. Gallagher, "China can help solve the debt and environmental crises," Science (80), 21 January 2021, at https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf4049, or https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6528/468.

Time stamps for our discussion:

2:33 – How could China use debt for nature swaps and what’s the model?

2:50 – China is world’s largest low-income bilateral creditor. Countries are struggling to repay given Covid.

4:00 – Relieving a portion of debt in exchange for climate protection. Science paper lists which are best countries for this solution.

4:45 – Three economic trends: capital flight, currency volatility, and drop in trade. All challenge debt repayment and capital investment. If countries can’t make repayments anyway, shared goals are a way to renegotiate commitments without default.

6:00 – China has been at the forefront of debt relief for poorest countries.

6:30 – How does this affect China’s position as a creditor?

7:00 – China’s debt portfolio highly concentrated in a few countries. China has an interest in restructuring with these countries because of the long-term diplomatic and economic relationships—Venezuela as an example.

8:15 – What’s the difference of a debt-for-nature and debt-for-climate swap?

10:00 – History and examples of debt-for-nature swaps, going back to 1980s and 1990s. WWF pioneered, Ecuador was an early case. Third parties like WWF or the Nature Conservancy would pay for a portion of outstanding debts in exchange for conservation policies.

11:30 – Example of bilateral debt-for-nature swaps. Early cases of debt-for-climate.

12:50 – Example of the Seychelles and the marine protected areas.

14:00 – Nature-performance-linked-bonds. Examples of Ecuador and Argentina proposals.

17:30 – How does enforcement work? Are there standards?

19:00 – Inclusion of local communities in enforcement versus top-down goal-setting and monitoring.

23:00 – Announcements that could come from CBD COP. Discussions with CCICED.

25:30 – Expectations about green finance for nature.

28:00 – Why China still financing coal projects and whether that contradicts the idea of debt-for-climate swaps.

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 now filed by ClientEarth UK.

In today's podcast, we’ll discuss the case in the Netherlands brought by Friends of the Earth against Royal Dutch Shell. On May 26, the court ordered Shell to reduce its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 (with 2019 as a base level). The court stated that Shell’s climate policies were “not concrete and are full of conditions...that's not enough.” This is a second monumental verdict issued by the district court in the Hague, after the Urgenda Case, brought by the Urgenda Foundation and Dutch citizens against the government of the Netherlands, which was decided in 2018.

Today we have two guests from ClientEarth China to talk about this judgement and issues beyond: Dimitri de Boer and Boya Jiang.

Dimitri de Boer is the head of ClientEarth China, one of China’s most prominent environmental cooperation experts. Before joining ClientEarth, He previously led the EU – China Environmental Governance Programme from 2010 to 2015. Dimitri worked as senior adviser on environment and climate change for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in China for 12 years. He also worked as a consultant for the World Bank, European Union, and the Chinese government. Dimitri volunteers as vice-chairman of the Board of China Carbon Forum, an independent platform which aims to foster trust and cooperation among China’s stakeholders for climate action.

Boya Jiang is the Nature and Climate Lawyer at ClientEarth, a charity focusing on advancing environmental governance and rule of law. Boya is a legal expert and she holds a Magis Juris degree in law from the University of Oxford. At present, Boya is focusing on how to promote the environmental rule of law to help resolve issues related to biodiversity and climate change.

For further reading:

Jason Bordoff, "Why Shaking Up Big Oil Could Be a Pyrrhic Victory," Foreign Policy, 3 June 2021, at https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/06/03/big-oil-shell-exxon-chevron-emissions-climate-change-production-supply-demand-cuts-risks/

Background from Reuters on the Shell case: https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/dutch-court-orders-shell-set-tougher-climate-targets-2021-05-26/

Background on the BP case: https://climate-laws.org/litigation_cases?b_party_type%5B%5D=corporation&b_party_type%5B%5D=individual_corporation&side_b%5B%5D=BP

Background on how the Shell case relates to recent shareholder action at ExxonMobil and Chevron: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/climate-activists-score-wins-against-exxon-shell-chevron-n1268705

Background on the Norwegian Arctic case: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-oil-environment-idUSKBN1ZM1A6

IEA reports on the oil and gas industry and need for transition: https://www.iea.org/reports/the-oil-and-gas-industry-in-energy-transitions

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 glass, which is perfectly transparent in visible light, but can be seen by birds:

 Faye LU is the Deputy Secretary-General of China Youth Climate Change Action Network (CYCAN), responsible for institutional strategic planning. She launched Work for Good, a sustainable employment platform for young people. She initiated nationwide research, communication, and action on bird collisions in China, in order to help protect biodiversity in cities. She is the co-founder of CELU Studio, an international art and design studio focused on addressing environmental issues through art and technology. In 2019, she travelled by retracing the early human migration route, starting in East Africa and moving through North Africa, Middle East, Europe, and South Asia. Along the route, she made a documentary and art pieces recording the impact of climate change, as well as possible solutions. Her works have been exhibited in the London Art Pavilion and Beijing UCCA art center. Prior to that, Faye worked as vice president of New Hope Group Southeast Asia headquarters. She has master's degrees in financial management, business, and development economics.

Here are some key time-stamps for the program:

3:10 - About the trip out of Africa

4:30 - Stories of how climate change intersects with the lives of regular people in Kenya near Lake Victoria

6:40 - Positive examples of people in Kenya taking action on solving problems brought on by climate change

8:14 - How to communicate positively on climate for younger Chinese audiences

13:10 - How to bear witness to climate change

16:00 - Intro to the problem of bird collisions

20:30 - How to solve the problem of bird collisions

21:00 - Bird-safe glass

22:15 - A 500-person network to record bird collisions in China

23:00 - How art can help communicate the issue of bird collision while also protecting birds, through transparent but bird-safe window glass with UV designs

24:40 - UV pens and stickers

25:00 - Government actions

26:12 - What's next for the film

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 Professor of Comparative Politics at the Freie Universität Berlin. She has served as member of the German Advisory Council on the Environment and as vice chair of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils since 2008. She was also a tenured associate Professor in the Department of Government and Politics, University of Maryland. Schreurs’ work focuses on comparative environmental politics and policy in Europe, the US, and East Asia. She was born and raised in the United States and has also lived for extended periods in Japan and Germany and briefly in the Netherlands. She has a PhD from the University of Michigan and an MA and BA from the University of Washington.

Here are the key questions we discuss:

01:41 - Has Europe been positively surprised by China carbon developments in the last year?

03:00 - Would you say that the mutual cooperation and agreement on climate outweighs disputes on trade policy in the energy field?

07:25 - Does Europe now view China as a climate leader?

10:05 - How does Europe expect China to react to the carbon border adjustment tax?

13:00 - Regarding Prof Schreurs' past work on Multi-level Perspectives on climate governance, does she see climate policy in China becoming more centralized?

15:30 - The role of provincial and local pilots in climate-related policy

17:10 - The extent to which provinces may drag their feet on climate policy

19:30 - Incentives for local officials on environmental performance

20:30 - How did the concept of carbon neutrality come to be recognized as viable for China?

25:00 - The role of the carbon market in China compared to other policies

Important links:

https://www.professoren.tum.de/en/schreurs-miranda

Miranda Schreurs, "Multi-level Climate Governance in China," 2017:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316246858_Multi-level_Climate_Governance_in_China 

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 troughs of mirrors that heat a central element such as a pipe filled with water or molten salt, power towers surrounded by fields of mirrors called heliostats, and a couple others. Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technologies use mirrors to track the sun and reflect and concentrate its light onto a ‘receiver’, where it is converted into heat. This heat can be used to produce electrical power with a conventional steam turbine and generator, or as industrial process heat. That’s a big advantage over PV, which just produces electricity directly, but doesn’t create high heat. CSP also has great potential for on-site energy storage, which is becoming more important as solar grows.

We’re talking today with two long-time friends of BEN:

Alina Gilmanova, of China’s Key Laboratory of Solar Thermal Energy and Photovoltaic Systems, Institute for Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences;

and

Jorrit Gosens, Research Fellow on Energy Transitions at the Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University. (Also noted for the China Energy Portal, https://chinenergyportal.org.)

Alina and Jorrit recently published a paper (with Johan Lilliestam) on CSP in China entitled: “Windows of opportunity for catching up in formative clean-tech sectors and the rise of China in concentrated solar power,” in Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. The link to the journal article is: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ckYn7sbuJDG-k

For those without subscription, a freely available pre-print version of the paper can be found here:

https://ccep.crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/publication/ccep_crawford_anu_edu_au/2021-04/wp_2104.pdf

Guide to the discussion:

2:13 - Alina talks about the history of CSP in various countries and China

5:23 - Alina describes the relative degree of CSP's technology maturity

7:27 - Alina discusses the dominant design for CSP today and the move in China towards tower technology

9:45 - Jorrit discusses the factors that make different technologies more or less susceptible to technology catch-up, especially now that it's recognized that developing countries like China don't need to wait until a technology reaches maturity 

12:40 - Jorrit discusses how CSP compares on those factors that enable catch-up

14:27 - Jorrit discusses how they decided to write this study and why CSP is special in terms of catch-up

16:30 - Jorrit describes the concept of a window-of-opportunity for catch-up, and how CSP fits into this idea

18:11 - Anders, Jorrit, and Alina discuss whether the connection to coal boiler technology motivated Chinese companies to enter the CSP field

22:11 - Anders asks if the bankruptcy of all the competing players inherently led to "catch-up"

24:30 - Alina discusses the role of energy storage in China CSP; references paper on economics of storage using CSP vs PV+battery: "Making the Sun Shine at Night," 2021, at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15567249.2020.1843565. 

26:20 - Alina discusses the present economics of CSP in China and whether there is a path forward

27:09 - Alina discusses China's go-abroad strategy for CSP

29:53 - Jorrit explains his view of whether CSP offers lessons for other developing countries considering industrial policy to foster new industries in clean energy

Another useful resource:

Open CSP data base with all  CSP projects worldwide (https://csp.guru/), also at:

Johan Lilliestam, Richard Thonig, Chuncheng Zang, & Alina Gilmanova (2021). CSP.guru (Version 2021-01-01) [Data set]. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4613099

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 the bright, blinking lights of the words Five-Year Plan, these important developments are often missing from English-language reporting. We will go through them one by one, and also address larger questions, like whether China now sees itself as a leader on climate policy, and the trend towards administrative management versus markets in energy and carbon.

Today, we’re talking again with Yan Qin, a power and carbon analyst at Refinitiv in Norway. She has extensive experiences in energy market analysis and quantitative modelling. Her work focuses on the short-term outlook for power and carbon trading, supply-demand forecasting, and energy policy insights, mainly for clients at utilities and energy companies. Yan holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Oslo.

For further reading:

Carbon Brief: https://www.carbonbrief.org/qa-what-does-chinas-14th-five-year-plan-mean-for-climate-change

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies: https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/key-issues-for-chinas-14th-five-year-plan/

China Dialogue: https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/the-14th-five-year-plan-sends-mixed-message-about-chinas-near-term-climate-trajectory/

Vox: https://www.vox.com/22313871/china-energy-climate-change-five-year-plan-wind-solar-coal-oil-gas

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 beyond the actual findings in the report, like how asset values are likely to change, what it means that so few respondents view the ETS as having modified investment practices, and how the results would compare if the same survey was done in Europe.

Our guests: 

Huw Slater is the Lead Climate Specialist at ICF’s Beijing office and supports the EU-China ETS Platform. He is the lead author of the China Carbon Pricing Survey report.

Dimitri DeBoer leads the china office of Client Earth, a European NGO focused on environmental law, which works with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. He is also special advisor to the CCICED, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Wang Shu is lead management consultant at ICF. He is a former director in the Climate Change Department in the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission and has over ten years of experience working on climate change and clean energy, especially related to regional and national carbon markets.

Special note: Due to technical difficulties, we had to re-record parts of the podcast. As a result some (but not all!) portions refer to "this year" as 2020 and "next year" as 2021. The miracle of time travel! If something seems confusing, just mentally modify to the year that seems correct, given that we knew then and still know that trading will begin in 2021, not "next year" as is stated in several spots!

Two weeks into the Biden administration, and we’ve arrived at the fourth and final episode of our short series talking about US-China cooperation on energy and climate. Today, we host special guest Lili Pike, past organizer and host of the BEN podcast and now journalist at Vox.com, where she has written about U.S. China cooperation. She was previously at China Dialogue in Beijing.

Lili and Anders review the recent comments from John Kerry and Zhao Lijian about US-China climate negotiations, discuss technologies where the two countries lead, and talk about whether the Biden administration's turn towards multilateralism might help or hinder climate discussions with China. We also touch on green finance, the Green Climate Fund, and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

We’ve arrived at Episode 3 of our series talking about the Biden administration and what it means for US-China cooperation on energy and climate, with a special emphasis today on subnational cooperation, with Dr Fan Dai. We hone in on how the countries could work together on developing pathways for low-carbon energy transitions and potentially coordinate on areas where the focus is now on scale up, and no longer on the now discarded concept of "burden sharing." 

Dr Fan Dai is the Director of the California-China Climate Institute at University of California, Berkeley. has played a significant role leading California’s collaboration with China on climate, energy and environment. She was appointed by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr as Special Advisor on China. Under Brown, Dr. Dai chaired the state’s China Interagency Working Group, and acted as the state’s liaison on its critical economic and environmental initiatives on China. Previously, Dr. Dai served as senior advisor at California Environmental Protection Agency. Dai is a graduate of Berkeley Law, University of California, and holds a doctoral degree on Environmental Policy and Economics from State University of New York.

Welcome to Part 2 of our podcast series about the Biden administration and what it means for US-China cooperation on energy and climate. 

On this episode, we have four energy and climate experts from the U.S. and China. Li Xiang of Peking University, Alvin Lin of the Natural resources defense council, Li Shuo of Greenpeace East Asia, and Ma Li of the US-China Energy Cooperation Program. We did the interviews on the same day, but separately and using different software, so the sound is slightly different at the transitions.

Bios:

Li Xiang is an adjunct research professor at Peking University Energy Institute, and previously served at the Rocky Mountain Institute and prior to that at the International Energy Agency and China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute. He has a PhD and bachelor’s of engineering from Tsinghua.

Alvin Lin is China climate and energy policy director in the Natural Resource Defense Council's Beijing office. His areas of expertise include the environmental impacts of coal and shale gas development, energy efficiency technologies, nuclear power safety regulations, and air pollution law and policy. Prior to joining NRDC, Lin worked as a litigator and a judicial clerk in New York City. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a master’s from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and a JD from New York University.

Li Shuo is the Senior Climate & Energy Policy Officer for Greenpeace East Asia. He oversees Greenpeace's work on air pollution, water, and renewable energy. Internationally, he coordinates the organization's engagement with the United Nations climate negotiation (UNFCCC). Li Shuo studied International Law and US-China relations at Nanjing University and the Hopkins Nanjing Center.

Ma Li is the executive director of US-China Energy Cooperation Program (ECP), a private sector-led non-profit public-private-partnership platform created in 2009 as a result of an official dialogue between then US president Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2009.  Li holds a master degree in Public Service Administration and a BA degree of International Business from the DePaul University. 

Stay tuned next week for Part 3!

Today we are beginning a new series of podcasts on the hot topic of US-China energy and climate cooperation, starting with Professor Joanna Lewis of Georgetown University.

Dr Joanna Lewis is Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor of Energy and Environment and Director of the Science, Technology and International Affairs Program (STIA) at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. She is also a faculty affiliate in the China Energy Group at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Lewis leads Georgetown’s US-China Climate Research Dialogue and US-China Energy and Climate Working Group. Lewis holds a Master’s and Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University.

In this episode, we touch on:

Methane is responsible for an astonishing one-quarter of today's global warming, and that makes it an urgent issue, right alongside CO2. But most analysts focus mainly on CO2 and the energy mix, not other greenhouse gases, and those who do look at methane mainly focus on the U.S. or other major gas producing countries. So today, we’re going to talk about a couple of recent EDF reports and scientific articles about methane related policies in China.

Our guest today is Zhang Jianyu. Dr Zhang is Chief Representative of the China Office of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), and he is also Vice President and member of the Executive Team at EDF. He helped found the China program of EDF and helped it become the first international NGO registered with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in 2017. Dr Zhang has contributed to the establishment of China’s Carbon Trading System, and has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles, as well as columns, and book chapters.

Methane, like CO2, is a greenhouse gas. Pure methane has the chemical formula CH4. Most comes from oil and gas wells or from coal mines. It’s more efficient and less CO2 intensive than coal or oil, but direct methane emissions have a far larger global warming effect per molecule than CO2, with a global warming effect over 80 times higher per molecule (when measured over a 20-year period). About 25% of today's global warming is caused by methane emissions.

The IEA estimates that the world’s oil and gas industry can feasibly cut methane emissions by 75%, and of that, 2/3 would be at no cost.

China has committed to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and to peak carbon emissions before 2030. Currently (as of this recording on Dec. 18, 2020), it is unclear if that includes all greenhouse gases or just CO2.

For further reading:

Ramon Alvarez et al., “Assessment of methane emissions from the U.S. oil and gas supply chain,” Science, July 2018: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6398/186.full?ijkey=42lcrJ/vdyyZA&keytype=ref&siteid=sci.

Scot  M. Miller at al., “China’s coal mine methane regulations have not curbed growing emissions,” Nature Communications, February 2019, at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07891-7.

“Measuring Methane,” EDF, 2020: https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/EDF-Methane-Science-Brochure.pdf.

“Methane: A Global Challenge, A Global Opportunity,” EDF, 2020: https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/methane-a_global_challenge_a_global_opportunity.pdf.

“China Signals Methane is a New Climate Focus for Curtailing Energy Emissions,” EDF, June 2019, https://www.edf.org/media/china-signals-methane-new-climate-focus-curtailing-energy-emissions.

“Challenge, opportunity as China begins to tackle fossil fuel methane emissions,” EDF, March 2019, at http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2019/03/08/challenge-opportunity-as-china-begins-to-tackle-fossil-fuel-methane-emissions/.

Today, we’re going to be discussing a new report, Green Development Guidance for BRI Projects Baseline Study, published by the BRI International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC) and backed by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The BRIGC is a joint Chinese and international coalition, and in December last year the coalition began work on the current study, which formulates a classification framework and positive and negative lists for BRI investments. With the team leaders Mr. Erik Solheim, Special Advisor World Resources Institute (WRI) and Ms. Zhou Guomei, Executive Director-General, Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), the report was written by a team of Chinese and international scholars and experts.

Our first guest is Dr. Christoph Nedopil Wang, the Founding Director of the Green Belt and Road Initiative Center and a Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Green Finance (IIGF) of the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in Beijing, China. Christoph is a member of the Belt and Road Initiative Green Coalition (BRIGC) of the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment. Christoph holds a master of engineering from the Technical University Berlin, a master of public administration from Harvard Kennedy School, as well as a PhD in Economics.

Our second guest is Wang Ye, Research Analyst in WRI Finance Center. She works to coordinate the work and engage in researches related to promoting sustainability in the financial system in China. Ye holds an Erasmus Mundus Master in Sustainable Territorial Development from the consortium of University of Padova, K.U. Leuven, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (France) and Dom Bosco Catholic University (Brazil), specializing in Applied Economics. She also holds dual Bachelor degrees in Journalism and International Finance from Beijing Foreign Studies University in China.

For further reading:

“Green Development Guidance for BRI Projects Baseline Study Report,” BRI International Green Development Coalition, December 2020, at http://en.brigc.net/Reports/Report_Download/202012/P020201201717466274510.pdf.

Ma Tianjie, “Advisors propose new system to regulate China’s overseas investments,” China Dialogue, December 4, 2020, at https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/advisors-propose-new-system-to-regulate-chinas-overseas-investments/.

Lihuan Zhou, Sean Gilbert, Ye Wang, Miquel Muñoz Cabré and Kevin P. Gallagher, “Moving the Green Belt and Road Initiative: From Words to Actions,” World Resources Institute, November 2018, at https://www.wri.org/publication/moving-green-belt-and-road-initiative-from-words-to-actions

In this episode, we’re going to take a deep dive on modeling China’s long-term, carbon-neutral energy future with Yu Sha and Ryna Cui of the University of Maryland Center for Global Sustainability. Dr. Yu and Dr. Cui co-lead the China Program at CGS.

Dr. Ryna Cui is an expert in global coal transition and climate and energy policies in China. Her research focuses on climate change mitigation, and sustainable energy transition, and she is experienced in global and national integrated assessment modeling of China, India and the United States. She is currently serving as a contributing author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report on the topic of global coal transition.

Dr. Sha Yu is an expert in clean energy, finance, and economic modeling. She leads the development of GCAM-China and engagement on China’s long-term strategies and transition pathways. She has over 10 years of experience working on policy development and implementation in China at the national, provincial, and local levels. Dr. Yu is also a leading expert on China integrated assessment modeling and analysis. She also leads projects in other developing countries, such as India and Vietnam.

This is a pretty data-intensive episode. Here are some time stamps and quick notes:

2:30 About the GCAM model, it's main advantages and uses.

3:50 Using the GCAM model to identify and prioritize which coal plants should be closed early.

6:10 Which regions would see the most early retirements under the model.

6:46 The history and flaws in China's Risk Alert system (traffic light system) for provinces approving new coal plants.

10:25 The Five Strategies, which are: (1) Promoting sustainable demand while restructuring the economy. (2) Decarbonizing electricity generation and shifting electricity system to a more diverse system, based mainly on renewables but supplemented by nuclear and CCS (carbon capture and storage). (3) Electrification of major energy consuming sectors such as transport and buildings. (4) For hard-to-electrify sectors or technologies, switch to low-carbon biofuels or other low-carbon fuels. (5) Negative emissions including carbon capture and land use changes to cover emissions from hard-to-decarbonize fields.

12:25 The key graph (page 2 of this PDF: https://cgs.umd.edu/sites/default/files/2020-09/5%20Strategies_China%202060_english.pdf). Renewables accounts for 70% of primary energy in 2050, remainder comes from nuclear and CCS. Similarly, over 70% of electricity comes from RE.

14:00 Estimated installed solar in 2050 of 2500-3500 GW and for wind 1500-2500 GW, so around 10x present installation figures. Wide range depends on economics of alternatives as well as demand growth, which in turn depends on efficiency measures and other changes.

16:10 Carbon storage - which regions have potential storage sites (oil and gas reservoirs, aquifers, offshore) and what variables determine storage economics? Which sectors best for capture? The importance of transportation distance as a variable in CCS economics.

18:05 Transport: Harder to decarbonize because it is heterogeneous. Light-duty vehicles can be electrified fairly quickly. Other transport subsectors may peak emissions later. 

19:04 Buildings sector - not hard to decarbonize based on technology, but faces implementation challenges, especially for retrofit. Needs more policy incentives.

20:10 Nuclear: Model assumes nuclear restricted to coastal locations, but still finds quite significant growth of nuclear. 

20:40 How are various models used by policy makers? Models provide evidence to base policy decisions on, but it should be a two-way conversation. Models can also help financial players evaluate risks given trends and policies.

22:37 Top recommendations: (1) No new coal. (2) Power market reform / economic dispatch. (3) Cross-sectoral planning instead of just looking within sectors, like just planning EVs. (4) Including non-CO2 in carbon neutrality target, since otherwise difficult to control emissions in methane and agriculture. (5) New growth model for coal-dependent regions. (6) Integrate fiscal policies at provincial and national level, and within financial sector, with low-carbon transition.

25:48 How you got started in energy modeling.

For further reading:

https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/chinas-2060-carbon-neutrality-target-opportunities-and-challenges/

https://cgs.umd.edu/research-impact/publications/implications-continued-coal-builds-14th-five-year-plan-china-eng

https://cgs.umd.edu/research-impact/publications/five-strategies-achieve-chinas-2060-carbon-neutrality-goal-en

https://cgs.umd.edu/research-impact/publications/high-ambition-coal-phaseout-china-feasible-strategies-through

Today, we’re talking about a new book, China Goes Green, by Judith Shapiro and Yifei Li.

The book explores the promise and drawbacks of Chinese environmental governance in light of the urgency of climate change and other issues. It examines Chinese environmental governance through examination of specific cases of environmental programs such as the war on air pollution, waste sorting, tree planting campaigns, dam building, the best and road, and overall energy and environmental planning.

Judith Shapiro is Director of the Masters in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development for the School of International Service at American University and Chair of the Global Environmental Politics program. She was one of the first Americans to live in China after U.S.-China relations were normalized in 1979, and taught English at the Hunan Teachers’ College in Changsha, China. Professor Shapiro’s research and teaching focus on global environmental politics and policy, the environmental politics of Asia, and Chinese politics under Mao. She is the author, co-author or editor of nine books including including China’s Environmental Challenges (Polity 2016), Mao’s War against Nature (Cambridge University Press 2001). Dr. Shapiro earned her Ph.D. from American University’s School of International Service. She holds an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and another M.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Illinois, Urbana. Her B.A. from Princeton University is in Anthropology and East Asian Studies.

Our second guest is Yifei Li. Yifei Li is Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at NYU Shanghai and Global Network Assistant Professor at NYU. In the 2020-2021 academic year, he is also Residential Fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich. His recent work appears in Current Sociology, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Environmental Sociology, and the Journal of Environmental Management. He received his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Bachelor’s from Fudan University.

Further reading:

https://www.amazon.com/China-Goes-Green-Coercive-Environmentalism/dp/1509543120/

https://chinadialogue.net/en/cities/as-china-goes-green-should-the-world-celebrate-its-model/

In today's podcast, we’re talking about why it’s been so difficult to get financing for renewable energy in the Belt and Road, also known as the Belt-Road-Initiative or BRI. (Note the podcast was recorded prior to the announcement that China would pursue carbon neutrality by 2060.)

Our first guest is Ma Tianjie, Tianjie is managing editor of China Dialogue and several times past guest of Environment China. Before joining China Dialogue, he was Greenpeace's Program Director for Mainland China. He holds a master’s degree in environmental policy from American University, Washington D.C.

Our second guest is Bai Yunwen. Yunwen is the director of Greenovation Hub. Founded in 2012, Greenovation Hub is, an independent Chinese NGO advancing sound climate and environment governance. Over the years, Yunwen has worked on climate diplomacy, energy policy, and international financial flows. Recently, she and her colleagues have worked with financial regulators to strengthen environmental and social practices on belt-and-road investments.

The Belt-and-Road Initiative, aka One Belt One Road, was launched in 2013, and though membership is unofficial it is said to include between 70 countries (Wikipedia) to over 130 countries (according to the BRI website). It’s stated goal is to “promote the connectivity of Asian, European and African continents and their adjacent seas, establish and strengthen partnerships among the countries … and realize diversified, independent, balanced and sustainable development in these countries.”

An analysis by MERICS showed that of US$ 75 billion in completed investments, two-thirds was energy related, most of which was in coal, oil, and gas projects.

https://merics.org/en/analysis/powering-belt-and-road

The vast majority of coal plants outside of China are funded by investment from China. https://qz.com/1760615/china-quits-coal-at-home-but-promotes-the-fossil-fuel-in-developing-countries/

According to a Greenpeace analysis in 2019, China’s BRI investments have supported 67 GW of coal plants and just 12 GW of wind and solar plants. https://www.power-technology.com/news/china-belt-and-road-wind-solar/

The genesis of today’s podcast is a report by Greenovation Hub, which discussed some of the reasons why it is difficult for Chinese wind and solar companies to invest and do business abroad. https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/11952-chinese-firms-struggle-to-fund-renewables-projects-overseas/

We don't do this often, but in today's podcast we address some breaking news: President Xi Jinping's announcement that China will peak carbon emissions before 2030 and set a new goal of net-neutral carbon emissions by 2060. The speech, delivered remotely to the United Nations during Climate Week, caught energy and climate watchers by surprise. 

In this mini-podcast, recorded less than 24 hours after the announcement, host Anders Hove gathered three top energy and climate experts (and long-time Beijing Energy Network speakers) for a short and rapid-fire panel discussion:

Li Shuo is senior global policy analyst at Greenpeace East Asia. 

Lauri Myllyvirta is lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. 

Kaare Sandholt is chief expert at the China National Renewable Energy Centre, at the NDRC Energy Research Institute. 

To keep the show notes brief, here are the items mentioned or referenced by the guests:

The China National Renewable Energy Centre's China Renewable Energy Outlook (full version, may not work in certain browsers: http://boostre.cnrec.org.cn/index.php/2020/03/30/china-renewable-energy-outlook-2019-2/?lang=en; executive summary: https://www.dena.de/fileadmin/dena/Publikationen/PDFs/2019/CREO2019_-_Executive_Summary_2019.pdf) CREO's 2050 Below 2 Degree scenario anticipates non-fossil energy reaching 65% of primary energy (26% wind, 18% solar, 8% nuclear, 6% hydro, 8% other RE). Under this scenario, China would ramp up from installing around 40 GW of solar and 35 GW wind in recent years to 60 GW of solar and 55 GW wind in the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), eventually peaking annual installations at 150 GW each wind and solar in 2031-2035), and finally reaching around 2,000 GW of wind and solar in the late 2030s. (China currently has over 200 GW each of wind and solar installed.)

See also various publications using the China-SWITCH model, such as Enabling a Rapid and Just Transition Away from Coal," One Earth, 2020 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7442150/ and "Rapid cost decrease of renewables and storage accelerates the decarbonization of China’s power system," Nature, 2020, at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-16184-x. 

Lauri mentions his recent article on China's covid recovery investments and how they break down by high-carbon versus low-carbon: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chinas-covid-stimulus-plans-for-fossil-fuels-three-times-larger-than-low-carbon

Kaare mentions Document #9 on Deepening Reform of the Power Sector. You can read more about that 2015 policy here: https://www.raponline.org/blog/a-new-framework-for-chinas-power-sector/ 

This episode was produced by Anders Hove and edited by Veronica Spurna. 

Renewable energy is the key to reducing China's carbon emissions, and for many years experts have seen electricity markets as essential to the promotion of clean energy. 

In this episode, we check in with a leading U.S. expert on China's power sector, Michael Davidson, to discuss two recent papers he has published on the topic of power markets and renewable energy in China.

Michael Davidson is an Assistant Professor in the School of Global Policy and Strategy and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of California San Diego. His research and teaching center on the engineering implications and institutional conflicts inherent in deploying low-carbon energy at scale, with a particular focus on China, India, and the U.S. He holds a PhD in engineering systems from MIT and was previously a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

For further reading:

http://mdavidson.org/

Hongye Guo Michael R. Davidson, Qixin Chen. Da Zhang, Nan Jiang, Qing Xia, Chongqing Kang, Xiliang Zhang, Power market reform in China: Motivations, progress, and recommendations, Energy Policy, October 2020, at https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0301421520304444.

Pre-publication version: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jya_iJmW-YqKZqqNg9552LNc-3EYGNY7/view

Davidson, M. R. and Ignacio Pérez-Arriaga, Avoiding Pitfalls in China’s Electricity Sector Reforms, The Energy Journal, 2020, at http://www.iaee.org/en/publications/ejarticle.aspx?id=3504.

Pre-publication version: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5cx330qg

Some useful definitions:

Electricity spot market: For most commodities, a spot market refers to buying and selling of a commodity for immediate delivery. For electricity, the spot market usually consists of two markets with different lead times: the day-ahead and intraday markets. Market players on the day-ahead market trade in electricity for the following day. For intraday markets, the hour-ahead market is most common.

Dispatch: Since electricity cannot be stored in power lines, the entity operating the power grid must continuously adjust the output of its power plants (or energy storage units) to meet fluctuations in electricity demand. This process is called the dispatch of power plants.

Economic dispatch: Economic dispatch is the short-term determination of the optimal output of a number of electricity generation facilities, to meet the system load, at the lowest possible cost, subject to transmission and operational constraints. The main idea is that, in order to satisfy the load at a minimum total cost, the set of generators with the lowest marginal costs must be used first, with the marginal cost of the final generator needed to meet load setting the system marginal cost.

Curtailment: Curtailment is the percentage reduction (usually by the grid operator) of output of a renewable power plant below what it could have otherwise produced. It is calculated by subtracting the electricity that was actually produced from the amount of electricity the plant could have produced given available wind or solar resources.

Capacity factor: Also known as the capacity utilization factor, this is the ratio of the actual output from a power plant over the year (kWh) to the maximum possible output from it for a year (kWh) under ideal conditions. If a power plant has a maximum output (capacity) of 1,000,000 kW, and it operates at a capacity factor of 100% of the year, it would produce 1,000,000 kWh x 24 days x 365 hours = 8,760 GWh. In China, capacity factor is usually mentioned in terms of the number of operating hours per year, but the concept is the same (just divide operating hours by the number of hours in one year and the resulting percentage is the capacity factor). A higher capacity factor generally translates to a lower cost of electricity, since capital costs will be spread across more operating hours.

Wholesale vs retail power markets: A wholesale market allows trading between generators, retailers and other financial intermediaries both for short-term delivery of electricity (see spot market) and for future delivery periods. A retail electricity market exists when end-use customers can choose their supplier from competing electricity retailers. In China, this retail market would typically exist mainly for large industrial consumers.

Acronyms:

SERC: State Electricity Regulatory Commission (defunct)

NDRC: National Development and Reform Commission (responsible for all aspects of economic planning and regulation)

NEA: National Energy Administration

Background on the California 2000 electricity crisis:

https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/107th-congress-2001-2002/reports/californiaenergy.pdf

In 2001, the Congressional Budget Office analysis stated that: "Long-term solutions to California’s electricity problems will most likely require three changes: removing barriers to the addition of generating capacity, eliminating bottlenecks in the electricity transmission system, and removing regulatory restrictions on the sale of power throughout the broad western market... On the demand side, the prospects for successful restructuring would also improve if consumers faced the full costs of electricity and were better able to adjust their use of power in response to changing prices." The report went on to recommend real-time metering (mostly implemented), devices in homes to monitor power use and automatically schedule or interrupt consumption when prices are high.

Here's a blog from leading California expert and California Independent System Operator board of governors member Severin Borenstein, of the University of California Berkeley, that offers specific criticisms of the present state of the California market with respect to consumer participation and utility/ISO communication with consumers: "Why don't we do it with demand?" https://energyathaas.wordpress.com/2020/08/24/why-dont-we-do-it-with-demand/

Lastly, here is a fascinating summary from David Roberts of Vox discussing the need for more solar (not less), microgrids, and islanding capability to deal with blackouts and fires in California: https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/10/28/20926446/california-grid-distributed-energy  

In today's podcast, we talk to two private sector experts working on the topic of corporate ESG - which refers to corporate policies and performance on the environment, sustainability, and governance. In the first part of the episode, we focus on the policies that have driven companies in China towards greater emphasis of ESG, and which companies are working most seriously on the topic of ESG. We discuss the process of certifying the first project in China under a new international ESG standard for infrastructure. And we close by examining what's next for ESG in China.

Our first guest is Dang Anqi. Anqi is an ESG and sustainable investment analyst at Allianz France. She is leading the climate-related financial disclosure and the Sciences Based Targets Initiative at Allianz Investment Management. Her report on  sustainable investment won the International Climate Reporting Awards in 2019. (Link: https://www.allianz.fr/content/dam/onemarketing/azfr/common/marque/pdf/BROCH_AZ_AIM_REPORT-2020-EXE_1507.pdf.) 

Our second guest is Tracy Li, senior manager at SGS Certification and Business Enhancement. SGS is a multinational company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland which provides inspection, verification, testing and certification services. SGS China was established in 1991 with its head office in Beijing, and now has 78 branches in China, and over 15,000 employees.

This episode could almost serve as a reference document to the topic of ESG in China, and at points there are a lot of laws and acronyms mentioned in the episode. Here are a few of the key resources you may want to have in front of you to keep up.

2019 Climate Bonds Initiative report on China's green bond market: https://www.climatebonds.net/resources/reports/china-green-bond-market-2019-research-report

Major regulator milestones mentioned:

In 2016, the People's Bank of China and other ministries issued the Guidelines on Establishing a Green Financial System: https://greenfinanceplatform.org/financial-measures-database/chinas-guidelines-establishing-green-financial-system

In 2018, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued a directive concerning ESG disclosure: https://www.globalelr.com/2018/02/china-mandates-esg-disclosures-for-listed-companies-and-bond-issuers/

In 2018, the Asset Management Association of China issued the Green Investment Guidelines: https://greenfinanceplatform.org/financial-measures-database/chinas-green-investment-guidelines

International ESG standards mentioned:

Aluminum Stewardship Initiative (ASI): https://aluminium-stewardship.org/

Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS): https://a4ws.org/

The Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure (SuRe) standard: https://www.sure-standard.org/

GIB stands for Global Infrastructure Basel (https://gib-foundation.org/), which manages the SuRe standard.

(Disclosure: In his day-job with GIZ, Anders Hove has worked with SGS China in completing the first SuRe project certification, under the Sustainable Infrastructure Alliance.)

You have probably heard China's carbon market described as the largest carbon market in the world. That's only proper, since China is the largest carbon emitting country and the carbon market will cover the coal power sector, which accounts for around half of the country's emissions. 

2020 was originally billed as a major year for climate policy, both globally and in China. Where does China's carbon market policy stand and how is it likely to evolve during the 14th Five-Year Plan period? What announcements should we expect this year?

Our first guest is Stian Reklev, co-founder and reporter with Carbon Pulse, which provides news and intelligence on global carbon markets. He is based in Beijing, where he has covered emissions trading markets and climate policy across the Asia-Pacific region since 2009, first for Point Carbon and then for Reuters, before setting up Carbon Pulse in 2015.

Our second guest is Yan Qin of Refinitiv, who is based in Oslo. Yan Qin is a power and carbon analyst with extensive experience in energy market analysis and quantitative modelling. Her work focus on the short-term outlook for power and carbon trading, supply-demand forecasting, and energy policy insights, mainly for clients at utilities and energy companies. She was power market consultant before joining the Point Carbon team in 2011. Yan holds a Masters in Economics from the University of Oslo.

For further reading:

IEA report on China's carbon ETS: https://www.iea.org/reports/chinas-emissions-trading-scheme

Carbon Pulse: https://carbon-pulse.com/category/china-national-ets/

Refinitiv's annual global carbon market report and survey: https://www.refinitiv.com/en/resources/special-report/global-carbon-market-report#form

It's been a busy year for energy policy in China, and we're only in the beginning of July. This summer and fall are crucial periods in the design of the 14th Five-Year Plan, and many listeners are already aware that there are big issues at stake for climate and the environment. In today's podcast, we're releasing the audio of a Beijing Energy Network webinar held in mid-June. Recent Environment China podcast host Anders Hove and China Dialogue's Wu Yixiu delivered a joint presentation covering a lot of important details of this process. Topics touched on include:

Some reading:

The 14th Five-Year Plan: What Ideas are on the Table?

https://chinadialogue.net/climate/11434-the-14th-five-year-plan-what-ideas-are-on-the-table/

Current Direction for Renewable Energy in China: 

https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/current-direction-for-renewable-energy-in-china/

In this week's podcast, we sit down with Chloe Dempsey to talk about meat, alternative protein, and the environment in China. Chloe is a research fellow at the Cellular Agriculture Society and Yenching scholar at Peking University, where she is completing a Master’s of Economics. Chloe’s thesis focuses on the market for cultured meat in China, with a focus on consumers. Chloe also has an interest in alternative protein, sustainable food solutions and agriculture across Asia, Oceania and Latin America. Chloe comes from both Australia and Ireland, both countries whose key exports to China are agricultural and food related. Chloe has previously lived in Brazil and has supplementary qualifications in philanthropy and social impact design. Chloe’s undergraduate studies were in Law and International relations, and over the last four years she has studied, worked and volunteered across Greater China and the Asia Pacific in commercial law and for environmental and social causes. 

Since 2016, Chloe has been predominantly resident in Beijing and in her spare time enjoys long distance running and tracking down Beijing’s best jianbing.  

Asia is the world's top region for infrastructure investment, and these investments need to be sustainable in order to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A fair number of standards now exist to help investors assess the sustainability of infrastructure, and one of those specific to the debt market is green bonds. 

In today's episode, we sit down with Xie Wenhong, China Program Manager at the Climate Bonds Initiative. Wenhong has experience working on development and energy in Southeast Asia, and previously worked under Dr. Ma Jun at the Center for Finance and Development of Tsinghua University. He holds an MA in International Policy Studies from Stanford University.

Show notes:

Greening China's Bond Market, by Sean Kidney:

https://www.iisd.org/sites/default/files/publications/greening-chinas-financial-system-chapter-10.pdf

Introduction to China's green bond market in China Dialogue (2018): https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/10387-International-investors-eye-China-s-green-bonds

Energy security was already a hot issue in China well before the global oil price collapse and Covid crisis. Now, as the country listens to the government list its coming priorities during the long-delayed Two Sessions of the National People's Congress, energy security is topic Number One.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr Michal Meidan, Director of the China Energy Programme at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), to talk about China, energy security, and oil and gas markets. Before joining OIES in July 2019, she headed cross-commodity China research at Energy Aspects. Prior to that, she headed China Matters, an independent research consultancy providing analysis on the politics of energy in China. She is the author of numerous academic papers, articles, and books related to China, energy, and political economy.

Dr Meidan is also a past speaker at the Beijing Energy Network and has memories of BEN going back over a decade.

Show notes:

China Key Themes for Energy in 2020 (written in January): https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/China-Key-Themes-for-2020.pdf

Geopolitical Shifts and China’s Energy Priorities, March 2020: https://www.oxfordenergy.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Geopolitical-shifts-and-Chinas-energy-policy-priorities.pdf

Dr Meidan’s Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/michalmei

Oxford Institute for Energy Studies podcast: China’s Rocky Road to Recovery: https://www.oxfordenergy.org/publications/chinas-rocky-road-to-recovery-2/

This is the second part of a two-part episode featuring Lauri Myllyvirta, an air pollution and climate expert from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

Lauri has over 10 years of experience as an air pollution and climate expert. He 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. Lauri has also contributed to numerous publications around energy solutions and air pollution. He served as a member of the Technical Working Group on regulating emissions from large combustion plants in the EU. He lived in Beijing for many years and was previously a senior member of the Greenpeace East Asia team based in Beijing.

In this segment, Lauri and Environment China host Anders Hove discuss some of the issues and questions raised by Lauri's presentation and his other research.

This is the first part of a two-part episode featuring Lauri Myllyvirta, an air pollution and climate expert from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

Lauri has over 10 years of experience as an air pollution and climate expert. He 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. Lauri has also contributed to numerous publications around energy solutions and air pollution. He served as a member of the Technical Working Group on regulating emissions from large combustion plants in the EU. He lived in Beijing for many years and was previously a senior member of the Greenpeace East Asia team based in Beijing.

In this segment, Lauri has recorded a video of a presentation he made recently on the impact of Covid-19 on air pollution worldwide as well as the potential for a green stimulus to make this economic recovery focus on more high quality growth. In the second part, we engage in a short Q&A. If you want to view the presentation and video, Lauri is planning to upload the presentation to YouTube, and we’ll have that link in the show notes when it’s up.

You can find more content from CREA on their website at: https://energyandcleanair.org/. 

China, like other major countries, is actively working on measures to stimulate the economy and recover from the coronavirus. The question is, how can China make its stimulus measures as green and beneficial for the economy as possible?

In this episode, we cover what types of stimulus have been done in the past, what the principles should be for green stimulus, and what ideas each of us have for how green stimulus could be done this time in China. Finally, we talk about whether it’s likely to actually happen.

Guests are:

Dimitri DeBoer, who started and leads the china office of Client Earth, a European NGO focused on environmental law, which works with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment as well as the Supreme People’s Court helping with training of environmental judges. Dimitri is also special advisor to the CCICED, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Wu Yixiu, who leads the Climate communications team with China Dialogue. She has been following and writing about China’s low carbon transition pathway, annual emissions, and other climate related topics for several years. Recently, Yixiu and frequent Environment China co-host Yao Zhe published a piece in China Dialogue, "Stimulating the economy sustainably after coronavirus," at https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/11896-Stimulating-the-economy-sustainably-after-coronavirus. 

Other items referenced in the episode include:

Statement of European leaders on green stimulus: https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/eu-leaders-back-green-transition-in-pandemic-recovery-plan/

Various ideas from the U.S. on green stimulus:  https://medium.com/@green_stimulus_now/a-green-stimulus-to-rebuild-our-economy-1e7030a1d9ee

In this special mini-episode of Environment China, we again talk to Li Shuo of Greenpeace, following up on his earlier interview on the Biodiversity COP, as well as discussing how the recent crisis in China could affect the country's policies and efforts on the broader topics of biodiversity, wildlife protection, and climate change.

Li Shuo references a column by recent podcast guest Lauri Myllyvirta, of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, available here: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-coronavirus-has-temporarily-reduced-chinas-co2-emissions-by-a-quarter

Here is another article illustrating graphically how the reduction in industrial activity has influenced emissions, as observed by satellites. The question is, will additional stimulus lead emissions to rebound even more strongly? 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-01/air-pollution-vanishes-across-china-s-industrial-heartland

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?

With the U.S. announcing its intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement and China now embracing the concept of global climate governance, it’s easy to forget that 20 years ago, discussion of climate change in China was almost nonexistent. One person particularly well-placed to reflect on China’s transformation into a purported environmental hero is Barbara Finamore, founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s China Program and author of the book Will China Save the Planet?. Although China has certainly come a long way from the days when NRDC first started sharing its experience on energy efficiency and “negawatts” in the 1990’s, it is still a land of contradictions. We sat down with Barbara to explore China’s ongoing battle to fundamentally transform its economy in order to protect public health and reduce emissions, and the challenges it faces both domestically and globally.  You can check out Barbara’s book here: https://www.amazon.com/Will-China-Planet-Barbara-Finamore/dp/1509532641

Environment China is back from hibernation with a series of new interviews! First up, today’s episode was recorded live at the Beijing Bookworm International Literary Festival. It was an honor to be invited back for the second year in a row to host a panel about the biggest stories coming out of China’s energy and environmental field over the past year. Our producer and host Lili Pike moderates a panel with three expert guests: Ma Tianjie, Managing Editor of chinadialogue Beijing; Alvin Lin, Climate and Energy Policy Director at Natural Resources Defense Council China; and Lijing, a freelance environmental journalist based in Beijing. They discuss the top environmental news stories from the past year from how the trade war has impacted environmental governance to the evolution of the Belt and Road Initiative. Tune in for a riveting conversation, and we’ll be back in two weeks with our next episode!

Also be sure to check out our new website, created by our producer Erin Wong! https://www.environmentchinapodcast.com/

http://bookwormfestival.com/events/blf-2019-environmental-panel/

马天杰，中外对话北京运营副主编。加入中外对话之前，他担任绿色和平中国大陆项目总监。他于2009年取得美利坚大学国际环境政策硕士学位。他的英文博客Panda Paw, Dragon Claw (中文名：萌猛哒) 致力于从主流媒体以外的视角去记录和分析中国海外投资的足迹。

如果您有兴趣关注中外对话，请登录中外对话官网 https://www.chinadialogue.net/

如果您有兴趣阅读Panda Paw, Dragon Claw 博客, 请点击 https://pandapawdragonclaw.blog/

Ma Tianjie is Beijing Managing Editor of chinadialogue. Before joining chinadialogue, he was Greenpeace's Program Director for Mainland China. He holds a master’s degree in environmental policy from American University, Washington D.C. His English blogPanda Paw, Dragon Claw, is a conversation about China‘s footprint beyond its border.

If you are interested in learning more about chinadialogue, please visit https://www.chinadialogue.net/

If you are interested in reading Panda Paw, Dragon Claw, please go to https://pandapawdragonclaw.blog/

This week, we have a special episode that was recorded LIVE in Beijing at an event on July 5th.  Environment China hosted an evening panel discussion on the growing trend of podcasting and podcasters in Beijing.  We were joined by hosts and producers from four relatively new Beijing-produced podcasts, including: Zhang Ya Jun from the Wo Men podcast, John Artman from the China Tech Talk podcast, Brendan Davis from the Big Fish in the Middle Kingdom podcast, and our own Noah Lerner from Environment China.

The evening was moderated by another of our hosts and producers, Kate Logan.  As you'll hear, Kate led an interesting discussion on the origin stories and motivations behind each of the shows, as well as on some technical talk and tips on how each of the guests sets up, records, and produces their show.

“十三五”煤控目标如何实现，“一带一路”建设如何促进绿色发展，是目前中国能源环境问题的两个重要焦点。华北电力大学袁家海教授作为电力经济和电力低碳转型的专家，从电力发展的角度就以上问题开展了深度研究。在这期节目中，袁教授将通过实地调研案例，与我们分享他在 “十三五”电力行业控煤政策研究以及“一带一路”绿色电力合作研究中的发现。如果希望进一步阅读相关研究成果，可以在网络上搜索《持续推进电力改革 提高可再生能源消纳》，下载这份报告。 Our guest this episode is Professor Yuan Jiahai from North China Electric Power University, an expert in electric power development and its low carbon transition. During the past few years, Prof. Yuan has done extensive research on how China's electric power development is meeting coal cap goals. He also travelled to a number of countries to research on China's green electric power cooperation with Belt and Road Initiative countries. He is very excited to share his findings with us.

In today’s episode, we check the millennial box and take a look at blockchain -- and its energy implications. Alarming headlines came out earlier this year charting the rising energy consumption of Bitcoin and tracing the majority of its mining operations back to China. We are joined by Sophie Lu, head of China Research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, who has written a report on the topic. She describes why Bitcoin mining consumes so much electricity, why it is taking place in China, and what future power consumption might be as demand for Bitcoin rises but its manufacture also becomes more efficient. Sophie also discusses the broader potential environmental benefits of the blockchain technology behind Bitcoin – particularly its use in making supply chains more transparent and facilitating distributed energy grids.