Environment China

Latest Episodes:

The Race for Alternative Protein in China - with Chloe Dempsey Jun 01, 2020

Show notes

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.

How Green Bonds are Changing Infrastructure Investment in China and Abroad - with Xie Wenhong, Climate Bonds Initiative May 28, 2020

Show notes

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

2019 Green Bond Market Summary https://www.climatebonds.net/files/reports/2019_annual_highlights-final.pdf Growing green bond markets: The development of taxonomies to identify green assets https://www.climatebonds.net/files/reports/policy_taxonomy_briefing_conference.pdf Comparing China's Green Definitions with the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy https://www.climatebonds.net/resources/reports/comparing-china%E2%80%99s-green-definitions-eu-sustainable-finance-taxonomy-part-1

China, energy security, and oil and gas markets - with Michal Meidan May 24, 2020

Show notes

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/

Lauri Myllyvirta - Covid19, energy, and emissions - Part 2 Q&A May 01, 2020

Show notes

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.

Lauri Myllyvirta - Covid19, energy, and emissions - Part 1 May 01, 2020

Show notes

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.

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/.

Brainstorming Ideas for a Green Stimulus in China Apr 01, 2020

Show notes

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

Coronavirus: Impacts on wildlife and climate Mar 01, 2020

Show notes

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

Beijing's Pursuit of Clean Air - An Interview with Lauri Myllyvirta Jan 25, 2020

Show notes

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.

Global Energy Interconnection: The Dawn of the Global Power Grid? Dec 22, 2019

Show notes

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.

Just Act Naturally! China and Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change Dec 13, 2019

Show notes

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/.