Beijing’s Environmental Protection Monitoring Center started to release official air quality data, including fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) readings, collected by 20 monitoring stations scattered across the city on Friday
The city's new air quality monitoring network is designed to accommodate a total of 35 monitoring stations. With 20 stations fully on-line the additional 15 will start operating on a trial basis this week are expected to produce data by early October, an official from the monitor center told Xinhua.
From yesterday, ocean-going vessels (OGVs) are eligible for a 50 percent reduction in port facility and light dues if they switch to cleaner fuel while berthing in Hong Kong waters for the next three years, according to a statement recently posted on the Hong Kong government’s website.
The Chinese government is preparing to charge emission fees on cars and is currently discussing this policy, according to Li Zuojun, deputy director of Resources and Environment Institute under the Development Research Center of the State Council.
Pressure groups in Taiwan are seeking a ban on the expansion of a naphtha cracker operation in Yunlin County on health grounds. They claimed that the plant run by Formosa Plastics Group emits volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
The Vietnam government has updated parts of its rural industrial promotion resolutions to include cleaner and more environmentally-friendly guidelines. The original plan pushed rural production jobs primarily in craft products and was extended to 272 villages.
In what must be considered his boldest appointments since he took office at the beginning of July, Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung has appointed Christine Loh as the Under-Secretary for the Environment in his new administration.
Loh was formerly the chief executive of Civic Exchange, the Hong Kong-based think tank she co-founded in 2000, and a staunch but constructive critic of the Hong Kong Government’s environmental policies.
One of China's biggest car-making cities, Guangzhou, plans to halve the numbers of new cars on its streets. The municipal government has introduced license plate auctions and lotteries.
Everyone is aware of Hong Kong’s poor air quality but what can an individual or an organisation do to make a difference?
This was the basic question that Standard Chartered Bank put to three NGOs back in early 2010. Together with Friends of the Earth (HK), Green Power and WWF-Hong Kong, the bank came up with a scheme focussed on Hong Kong vehicles usage and transportation options in general.
China's provincial, municipal and country environmental protection agencies have been ordered to publish environmental impact assessment reports on their websites from September 1 to make the evaluations available to the public, according to the state-run China Daily.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said it issued the order to better regulate environmental impact assessments, after recent incidents in which environmental issues triggered widespread objections.
The Standing Committee of China’s National People's Congress (NPC) Monday began reading a draft law aimed at putting more emphasis on the role of the central and local governments in environmental protection.
The first revision since 1989 when China introduced its fundamental legal code on environmental protection — the Environmental Protection Law — the draft amendment was created after a four-year research project.
In a joint press statement last week, Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) and Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources (MEWR) announced the implementation of a suite of measures to support higher national air quality standards for the city state, with the aim of achieving them by 2020.
In a recent publication called the 2012 Wealth Report, Knight Frank Research and Citi Private Bank made the bold prediction that by the year 2050, the wealthiest four economies measured by GDP per capita would be in Asia. Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea will stand atop the world, with the United States ringing in 5th.
By 2050 Hong Kong’s GDP per capita is projected to be USD116,639, a whopping 157 percent increase over the 2010 figure of USD45,301. Before we start salivating over our predicted future wealth, however, we must first consider the many challenges of realizing this level of economic growth in a sustainable way.
China’s tax department has proposed a pollution levy to the state cabinet, a move that may increase raw- material prices, the Economic Information Daily reported today, citing an unidentified government official.
Shanghai has become the first city in China to launch a pilot carbon emission rights trading scheme, marking a significant milestone in the country’s efforts to control and ultimately reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.
About 200 major local polluters, including industrial companies whose annual carbon dioxide emissions reach 20,000 tonnes and non-industrial enterprises whose annual emissions total 10,000 tonnes, will take part in the trading, the city government said in a statement.
The Asia Development Bank is urging China to adopt a tough green taxation system if it hopes to meet its pollution reduction goals and promote sustainable economic growth.
According to a paper recently published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics global air quality will be the same in 2050 as that currently inhaled by the average Beijinger if man-made emissions remain at current levels and air quality legislation is not reinforced.
Hong Kong is the most livable city on Earth! Really? Well, that’s the conclusion drawn by Filippo Lovato, the winner of an Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) competition that challenged participants to find innovative ways of defining what it meant to be the world’s “best city.”
After a carefree honeymoon period when we relished our new status — (take that Melbourne and Vienna!) — a suffocating dose of smog choked us back to reality.
A pollutant discharge quota exchange platform is to be established in Shanghai next year to control emissions and trade in surplus quotas, the city’s environmental protection authority has said.
Next year, the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau will issue new permits to industrial plants to regulate the type of pollutant, the maximum amount allowed and how it is discharged.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment is urging the city of Bandung to cancel plans to build a waste-to-energy power plant because of what it calls serious health and environmental hazards, according to a report in the Jakarta Globe yesterday.
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
.png "The Climate Group logo"){kind=logo}
