Lifestyle

Flying the recycling flag in China
May 15, 2012
Aware of the need to improve resource efficiency, China’s state bodies are gearing up to increase recycling across the country, aiming for a 70 percent recycling rate for consumer products by the end of 2015. The National Supply and Marketing Co-operative General Agency has just released its “Opinion on the Acceleration of Construction of Post-Consumer Recycling Systems”, which says that my the end of the 12th Five Year Plan in 2015, over 80 percent of urban communities will establish standardized recycling stations and 1,000 recylced material markets. The system’s consumer products will account for over 60 percent of the volume of all recycled materials.
One planet to share
May 14, 2012
The Government of India has taken umbrage over perceived “biases” in the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP's) Asia Pacific Human Development report, One Planet To Share – Sustaining human progress in a changing climate, which was released on Thursday. The report argues that in the face of climate change, countries in Asia and the Pacific “will need to change the way they manufacture goods, raise crops and livestock, and generate energy.” This will mean “moving to greener, more resilient, lower-emission options that not only sustain the environment but also offer opportunities to the poor for employment and income.”
May 09, 2012
Dawa Steven Sherpa, 28-year-old Nepalese mountain guide and adventure pioneer, has been awarded the first ever WWF International President’s Award during a special ceremony at global conservation organization WWF’s Annual Conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
May 09, 2012
A UN Development Programme ( UNDP) official has released a proposal to change the energy sector for the Pacific Islands by substituting carbon-intensive energy sources with investments in clean energy.
May 09, 2012
The World Bank today released a report urging governments to think green when pursing growth policies, which can be inclusive, efficient, affordable and above all necessary to sustain economic expansion in years ahead.
May 08, 2012
Reports of formaldehyde-tainted Chinese cabbage in east China's Shandong province, the country's largest vegetable production base, have exposed some clandestine market practices and triggered a new wave of food safety concerns, according to Xinhua.
May 08, 2012
The World Bank’s IFC is supporting the Indian state of Gujarat to replicate a rooftop solar project first completed in Gandhinagar to five more cities, improving access to power and reducing air pollution from the burning of wood and fossil fuels.
A more sucessful example of urban renewal
May 07, 2012
In many Asian cities thriving quarters are progressively being stripped of their distinctive street life. Market pressure is forcing out older residents and local shop-owners, typically in places that have been earmarked for prime real estate development due to their central, high-traffic location. No where is this more visible and dispiriting than in Hong Kong’s older districts. The confluence of Hong Kong's high post-war population growth, limited space for development and the urban design resulted in the development of areas that are socially vibrant and commercially diverse. Today these are situated in older districts where many buildings have become dilapidated, threatening their ability to support the residents within, as well as the street activity on their doorstep.
May 04, 2012
China will invest more than 5 trillion yuan (USD796 billion) in energy saving and environmental protection projects and was hoping for closer collaboration between China and the EU, Vice Premier Li Keqiang  said yesterday during the EU-China Cooperation on Urbanization Forum in Brussels.
May 01, 2012
Authorities in northern China have ordered a Coca-Cola bottling plant shut after finding its products were contaminated by chlorine, according to a government statement.
April 30, 2012
In what will be welcome news to many electricity-challenged Asian communities, Honda Motor Co has announced a portable generator capable of generating electricity by using propane gas which is far cleaner than the standard diesel or gasoline powered units.
Generation Y in China
April 03, 2012
A new study from the Carbon Trust reveals a divide between Generation Y's attitude to carbon reduction in the Asia and West.  The study, which questioned over 2,500 young people aged 18-25, across five continents in Brazil, China, South Africa, South Korea, UK and the USA, sought to understand whether tomorrow's consumers are concerned about climate change and will favor brands that reduce their carbon emissions.
April 03, 2012
The Beijing municipal government has announced plans to improve the quality of the city's air by covering 100,000 sq m of roofs with greenery by the end of this year as public discourse over the city’s pollution heats up.
Leopards and tigers poached for their skins
April 03, 2012
National leaders of environmental, biodiversity and natural resources agencies, and departments with law enforcement responsibility, have gathered for the first time to design a global compliance and enforcement strategy to address environmental security. Hosted by INTERPOL and co-organized with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the three-day International Chiefs of Environmental Compliance and Enforcement summit focused on key environmental crime issues such as fisheries, forestry, pollution and wildlife crime, as well as violence, money laundering and tax evasion, all of which exact untold costs on the environment and citizens.
March 27, 2012
Japan is now down to one nuclear reactor to supply electricity to its troubled power sector after the Tokyo Electric Power Co. on Monday took its last remaining reactor off line for regular maintenance, according to Germany’s Deutsche Welle. The No. 6 reactor at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa complex, the world's biggest nuclear power plant, has been shut down for maintenance by the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco), leaving only one of Japan's 54 commercial nuclear reactors online after last year's devastating earthquake and tsunami.
March 23, 2012
Beijing will boost employment in the renewable energy sector with policy and financial support to tackle job pressures and improve the city's environment, according to the city’s labor authority.
March 22, 2012
Environmental scientists have issued strong warnings against the development of 12 hydropower projects along the Mekong River claiming that they will cause non-recoverable damage to the river’s ecosystem as well as threaten food security of residents in the riparian countries.
March 20, 2012
The plastic industry has launched an offensive against the use of brown paper bags and recycled newspapers  to wrap food—environmentalists’ proposed alternatives to plastic bags that are known to pose a huge threat to the environment, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
March 16, 2012
The rapid growth of cities across the developing world has resulted in urban areas overtaking rural communities as being the most vulnerable to wide scale flooding, according to a report from the World Bank.
March 14, 2012
Deputies at the meetings of the China’s National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have been subject to a water conservation publicity campaign by the Beijing Travel Committee, a local government agency, Champion of the Water Alliance, an NGO. Posters placed outside conference rooms at hotels where deputies to the two sessions of have been staying have exhorted them to: “Mark your bottled water and please be sure to drink it all.”