Shi Jiangtao
South China Morning Post
Only five of 120 mainland cities logged “blue-sky days” on New Year’s Day as the first up-to-the-hour air quality readings were reported under tougher pollution standards.
Data posted on the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s website yesterday showed that most cities saw “moderate” levels of sulphur dioxide and PM10, or large particulate matter, wi …
South China Morning Post
Li Jing
Environmental experts say real-time air quality updates mandated to start in 74 mainland cities on New Year’s Day will leave local officials less room to manipulate data and hide the country’s worsening pollution problem.
They said hourly readings – already provided as a trial in a dozen cities, including Guangzhou, where they began on Friday – were a first …
South China Morning Post
Shi Jiangtao in Beijing
Two grass-roots environmental activists have run an advertisement in The New York Times calling on China’s new leaders, including Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, to honour Beijing’s commitments on tackling pollution and fighting global climate change.
Titled “Congratulations to the new generation of China’s leaders,” the quarter-page advert …
SCMP
Reuters in Beijing
Despite China’s demand that foreign embassies stop releasing their own air pollution data, clearly a critique aimed at the US embassy’s air quality index, Washington states it will not stop providing the service.
The US embassy in Beijing and the consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou each have an air quality monitor to check the level of pollutants around their office …
SCMP
Shi Jiangtao
China’s Deputy Environment Minister Wu Xiaoqing has demanded an immediate end to any mainland air quality data published online by the American embassy, stating it violates Chinese law and international diplomatic convention.
The air quality readings published by the US embassy in Beijing, which began monitoring in 2009, differ from those published by the Chinese governmen …
SCMP
Shi Jiangtao
Government reluctance to immediately change monitoring methods reinforces criticism it cannot face up to the grim truth of the urban environment.
The mainland’s top environmental watchdog has finally unveiled a timetable for long-awaited reform of outdated air pollution standards amid mounting public pressure.
But instead of directly answering calls for immediate public acces …
SCMP
Shi Jiangtao
“An incomplete calculation of the environmental costs in 2008 showed that pollution caused nearly 900 billion yuan (HK$1.05 trillion) in economic losses, or 3 per cent of that year’s gross domestic product, according to the study, which was previously known as the Green GDP Project.” (Now called the Research Project on Nationwide Environmental-Economic Accounting.)
“The findin …
Jin Zhu
China Daily
“China plans to introduce ambitious new targets for the reduction of major pollutants in the upcoming 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) as the nation strives to realize its green goals, a senior official said.”
China realized its air pollutant SO2 reduction goal of 10% one year ahead of schedule. However, the economic recovery in 2010 has made it difficult for the government to a …