Tag Archives: climate change

Eco-urbanism and the eco-city, or, denying the right to the city?

Caprotti, Federico. (2014) Eco-urbanism and the eco-city, or, denying the right to the city? Antipode : A Radical Journal of Geography. Pre-published online, March 3, 2014. DOI: 10.1111/anti.12087

This paper critically analyses the construction of eco-cities as technological fixes to concerns over climate change, Peak Oil, and other scenarios in the transition towards “green capitalism”. It argues for a critical engagement with new-build eco-city projects, first by highlighting the inequalities which mean that eco-cities will not benefit those who will be most impacted by climate change: the citizens of the world’s least wealthy states. Second, the paper investigates the foundation of eco-city projects on notions of crisis and scarcity. Third, there is a need to critically interrogate the mechanisms through which new eco-cities are built, including the land market, reclamation, dispossession and “green grabbing”. Lastly, a sustained focus is needed on the multiplication of workers’ geographies in and around these “emerald cities”, especially the ordinary urban spaces and lives of the temporary settlements housing the millions of workers who move from one new project to another.

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Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Warmer relations between Washington and Beijing on climate change

After European Union leaders’ decision to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 40% by 2030, US and China also agreed to take actions to limit greenhouse gases.

These decisions are very ambitious, and could literally save the world from pollution and climate change, but as noted by Rebecca Leber1, there might be some obstacles to their implementation.

Both countries have a lot of work ahead to get to these targets.

  1. LEBER, R., 2014. The World has waited for the U.S. and China to ake action on climate change. They just did, The New Republic, November 12, 2014. Retrieved from http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120242/us-and-china-reach-agreement-climate-change []

Sebastien Goulard

Ph.D. in political science (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in social sciences (EHESS, Paris); M.A. in international relations (IRIS, Paris), B.A. (Hons) in international political studies (ESE - Nottingham Trent University)

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Chinadialogue

Chinadialogue (https://www.chinadialogue.net/) was launched on 3 July 2006 by an independent, non-profit organisation based in London and Beijing. It is a completely bilingual website that focuses on environmental issues like climate change, pollution, and water and food security. A website worth exploring.

Chinadialogue

Chi-Han Ai

Ph.D. candidate of EHESS ( École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) focusing on regional economic development in China and Taiwan.

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The US and China should focus on air pollution to tackle climate change

Zhang, Junjie. Why the US and China should focus on air pollution to tackle climate change. Asia Blog, 6 March, 2014. Retrieved 11 March, 2014, from http://asiasociety.org/blog/asia/why-us-and-china-should-focus-air-pollution-tackle-climate-change

The U.S. and China, the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHGs), are seeking common ground for climate action. During his China trip in February, Secretary of State John Kerry signed the U.S.-China Joint Statement on Climate Change, which pledges to devote resources to “secure concrete results” by the 2014 U.S.-China Strategic & Economic Dialogue. While there is no shortage of ideas about what the bilateral climate collaboration might address, the challenge is to identify a focal issue that is economically beneficial and politically viable for both countries.

Neither China nor the U.S. has shown a willingness to take measures that will reduce GHG emissions if there are economic costs attached. On the Chinese side, GDP growth remains a top priority, and political leaders are reluctant to sacrifice GDP growth in order to reduce GHG emissions. In addition, GHG emissions are not a known indicator in China’s cadre performance appraisal system, which partly determines the career advancement of government officials. Such officials have no immediate incentive to make decisions aimed at limiting carbon emissions. In the United States, proposed laws and regulations to limit GHG emissions or put a price on carbon have repeatedly been turned back because of concerns over their impact on the economy.

Cooperation on climate change is most likely to occur in an area associated with positive economic, health, and social impacts. The nexus between climate change and air pollution represents an area in which the U.S. and China can create a host of benefits that should appeal to leaders and key constituencies.

Read the full story on Asia Blog

 

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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The effects of future climate change on energy consumption in residential buildings in China

D. H. C. Chow, M. Kelly, J. Darkwa (2013), The Effects of Future Climate Change on Energy Consumption in Residential Buildings in China Journal of Power and Energy Engineering, 2013, 1, 16-24. Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET), University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China.

China is currently going through a phase of rapid mass urbanisation, and it is important to investigate how the growing built environment will cope with climate change, to see how the energy consumption of buildings in China will be affected. This is especially important for the fast-growing cities in the north, and around the east and south coasts. This paper aims to study the effects of future climate change on the energy consumption of buildings in the three main climate regions of China, namely the “Cold” region in the north, which includes Beijing; the “Hot Summer Cold Winter” region in the east, which includes cities such as Shanghai and Ningbo; and the “Hot Summer Mild Winter” region in the south, which includes Guangzhou. Using data from the climate model, HadCM3, Test Reference Years are generated for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s, for various IPCC future scenarios. These are then used to access the energy perform- ance of typical existing buildings, and also the effects of retrofitting them to the standard of the current building codes. It was found that although there are reductions in energy consumption for heating and cooling with retrofitting existing residential buildings to the current standard, the actual effects are very small compared with the extra energy consump- tion that comes as a result of future climate change. This is especially true for Guangzhou, which currently have very little heating load, so there is little benefit of the reduction in heating demand from climate change. The effects of retro- fitting in Beijing are also limited, and only in Ningbo was the effect of retrofitting able to nullify the effects of climate change up to 2020s. More improvements in building standards in all three regions are required to significantly reduce the effects of future climate change, especially to beyond 2020s.

Read the article on http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperDownload.aspx?paperID=39973.

 

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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2013 Green book of climate change

001e4f9daa8713e544e23aThe 2013 Annual report on actions to address climate change, published in November by the Social Sciences Academic Press, was compiled by Wang Weiguang and Zheng Guoguang. The main theme of this year’s report is  “Focus on low-carbon urbanisation”.

2013年《气候变化绿皮书:应对气候变化报告(2013)》11月出刊,由王伟光、郑国光撰寫,該绿皮书的主题是“聚焦低碳城镇化”,由社会科学文献出版社出版。

More information: http://www.cma.gov.cn/2011xwzx/2011xqxxw/2011xqxyw/201311/t20131104_230600.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chi-Han Ai

Ph.D. candidate of EHESS ( École des hautes études en sciences sociales, Paris) focusing on regional economic development in China and Taiwan.

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Urbanisation and green growth in China

OECD (2013), Urbanisation and green growth in China, 102 p.

This working paper assesses national policy and governance mechanisms that can influence green growth in Chinese cities. It applies the OECD conceptual framework for urban green growth to examine the potential challenges and opportunities for increasing economic growth through reducing the environmental impact of urban land use, transport and buildings; through improving water and air quality; and through fostering supply and demand of green products and services. The paper first situates the issue of green growth within the nexus of urbanisation and environmental challenges now facing China. This is followed by a review of environmental and quality of life challenges posed by rapid urbanisation. Opportunities for national policies to influence green growth in four key urban policy sectors are then examined. The paper concludes with an assessment of governance challenges and considers potential changes to facilitate economic growth while reducing the environmental impact of cities.

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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China inaugurates Low-Carbon Day

China marks 1st National Low-carbon Day

China is marking its first National Low-carbon Day, in a fresh move to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the world’s second-largest economy.. National Low-Carbon Day will fall on the third day of the National Energy Efficiency Promotion Week every June.

Source: CCTV, 17 June 2013 (accessed 20 June 2013)

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Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Is China about to introduce a national carbon price?

Arup, Tom. (2013) Where there’s smoke there’s China. The Age World, 8 May (accessed 7 June 2013).

As a former top diplomat in Beijing, and after three decades of professional and personal engagement with the country, Professor Ross Garnaut is no stranger to China.

In January, the respected economist and former Labor climate policy tsar found himself in Beijing again, this time to open a workshop hosted in part by China’s powerful National Development and Reform Commission.

Gathered were a group of international policy wonks, including many Australians and local government officials. They met to discuss options for what some in the public debate deny is happening – the introduction of a national carbon price in China.

In just over a month China will begin a massive experiment in emissions trading when the first of seven regional pilot schemes kicks off (and which one day may develop into a national scheme).

The stakes are high. China emits one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gases. It is easily the world’s largest consumer of coal. In 2011 it released an estimated 9.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide – more than the US and India combined.

In his speech Garnaut painted a cautious, but encouraging, picture of where China stands on climate change.

Read more here

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Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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Chinese impacts and impacting China

The new issue of Journal of Current Chinese Affairs is entitled  Chinese Impacts and Impacting China (See the the introduction written by Giese Karten: Chinese Impacts and Impacting China, Full Text: PDF (English).

The Journal of Current Chinese Affairs is a journal both print and online is devoted to the economic and political rise of the People’s Republic of China has stirred widespread debates on China’s potential and actual impact on both the international system and individual countries. At the same time, however, individual countries and global systems alike have always impacted developments in China, although these processes previously attracted much less scholarly attention. This issue of the Journal of Current Chinese Affairs presents a selection of exemplary cases relating to both phenomena that cover different areas of research. This collection of research articles demonstrates that increasing integration within the world system can never be regarded as a one-way street and involves impacting and being impacted simultaneously.

The online version can be found at www.CurrentChineseAffairs.org. It is published by GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Institute of Asian Studies in cooperation with the National Institute of Chinese Studies, White Rose East Asia Centre at the Universities of Leeds and Sheffield and Hamburg University Press.

This issue propose several articles on the environment in China.

Rasmus Lema, Axel Berger, Hubert Schmitz (2013), China’s Impact on the Global Wind Power Industry

Abstract

China’s economic rise has transformed the global economy in a number of manufacturing industries. This paper investigates whether China’s transformative influence extends to the new green economy. Drawing on the debate about how China is driving major economic changes in the world – the “Asian drivers” debate – it identifies five corridors of influence and investigates their relevance for the wind energy industries. Starting with the demand side, it suggests that the size and rapid growth of the Chinese market have a major influence on competitive parameters in the global wind power industry. While Western firms have found ways of participating in the growth of the Chinese market, the government’s procurement regimes benefit Chinese firms. The latter have invested heavily and learned fast, accumulating production capabilities that have led to changes in the global pecking order of lead firms. While the combined impact of Chinese market and production power is already visible, other influences are beginning to be felt – arising from China’s coordination, innovation and financing power.
Full Text available: PDF (English)

Axel Berger, Doris Fischer, Rasmus Lema, Hubert Schmitz, Frauke Urban (2013), China–Europe Relations in the Mitigation of Climate Change: A Conceptual Framework

Abstract

Despite the large-scale investments of both China and the EU in climate-change mitigation and renewable-energy promotion, the prevailing view on China–EU relations is one of conflict rather than cooperation. In order to evaluate the prospects of cooperation between China and the EU in these policy fields, empirical research has to go beyond simplistic narratives. This paper suggests a conceptual apparatus that will help researchers better understand the complexities of the real world. The relevant actors operate at different levels and in the public and private sectors. The main message of the paper is that combining the multi-level governance and value-chain approaches helps clarify the multiple relationships between these actors.
Full Text available at : PDF (English)

 

Andreas Hofem, Sebastian Heilmann (2013), Bringing the Low-Carbon Agenda to China: A Study in Transnational Policy Diffusion

Abstract

This study traces the transnational interactions that contributed to introducing the low-carbon economy agenda into Chinese policymaking. A microprocessual two-level analysis (outside-in as well as inside-access) is employed to analyse transnational and domestic exchanges. The study provides evidence that low-carbon agenda-setting – introduced by transnational actors, backed by foreign funding, promoted by policy entrepreneurs from domestic research institutes, propelled by top-level attention, but only gradually and cautiously adopted by the government bureaucracy – can be considered a case of effective transnational diffusion based on converging perceptions of novel policy challenges and options. Opinion leaders and policy-brokers from the government-linked scientific community functioned as effective access points to the Chinese government’s policy agenda.

Full Text: PDF (English)

 

Jacqueline Nivard

Jacqueline Nivard, Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine

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Call for papers for eighth special issue of BJECC

Toward a sustainable and resilient city: Development of adaptation measures to climate change

Guest Editor: Jimmy Kao, Distinguished Professor
Institute of Environmental Engineering
National Sun Yat-Sen University
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Email: jkao@mail.nsysu.edu.tw

Call for paper

The earth is undergoing a warming process and humanity faces an increasing possibility that extreme natural disasters are on the rise due to climate change and global warming.

In most of the Eastern and Southeastern Asia countries, rainfall amount from typhoon events accounts for a significant portion of annual rainfall. Thus, typhoons are important sources of water in the region, while at the same time they also trigger disasters such as floods, mud and rock flow, debris flows, and landslides.

Many of these climate change impacts will be – and in some cases already have been – felt directly at the local level. Local governments have a responsibility to protect their people, property, and resources. With the economies, livelihoods, safety and character of their communities at stake, cities are harnessing their visionary leadership and policy tools to increase resilience as they prepare for the future. Thus, it is very important to understand the impact of climate change on hydrology and natural disasters to develop appropriate adaptation measures against extreme climate conditions, which are accelerated as a result.

Topic

This special issue solicits papers in, but not limited to, the following areas of the latest scientific findings, effective approaches, and state-of-the-art strategies on climate change adaptation and resilience-building in cities and urbanized areas:

1. Cities’ actions towards resilience to disasters;
2. Influence of climate change on natural disasters;
3. Changes in hydrological cycle due to climate change;
4. Environmental and ecological assessment of natural disasters;
5. Impact of climate change on food security and urban agriculture;
6. Impact of climate change on water systems;
7. Impact of climate change on global economics
8. Development of sustainable water resource and watershed management strategies;
9. Building adaptation measures to climate change and disasters;
10. Financing mechanisms to implement measures for the management of changing climate;
11. Case studies.

 Submission

Manuscript submission deadline is April 30, 2013. Authors who are interested in contributing to the special issue of the British Journal of Environment and Climate Change should contact Prof. Jimmy Kao before April 30, 2013 via email: jkao@mail.nsysu.edu.tw‎.

 More information

Eight special issue of BJECC

British Journal of Environment and Climate Change

Monique Abud

Centre d'études sur la Chine moderne et contemporaine, EHESS, Paris, France

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