China

see CHINA 2 AGE O TRUMP=<a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/497093-republicans-blasting-china-forget-that-the-gop-enabled-beijings">https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/497093-republicans-blasting-china-forget-that-the-gop-enabled-beijings</a>5/20 a deadly pandemic wreaks havoc in an <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/490045-trumps-hubris-and-ideological-rigidity-will-cost-american-lives" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">election</a> year, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/496587-mccarthy-unveils-new-gop-led-china-task-force" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">Republicans</a> are leveling relentless <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/24/gop-memo-anti-china-coronavirus-207244" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">attacks</a> against China. To be sure, Beijing’s initial response to the coronavirus outbreak was <a href="https://www.axios.com/timeline-the-early-days-of-chinas-coronavirus-outbreak-and-cover-up-ee65211a-afb6-4641-97b8-353718a5faab.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">littered</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/WHO/status/1217043229427761152" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">errors</a>, egregious <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/20/chinese-inquiry-exonerates-coronavirus-whistleblower-doctor-li-wenliang" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">injustices</a> and <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/487308-china-pushing-conspiracy-theory-us-army-bringing-coronavirus-wuhan" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">conspiracy-mongering</a>.But the GOP’s tough talk on China – which, ironically, also <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/interview-pompeo-sends-mixed-messages-coronavirus-wuhan-lab-993341/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">strays</a> into <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/coronavirus-conspiracies-charged-conservative-media-fox-news" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">conspiracy</a> theory <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-bioweapon-tom-cotton-conspiracy-theory-china-warfare-leak-2020-2" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">territory</a> – marks the culmination of a particularly stark turnaround. After all,Republicans eagerly <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/21/how-republicans-helped-create-donald-trump-more-than-15-years-ago/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">enabled</a> China’s meteoric ascent from a sleepy, insular country to the world’s second-largest <a href="https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/the-5-largest-economies-in-the-world-and-their-growth-in-2020-2020-01-22" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">economy</a>.Time for a quick history lesson. Throughout the 20th century, China was a poor, agricultural country. In 1978, sweeping economic <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-reforms-chronology-sb/timeline-china-milestones-since-1978-idUKTRE4B711V20081208" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">reforms</a> set China on a path of rapid <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.URB.TOTL.IN.ZS?locations=CN" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">urbanization</a>. The mass <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy/chinas-planners-push-urbanization-as-main-growth-driver-idUSBRE92506E20130306" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">migration</a> of millions of people from China’s rural hinterlands to mega-cities <a href="https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/what-should-we-understand-about-urbanization-in-china" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">changed the country</a> at a stunning pace.Indeed, in the span of a few short decades, a vast pool of inexpensive, newly-urbanized labor <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/05/urbanization-is-making-china-wealthy-but-is-it-sustainable/276202/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">transformed</a> China from an impoverished, rural economy into a manufacturing juggernaut.But China’s enormous capacity to build and make things on the cheap needed an equally massive market to buy its products. Enter Republicans and <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/press-release/facts-over-fear-win-china-pntr-debate" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">corporate America</a> who, along with a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2000-05-28/china-trade-will-clinton-pull-it-off" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">handful</a> of “centrist” <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Clinton-pushes-hard-for-China-to-join-WTO-3066678.php" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">Democrats</a>, eagerly handed an enormous strategic gift to Beijing.Beginning in 2000, China’s economic growth began to <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/GDP_per_capita_of_China_and_India.svg/1920px-GDP_per_capita_of_China_and_India.svg.png" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">skyrocket</a>. Beyond its <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/countries_e/china_e.htm" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">entry</a> into the World Trade Organization, much of China’s rapid expansion over the last two decades can be traced to a single <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2000/03/20/why-rush-to-favor-china-pub-236" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">act</a> of Congress.In a seminal <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/25/world/china-trade-vote-clinton-triumph-house-237-197-vote-approves-normal-trade-rights.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">vote</a>, the United States <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/normalizing-trade-relations-with-china-was-a-mistake/562403/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">normalized</a> trade with Beijing, opening the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-china-shock-deep-and-swift-spurred-the-rise-of-trump-1470929543" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">floodgates</a> to the <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-really-is-to-blame-for-millions-of-lost-us-manufacturing-jobs-new-study-finds-2018-05-14" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">mass outsourcing</a> of well-paying American manufacturing <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w21906" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">jobs</a> to China. Indeed, the <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MANEMP" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">astounding, post-2000 decline</a> in U.S. manufacturing <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w21906" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">employment</a> fits <a href="http://economics.mit.edu/files/9811" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">neatly</a> with a <a href="https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/17982.jpeg" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">surge</a> in cheap <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-china-shock-deep-and-swift-spurred-the-rise-of-trump-1470929543" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">Chinese imports</a> around the same time.A whopping <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/25/world/china-trade-vote-clinton-triumph-house-237-197-vote-approves-normal-trade-rights.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">75 percent</a> of House Republicans <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/106-2000/h228" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">voted</a> in favor of <a href="http://economics.mit.edu/files/9811" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">shipping</a> American <a href="https://www.economist.com/sites/default/files/images/print-edition/20181020_USC594.png" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">jobs</a> to <a href="https://cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/17982.jpeg" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">China</a>. Democrats, <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/politics/041800china-trade.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">wary</a> of the myriad economic, environmental and labor <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-china-shock-deep-and-swift-spurred-the-rise-of-trump-1470929543" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">repercussions</a> of normalizing trade with China, rebuked a “centrist” <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/05/25/trade5_25.a.tm/index.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">president</a> and voted against the measure by a two-to-three margin.A year later, George W. Bush formalized Congress’s vote, <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011227-2.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">granting</a> preferential trade <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/06/normalizing-trade-relations-with-china-was-a-mistake/562403/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">status</a> to China.Republicans, in short, enabled Beijing’s astounding economic and military <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/GDP_per_capita_of_China_and_India.svg/1920px-GDP_per_capita_of_China_and_India.svg.png" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">rise</a> by swapping <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-china-shock-deep-and-swift-spurred-the-rise-of-trump-1470929543" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">millions</a> of good-paying American <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/21/how-republicans-helped-create-donald-trump-more-than-15-years-ago/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">jobs</a> for cheap Chinese imports. But the GOP’s overwhelming vote in favor of unfettered trade with China came at a staggering cost.<a href="https://i1.wp.com/www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/bpea_20170323_case_deaton_fig1_5share.png?w=768&crop=0%2C0px%2C100%2C9999px&ssl=1" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">Beginning in the 2000s</a>, the United States witnessed an alarming increase in so-called “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/18/817687042/deaths-of-despair-examines-the-steady-erosion-of-u-s-working-class-life" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">deaths of despair</a>.” Driven largely by opioid overdoses, alcohol abuse and suicide, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/04/deaths-of-despair-in-rural-america-helped-trump-win-study-finds.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">white, blue-collar Americans</a> – Trump’s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/american-capitalism-failing-trump-s-base-white-working-class-deaths-ncna1181456" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">base</a> – began dying at shocking rates. While an increasing mortality rate is <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/06/white-americans-mortality-rates-are-rising-something-similar-happened-in-russia-from-1965-to-2005" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">unheard of</a> in first-world countries, several <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6606896/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">studies</a> have directly <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2019/10/08/free-trade-policies-opioid-epidemic/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">linked</a> trade-inflicted <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/15/free-trade-doesnt-just-lead-job-loss-it-means-higher-deaths-drug-overdoses-more-military-recruitment/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">manufacturing job losses</a> to the opioid-fueled “deaths of despair” <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2019/10/08/free-trade-policies-opioid-epidemic/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">devastating</a> America.In other words, the GOP’s eagerness to inflate <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2019/09/03/why-american-companies-choose-china-over-everyone-else/#50a9300571de" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">corporate</a> and shareholder <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/12/11/outsourcing-to-china-cost-us-32-million-jobs-since-2001" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">profit</a> via cheap, overseas labor has <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w21906" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">decimated</a> countless American families and communities. But this did not start with Republicans’ vote to normalize trade with China. NAFTA, for example, was <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta-timeline/the-rocky-history-of-nafta-idUSKCN1BC5IL" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">negotiated</a> by the first Bush administration, passed Congress with <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/103-1993/h575" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">overwhelming</a> GOP support and fulfilled Ronald Reagan’s “<a href="https://www.heritage.org/trade/report/the-north-american-free-trade-agreement-ronald-reagans-vision-realized" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">vision</a>.”More broadly, four decades of <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/oct/28/facebook-posts/viral-meme-says-1956-republican-platform-was-prett/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">post-Reagan</a> Republican <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happened-to-american-jobs-in-the-80s-2017-7" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">ideology</a> have <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/494814-coronavirus-lockdown-protests-expose-a-far-deeper-sickness" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">gutted</a> America’s middle class. As the United States confronts a historic pandemic, startling <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/coronavirus-long-lines-america.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">images</a> of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-food/sign-of-the-times-mile-long-line-of-cars-outside-california-grocery-giveaway-idUSKCN21R3N3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">miles</a> upon <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8193153/Miles-long-row-cars-waits-outside-Florida-food-bank-demand-produce-surges-600-cent.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">miles</a> of cars – each representing an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/10000-families-showed-up-to-receive-free-food-in-texas-2020-4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">American family</a> – awaiting supplies at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/08/business/economy/coronavirus-food-banks.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">overwhelmed</a> food banks expose this <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/02/scheidel-great-leveler-inequality-violence/517164/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">dangerous</a> and depressing reality.<div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><div class="incontent-plugin incontent-plugin-497093" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="incontent_widgets es_recommended_content" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 10px; margin: 30px -20px; clear: both; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);"><ul style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 5px 15px 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 15px; list-style-type: none; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; display: inline; position: relative; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">[<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/517574-trump-slams-china-who-for-covid-19-spread-at-virtual-united-nations?utm_source=thehill&utm_medium=widgets&utm_campaign=es_recommended_content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">Trump slams China, WHO for COVID-19 spread at virtual United Nations...</a></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 0px; list-style-type: none; line-height: 1.2;"><a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/517545-trump-blasts-china-on-coronavirus-in-un-speech?utm_source=thehill&utm_medium=widgets&utm_campaign=es_recommended_content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">Trump blasts China on coronavirus in UN speech</a></li></ul></div></div>Such <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/food/2020/04/these-photos-show-the-staggering-food-bank-lines-across-america/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">visceral scenes</a> of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/long-lines-at-food-banks-across-us-idUSRTX7EHU2" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">poverty</a> – unheard of among the United States’s first-world allies – should be equally unfathomable in a country with America’s immense <a href="https://www.axios.com/income-inequality-great-depression-gabriel-zucman-45ba4d26-d349-452e-9ca2-7ef07af0013a.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">wealth</a> and capacity for broadly-shared prosperity. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/americans-wait-in-long-lines-at-food-banks-amid-coronavirus-2020-4#elsewhere-across-the-us-long-lines-are-forming-at-food-banks-in-cities-like-boston--6" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">Mass food insecurity</a> is not the hallmark of a great nation.Ultimately, the flaws in China’s <a href="https://www.axios.com/timeline-the-early-days-of-chinas-coronavirus-outbreak-and-cover-up-ee65211a-afb6-4641-97b8-353718a5faab.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">early</a> response to this devastating pandemic must be thoroughly <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/australia-britain-call-investigations-chinas-handling-coronavirus-outbreak-multiple-countries-1498945" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">investigated</a>. But instead of <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/24/gop-memo-anti-china-coronavirus-207244" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">distracting</a> Americans to protect a <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/490045-trumps-hubris-and-ideological-rigidity-will-cost-american-lives" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">failed president</a>, Republicans would be wise to reflect on the immensely <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6606896/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">damaging</a> long-term <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/494814-coronavirus-lockdown-protests-expose-a-far-deeper-sickness" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">repercussions</a> of their ideology and policies. A healthy dose of moral, patriotic soul-searching is long overdue.Marik von Rennenkampff served as an analyst with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, as well as an Obama administration appointee at the U.S. Department of Defense. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/MvonRen/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; display: inline; position: relative; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(42, 83, 193);">@MvonRen</a>.---<a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/here-are-worlds-top-10-dirtiest-companies">http://www.alternet.org/environment/here-are-worlds-top-10-dirtiest-companies</a>
Ten corporations and state-owned entities are responsible for over 36 percent of global fossil fuels emissions since 1988, according to a new study published by the <a href="https://b8f65cb373b1b7b15feb-c70d8ead6ced550b4d987d7c03fcdd1d.ssl.cf3.rackcdn.com/cms/reports/documents/000/002/327/original/Carbon-Majors-Report-2017.pdf?1499691240" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Carbon Disclosure Project</a>.Among the top ten polluters is British-Dutch owned-Shell, as well as the Exxon Mobil Corporation, whose former CEO, Rex Tillerson, currently serves as the U.S. Secretary of State. The governments of China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, India, and Mexico also own entities, which make the top ten list. The study, which also shows that 100 companies are responsible for over 70 percent of global emissions, highlights the critical role of corporations and powerful state actors not only perpetuating environmental damage, but also in combatting climate change.If fossil fuels continue to be extracted at the same rate over the next 20 years, the world could see a 4°C rise in global temperatures by the end of the century, leading to mass extinctions and widespread starvation.Here are the top ten corporate and state-entity polluters: 1. China (Coal): 14.3 percentChina's state-led coal production has tripled to almost 4 billion tons since 2000, contributing to around half of all global emissions. 2. Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco): 4.5 percentSaudi Arabia's state-owned Aramco has the world's largest crude oil reserves and the highest daily production output of any company in the world. 3. Gazprom OAO (Russian): 3.9 percentRussian-owned <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/qa-gazprom-and-the-arctic/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Gazprom OAO</a> has been the target of environmental protests for its Arctic drilling. 4. National Iranian Oil Co: 2.3 percentIran's state-owned natural gas company has had unilateral control over the country's oil reserves since 1948. 5. ExxonMobil Corp: 2.0 percentExxonMobil is the world's seventh largest corporation, an offspring of John D. Rockerfeller's Standard Oil Company. ExxonMobil has <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article120614433.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lobbied</a> against climate change action in the U.S. Congress.6. Coal India: 1.9 percentState-owned Coal India is the largest producer of coal in the world. 7. Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex): 1.9 percentIn 2009, Mexican state-owned Pemex was Latin America's <a href="http://rankings.americaeconomia.com/2010/500/ranking-500-america-latina.php" style="text-decoration-line: none;">second largest corporation</a>. 8. Russia (Coal): 1.9 percentRussia saw a 70-percent increase in coal production since the late 1990s. 9. Royal Dutch Shell PLC (Shell): 1.7 percentShell is the seventh largest corporation in the world, and involved in every area of the coal and gas production chain. The British-Dutch owned company has been implicated <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/shell-oil-spills-led-to-astonishingly-high-pollution-in-nigeria-1490295449" style="text-decoration-line: none;">major oil spills</a> in Nigeria. 10. China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC): 1.6 percentThe state-owned oil and gas corporation is the largest integrated energy company in China.

===

<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/volvo-electric-cars-2453719182.html">https://www.ecowatch.com/volvo-electric-cars-2453719182.html</a>

<h1 class="headline h1" style=" margin: 10px; padding: 0px; position: relative; line-height: 31px;">Volvo Announces 'Historic End' to Combustion Engine, All Cars Going Electric</h1>

</div>

Volvo Cars <a href="https://www.media.volvocars.com/global/en-gb/media/pressreleases/210058/volvo-cars-to-go-all-electric" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">announced</a> Wednesday that every car it launches from 2019 will have an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">electric</a> motor, marking a "historic end" to the internal combustion engine.

This makes Volvo the first traditional carmaker to fully embrace electrification.

"This is a clear commitment towards reducing our carbon footprint as well as contributing to better air quality in our cities," Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive, said. He then stated goals of selling 1 million electrified cars by 2025.

The company will still produce older Volvos with pure combustion engines after 2019, but its latest move signals its eventual phasing out conventional gas guzzlers. As the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/business/energy-environment/volvo-hybrid-electric-car.html" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none; word-wrap: break-word;">New York Times</a> noted, other major car manufacturers have introduced EVs or hybrids to their line but none have entirely ditched making new cars powered solely by gasoline or diesel fuel.

"This is about the customer," Samuelsson added. "People increasingly demand electrified cars and we want to respond to our customers' current and future needs."

The automaker is based in Sweden but is owned by China's Geely Automobile Holdings, which produces electric vehicles for China, a major market for battery-powered cars.

Volvo said it will launch five fully electric cars between 2019 and 2021. The rest of its fleet will comprise of plug-in hybrid cars and mild hybrid cars.

</div>

==

==

used as excuse for US not to act on agw by RW but:

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/chinas-environmental-policies-example-world">http://www.alternet.org/environment/chinas-environmental-policies-example-world</a>

<div>

<div>=

==

E&E

<h1 class="headline ">High-stakes carbon trading market set to launch</h1>

<section class="byline"><time datetime="2017-06-26 07:50:47 -0400">Published: Monday, June 26, 2017</time></section>

China is preparing to later this year launch the world's largest carbon cap-and-trade market — a high-stakes gamble that could position Beijing as a world leader on climate change as long as it's not undercut by the nation's industrial sector.

Chinese regulators have studied other cap-and-trade models in Europe and California. Last week, the government said its initiative is on track to start in 2017.

But officials have already conceded that they lack reliable information on many industries. In the past, some large companies have ignored laws or relied on local officials to meddle in markets. And despite President Xi Jinping's enthusiasm for the project, his record on environmental and market reforms has been mixed.

The sectors covered by the new permitting market have already been pared down to likely only include coal-fired power plants and producers of cement and aluminum. Aviation might also get included in the final market.

If China succeeds, it would deepen the country's considerable influence over energy technology development (Chris Buckley, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/23/world/asia/china-cap-trade-carbon-greenhouse.html">New York Times</a>, June 23). — AAA

</section>

=

</div>

<div>3/17 casey d</div>

<div>

</div>

<div>...And yet, in spite of these past 12 months, I remain optimistic.</div>

And I know that in the UK there’s yet more cause for concern. A series of <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/24/the-9-green-policies-killed-off-by-tory-government" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">U-turns</a> has transformed the UK from a world leader to a world let-down. The Department of Energy and Climate Change <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/15/decc-abolition-major-setback-for-uk-climate-change-efforts" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">has been scrapped</a>. The country is <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/09/uk-will-miss-its-2020-renewable-energy-targets-warn-mps" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">expected</a> to miss its 2020 climate targets. And the weakening of the European Union, caused by the Brexit vote, may jeopardise climate action across the continent.

These are serious developments, but I’m not convinced they’re big enough to unsettle progress.

In fact, a defiant mood has emerged in response to these setbacks.

<p class="pullquote-paragraph" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 18px;">I don’t care what Mr Trump says … I think what he says is nonsense

<footer><cite class="pullquote-cite" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Xie Xiaoping, Huanghe Hydropower Development</cite></footer>

</blockquote>

</aside>

<p style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 18px;">Some of this defiance comes from within the US itself. Most notably California, the richest US state, is poised to tackle Trump’s climate stance head on. <a class="u-underline" href="http://www.npr.org/2017/01/25/511480146/california-eyes-climate-leadership-role-but-trumps-epa-holds-a-key-on-cars" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">Governor Jerry Brown proclaimed</a>: “We’re ready to fight. We’re ready to defend.” Elsewhere in the US, <a class="u-underline" href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/08/514133514/two-cities-vote-to-pull-more-than-3-billion-from-wells-fargo-over-dakota-pipelin" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">cities have pulled funding from Wells Fargo bank</a>, citing its involvement in the infamous Dakota Access pipeline. And hundreds of companies have <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/jan/10/donald-trump-climate-change-letter-businesses-investors" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">urged</a> Trump to continue progress towards a low-carbon economy.

But the most striking response to Trump has been from the only nation that emits more carbon dioxide than the US: China. <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/china" data-link-name="auto-linked-tag" data-component="auto-linked-tag" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">China</a> is seizing Trump’s election as an opportunity to become a global climate leader. Make no mistake – this is a defiant act.

</div>

</figure>

<p style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 18px;">China explicitly <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/17/climate-change-a-chinese-plot-beijing-gives-donald-trump-a-history-lesson" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">rejected</a> Trump’s absurd suggestion that climate change is a Chinese hoax. And Xie Xiaoping, the chair of Huanghe Hydropower Development, a large scale power developer, <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/19/china-builds-worlds-biggest-solar-farm-in-journey-to-become-green-superpower?utm_content=buffer46fa2&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">offered</a>: “The Chinese government will carry out and fulfil its international commitments … I don’t care what Mr Trump says … I think what he says is nonsense.”

China is already backing up this talk with action. China’s solar capacity <a class="u-underline" href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-solar-idUSKBN15J0G7" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">doubled in 2016</a>. The country will <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/05/china-invest-renewable-fuel-2020-energy" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">plough £292bn</a> more into renewables by 2020. In fact, China is already building more renewables than <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/06/china-cementing-global-dominance-of-renewable-energy-and-technology" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">any other nation</a>. Most remarkably of all, China’s dependence on coal is faltering. Its demand for coal may even have <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/25/china-coal-peak-hailed-turning-point-climate-change-battle" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">peaked</a>.

It’s hard to stress how amazing this last fact is. Only a few years ago, climate scientists and economists spoke about the never-ending rise of coal in China as an inevitable, insurmountable problem. After giving climate talks, I would be asked “why should we bother doing anything when China keeps burning more coal?” by skeptical audience members. The idea of China leading the climate fight would have been unthinkable then. Today, Chinese youth are <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.varkeyfoundation.org/generation-z-global-citizenship-survey?utm_content=bufferdae3f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">more concerned</a> about climate change than any other threat, suggesting that Chinese climate action will only intensify with time.

And China is just one example of progress, albeit a dramatic one. Sweden has set a <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/feb/03/sweden-criticises-us-climate-stance-as-it-reveals-ambitious-carbon-emissions-law" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">deadline</a> for reaching zero emissions. Despite continued coal development, India has now unveiled ambitious levels of renewable <a class="u-underline" href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/21/india-renewable-energy-paris-climate-summit-target" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">deployment</a> for the next decade. Even the great oil producer, Saudi Arabia, is seeking to become a “<a class="u-underline" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/saudi-arabia-50-billion-renewable-energy-investment-solar-powerhouse-oil-producer-middle-east-opec-a7531326.html" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">solar powerhouse</a>”. The list goes on.

These actions add up. The once relentless year-on-year rise of carbon dioxide emissions has <a class="u-underline" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/global-warming-carbon-emissions-stall-us-china-coal-use-drop-reduction-a7416011.html" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">flatlined</a> for the past three years. Some analysts <a class="u-underline" href="http://www.carbontracker.org/report/expect-the-unexpected-disruptive-power-low-carbon-technology-solar-electric-vehicles-grantham-imperial/" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">project</a> that they could finally begin falling by 2020.

Despite this progress, my optimism remains cautious. I know that the pledges in the Paris deal will see temperatures rise by 3C above pre-industrial levels, well above the 2C that the deal aims to stay below. This kind of temperature rise could force millions from coastal cities, while rendering other regions <a class="u-underline" href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/climate-change-could-make-parts-of-the-middle-east-and-north-africa-uninhabitable-a7010811.html" data-link-name="in body link" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none;">uninhabitable</a>. Low-lying island nations may cease to exist.

<div><a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/china-renewable-energy-investment-2180695528.html">http://www.ecowatch.com/china-renewable-energy-investment-2180695528.html</a></div>

<div>

==

<a href="http://www.climaterealityproject.org/press/statement-ken-berlin-president-ceo-climate-reality-project-us-china-paris-agreement">http://www.climaterealityproject.org/press/statement-ken-berlin-president-ceo-climate-reality-project-us-china-paris-agreement</a>

“Nearly two years ago, the United States and China stood shoulder to shoulder to proclaim their commitment to solving climate change, kickstarting the process that culminated in a worldwide climate agreement in Paris. Now, the world’s two largest emitters and two largest economies have taken the next step by formally joining the Paris Agreement. This continued cooperation and leadership on the eve of the gathering of the G20 sets a bold precedent for the rest of the world’s major economies to follow and highlights the interrelationship between expanding economic prosperity and solving the climate crisis. Now it’s time for the rest of the world to follow the US and China, formally accept the Paris Agreement, and get to the hard work of implementing and increasing their commitments to solving climate change.”

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SYNGENTA CHINA?

43billion $ also smithfield pork

<a href="http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/03/senators-try-to-scuttle-syngentachemchina-merger-in-a-harbinger-for-u-s-posture-toward-chinese-investment.html">http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/03/senators-try-to-scuttle-syngentachemchina-merger-in-a-harbinger-for-u-s-posture-toward-chinese-investment.html</a>

</div>

</div>

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==

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/defense-department-ruining-america-big-budgets-militarization-and-real-story-behind-our-asia">http://www.alternet.org/economy/defense-department-ruining-america-big-budgets-militarization-and-real-story-behind-our-asia</a>

==

<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/24/china-puts-brakes-on-new-coal-plants/">http://ecowatch.com/2016/03/24/china-puts-brakes-on-new-coal-plants/</a>

==

http://www.democracynow.org/ 3/25/16

blackwater

China is our banker; walmart if front/beard; buying up resources land (water?) in Africa, bought pork and now

<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/02/03/syngenta-merger">http://ecowatch.com/2016/02/03/syngenta-merger</a>

==

In January 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could spend unlimited amounts of dough on political activities, so long as it’s done independent of a party or candidate. (As an aside, we’d like you to know that you can contribute as much as you want to the ProPublica snack cache. We would never be influenced by money, or pretzels, but I know investigative reporters on full stomachs are more likely to investigate that thing you are sure is important but that everybody else thinks is lame. Just saying.) One of the concerns about the so-called “Citizens United” ruling was that foreign corporations would find ways to influence elections. And now they have. Japanese corporation Nintendo has ensured 30-and-under voting will be nonexistent at polling stations that don’t harbor a Pokemon. But also possibly of interest: An <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/08/03/gop-lawyer-chinese-owned-company-us-presidential-politics/" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">investigation</a> by The Intercept found that California-based investment company (it’s really hard to tell what it invests in beyond real estate) American Pacific International Capital Inc., owned by a Chinese couple, found a way to contribute $1.3 million to the Jeb Bush Super PAC Right to Rise USA. But, actually, so? That alone isn’t really the interesting part. Your three Ws:

<h3 style=" margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 16px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What is the interesting part?</h3>

<p style=" margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Well, according to The Intercept, that the contribution may well have violated the law, which bars foreign owners from any involvement in the political donation decision-making of their U.S.-based companies. According to a <a href="https://theintercept.com/document/2016/08/03/right-to-rise-usa-memo-on-foreign-owned-corporations-donating-to-super-pacs/" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">memo</a> obtained by The Intercept, the Chinese owners were following a strategy laid out for them by a politically powerful American lawyer. (The lawyer told The Intercept that his memo was meant “to ensure compliance with the law.”) But actually, that’s still not the most interesting part.

<p style=" margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">To me, the most interesting part is how one of the Chinese owners — Gordon Tang — offered an Intercept reporter 200,000 dollars (not sure what country’s dollars he meant) if she didn’t mention unverified claims on Chinese-language websites that accused him of criminal activity. (It’s also interesting that the reporter <a href="https://vimeo.com/177295919/7a27b09b32" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; text-decoration: none; background: transparent;">recorded</a> the convo.)

<p style=" margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1.4; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Overall, the multi-part Intercept investigation is basically the first, published, step-by-step account of how the <span style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; background: transparent;">Citizens United ruling allows foreign-owned businesses to use domestic companies or subsidiaries to attempt to influence the American political process. Am I worried about that? I dunno, there’s a Pokemon under my desk, so I can’t pay attention right now.

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http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/03/china-emissions-peak-new-report

==

<a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/8018-Interpreting-ecological-civilisation-part-one-">https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/8018-Interpreting-ecological-civilisation-part-one-</a>

A new Party document on "ecological civilisation" reveals new government strategies for greening China, with potentially wide-ranging implications, writes Sam Geall

==

<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2016/02/04/nu-river-china-dam/">http://ecowatch.com/2016/02/04/nu-river-china-dam/</a>

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11/15

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/food/david-and-goliath-illinois-farmer-takes-worlds-largest-agrochemical-company-over-gmo-corn">http://www.alternet.org/food/david-and-goliath-illinois-farmer-takes-worlds-largest-agrochemical-company-over-gmo-corn</a>

...

Despite knowing the rest of the world was not as eager as the United States to adopt bioengineered food or feed, Syngenta began selling Viptera in the United States before other countries decided whether to approve it," the complaint states. Though some countries did approve Viptera for feed and food use, China has a "zero tolerance" policy when it comes to unapproved genetic traits, Dereadt says.

When China discovered Viptera corn in a November 2013 shipment of "what was supposed to be non-Viptera corn from the United States," the country rejected more than 665,000 metric tons of U.S. corn over the next two months. China banned all imports of U.S. corn the next year, but Syngenta "began marketing yet another genetically modified com seed known as Duracade," the complaint states.

Dereadt says China, all 28 member states of the European Union and 13 other countries have refused to approve Duracade for human or animal consumption. Syngenta's home country of Switzerland is among this group as well.

"Although Syngenta did eventually gain approvalfor the import of Viptera to China in December of 2014, this approval came far too late to prevent the loss of the Chinese market to U.S. corn," the complaint states. "The loss of the Chinese market to U.S. com has caused diminished prices for com in the United States, and plaintiffs' resulting damages.

Further, there is no end in sight to the loss of the Chinese market to U.S. com. As set forth above, Syngenta has now knowingly, intentionally, and recklessly commercialized its Duracade corn in the U.S., d...

==

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south sudan boosted by evangelicals B2, less energy under obama

china

<a href="http://www.c-span.org/video/?328719-1/book-discussion-disaster-capitalism" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">http://www.c-span.org/video/?328719-1/book-discussion-disaster-capitalism</a>

erik p frontier mining concessions

Now, sitting in a boardroom above Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, he explains his newest title, acquired this month: chairman of Frontier Services Group, an Africa-focused security and logistics company with intimate ties to China’s largest state-owned conglomerate, Citic Group. Beijing has titanic ambitions to tap Africa’s resources—including $1 trillion in planned spending on roads, railways and airports by 2025—and Mr. Prince wants in.

With a public listing in Hong Kong, and with Citic as its second-largest shareholder (a 15% stake) and Citic executives sitting on its board, Frontier Services Group is a long way from Blackwater’s CIA ties and $2 billion in U.S. government contracts. For that, Mr. Prince is relieved.

“I would rather deal with the vagaries of investing in Africa than in figuring out what the hell else Washington is going to do to the entrepreneur next,” says the crew-cut 44-year-old.

Having launched Blackwater in 1997 as a rural North Carolina training facility for U.S. soldiers and police, Mr. Prince says he “kept saying ‘yes’ as the demand curve called—Columbine, the USS Cole and then 9/11.” In 100,000 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, he says, Blackwater contractors never lost a U.S. official under their protection. But the company gained a trigger-happy reputation, especially after a September 2007 shootout that left 17 civilians dead in Baghdad’s Nisour Square.

At that point, charges Mr. Prince, Blackwater was “completely thrown under the bus by a fickle customer”—the U.S. government, and especially the State Department. He says Washington opted to “churn up the entire federal bureaucracy” and sic it on Blackwater “like a bunch of rabid dogs.” According to Mr. Prince, IRS auditors told his colleagues that they had “never been under so much pressure to get someone as to get Erik Prince,” and congressional staffers promised, “We’re going to ride you till you’re out of business.”…

Which brings him to Hong Kong and his new firm. “This is not a patriotic endeavor of ours—we’re here to build a great business and make some money doing it,” he says. Asia, and especially China, “has the appetite to take frontier risk, that expeditionary risk of going to those less-certain, less-normal markets and figuring out how to make it happen.” Mr. Prince says “critics can throw stones all they want” but he is quick to point out that he has “a lot of experience in dealing in uncertainties in difficult places,” and says “this is a very rational decision—made, I guess, emotionless.”…

“The U.S. has been fixated on terrorism the last 10 or 15 years,” says Mr. Prince, “and American companies by and large haven’t had the appetite for Africa.” In 2010 the African Development Bank found that Chinese firms signed 20 contracts in Africa for every one signed by an American firm. But does post-9/11 distraction really explain this discrepancy?

A better explanation would begin with China’s state-directed investment strategy, which funds opaque state-owned firms to operate across Africa with little regard for trifles such as financial transparency, environmental degradation or human rights. When a tyrant like Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir can’t get Western financing for a mega-dam across the Nile River, China arrives with an easy loan, some state-owned firms to build the dam and some others to claim oil or mineral concessions elsewhere in the country. Beijing’s approach has helped boost African economic growth—projected at 6% this year by the International Monetary Fund—but it has also helped entrench some of the world’s most oppressive governments…

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/01/27/erik-prince-chicom-stooge/

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<a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/us-china-climate-announcements-5-things-you-need-know">http://www.alternet.org/environment/us-china-climate-announcements-5-things-you-need-know</a>

...

The announcements underscore an ongoing commitment to existing policies — such as the U.S. <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan/clean-power-plan-existing-power-plants" style=" text-decoration: none;">Clean Power Plan</a> — as well as some important new areas of action. Five aspects of the new joint statement are particularly significant.

1. Sino-American Joint Vision for Paris Climate Meeting Unveiled

The two presidents outlined a U.S.-China <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/25/fact-sheet-united-states-and-china-issue-joint-presidential-statement" style=" text-decoration: none;">vision</a> for the Paris climate conference that aims to maximize ambition, transparency, and accountability among all nations while also allowing a degree of flexibility for specific developing nations in need. This deeper and fuller common understanding provides an important boost for the prospects of success in Paris. In 2014, shortly after the November <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/11/us-china-joint-announcement-climate-change" style=" text-decoration: none;">joint announcement</a>, U.S. and Chinese negotiators joined other UNFCCC parties at the Lima Conference of the Parties, where language from the U.S.-China announcement was pulled into the multilateral text to <a href="http://www.climatechangenews.com/2014/12/16/us-china-chat-broke-impasse-at-lima-climate-talks/" style=" text-decoration: none;">overcome</a> a major negotiating roadblock. This new joint vision could similarly be used to help build consensus in December.

2. China Commits $3.1 Billion to Developing Nations

China committed to provide $3.1 billion in <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/25/fact-sheet-united-states-and-china-issue-joint-presidential-statement" style=" text-decoration: none;">climate aid</a> for developing nations. To put this in perspective, that amount slightly exceeds the $3 billion that the United States <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/15/fact-sheet-united-states-support-global-efforts-combat-carbon-pollution-" style=" text-decoration: none;">pledged</a> to the Green Climate Fund, or GCF, an important new multilateral fund for investing in developing countries’ efforts to build clean, sustainable economies and adapt to the impacts of climate change. China’s new climate assistance is likely to flow through the South-South Cooperation Fund, China’s <a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/blog/7596-China-pledges-US-2-million-a-year-to-its-new-South-South-Cooperation-Fund/en" style=" text-decoration: none;">bilateral mechanism</a> for providing climate aid to other developing countries in need, and constitutes a large increase from its current funding levels. Until today, China had only promised to <a href="https://www.chinadialogue.net/blog/7596-China-pledges-US-2-million-a-year-to-its-new-South-South-Cooperation-Fund/en" style=" text-decoration: none;">deliver</a> $20 million per year through the South-South Fund.

It will be important to ensure that this new Chinese commitment supports the broader GCF effort in which the United States participates. Critical questions do remain regarding how and in what form China’s aid will be distributed. For example, China traditionally provides bilateral climate aid in the form of <a href="http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjb_663304/zwjg_665342/zwbd_665378/t1297377.shtml" style=" text-decoration: none;">goods transfers</a> rather than capital support. China might deliver solar panels, for instance, rather than funding a new clean energy project in the recipient country. Additionally, the process for how China determines what goods to provide, where to source them, and which nation receives them have not been made clear. Regardless, the fact that China is putting down a $3.1 billion climate assistance commitment is a very positive development that demonstrates China’s willingness to begin playing a more active and constructive role in this area.

3. Financing Sustainable Development

The two nations committed to work together on finance for sustainable development, which could become a groundbreaking new area of U.S.-China cooperation in the future. This announcement was in the form of a shared principle rather than a concrete mechanism. The <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/25/fact-sheet-united-states-and-china-issue-joint-presidential-statement" style=" text-decoration: none;">two nations</a> “agreed to work towards strictly controlling public investment flowing into projects with high pollution and carbon emissions both domestically and internationally” but did not issue any specific new commitments or standards.

This indicates at least a small step forward in Chinese thinking on investment standards. China is leading multiple new <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/report/2015/09/22/121668/chinas-new-international-financing-institutions/" style=" text-decoration: none;">investment mechanisms</a>— including the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB — which stand to provide more than $200 billion in financing for new development projects outside of China. It will be critical to ensure that these new projects support rather than undermine global climate goals. The AIIB recently released a draft standardization <a href="http://www.aiib.org/uploadfile/2015/0907/20150907061253489.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none;">framework</a>that does not follow the World Bank and other international financial institutions in restricting funding for new coal plants. The language in today’s U.S.-China statement, however, creates an important opening for discussions on how to align the two nations’ approaches and ensure that international financial institutions are part of the solution to climate change, not part of the problem.

4. Domestic Policy Commitments

Both nations outlined key domestic policy actions that will be critical for reaching their post-2020 <a href="http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/China/1/China%27s%20INDC%20-%20on%2030%20June%202015.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none;">climate</a> <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/03/31/fact-sheet-us-reports-its-2025-emissions-target-unfccc" style=" text-decoration: none;">targets</a>. On the U.S. side, President Obama<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/25/fact-sheet-united-states-and-china-issue-joint-presidential-statement" style=" text-decoration: none;">committed</a> to continue the implementation of his Clean Power Plan and other efforts that will cut greenhouse gas pollution and drive clean energy deployment consistent with the U.S. national target of reducing emissions to 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

China, for its part, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/09/25/fact-sheet-united-states-and-china-issue-joint-presidential-statement" style=" text-decoration: none;">committed</a> to roll out a nationwide emissions-trading system, or ETS, by the end of 2017 and is further specifying that the nationwide system will cover at least six core industrial sectors, including power generation, iron and steel, chemicals, cement, paper production, and nonferrous metals. China is already running seven regional emissions-trading pilot programs and previously <a href="http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-06/16/content_21014770.htm" style=" text-decoration: none;">announced</a> plans to unify those programs into a nationwide system by 2017. This new statement reaffirms that commitment and specifies that the system will cover key sectors that are responsible for the bulk of China’s emissions from power generation and industrial production. It is not clear how pricing will be set within the Chinese system and, therefore, to what degree a national cap-and-trade system will affect commercial decisions in China. Nevertheless, this is a potentially important and efficient tool for China to deploy in achieving its domestic climate targets and raises the prospect of potentially linking Chinese cap and trade into global systems at some future date.

Significant new Chinese domestic policy measures that could have an immediate impact include:

<li>China will reform its electricity sector to prioritize clean power. China’s power grid has been a major <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/report/2014/07/07/93278/primer-on-beijings-slice-and-dice-approach-to-energy-and-climate-reform/" style=" text-decoration: none;">bottleneck</a> for renewable deployment. It has often kept cost-effective wind and solar power off the grid while coal plants operate at high capacity. This new policy will force grid operators to change that approach.</li>

<li>Both nations have committed to finalize next stage fuel efficiency standards for heavy-duty vehicles by 2016 and to implement those standards in 2019. Transport vehicles account for around 25 percent to 30 percent of urban particulate air pollution in China and are a growing source of China’s greenhouse gas emissions. China’s <a href="http://www.theicct.org/china" style=" text-decoration: none;">transport emissions</a>doubled from 2000 to 2010 and are expected to grow another 50 percent between 2010 and 2020. Beijing is already rolling forward with an accelerated <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/report/2014/07/07/93278/primer-on-beijings-slice-and-dice-approach-to-energy-and-climate-reform/" style=" text-decoration: none;">timetable</a> for a nationwide transition to low-sulfur diesel and gasoline. Now President Xi is committing to reduce the amount of fuel Chinese vehicles consume, which will be critical for controlling the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions as vehicle use increases.</li>

</ul>

5. Chinese Cities Commit to Peak Carbon

Finally, 11 Chinese city- and provincial-level governments are forming an Alliance of Peaking Pioneer Cities, or APPC, under which all are <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/us_china_climate_leaders_declaration_9_14_15_730pm_final.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none;">committing</a> to peak carbon emissions earlier than the nationwide 2030 target. Since China issued its commitment to peak in 2030 and to make its “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/11/11/us-china-joint-announcement-climate-change" style=" text-decoration: none;">best efforts</a>” to peak earlier, new economic data have opened the possibility that China could peak well before the current deadline and possibility as early as 2025. All of the APPC cities believe that with the right policy mix, they can beat the 2030 target and serve as models for the rest of the nation. The new pre-2030 targets vary by city based on their current economic conditions and ambition. Beijing, Guangzhou, and Zhenjiang have issued the most-aggressive targets: All have committed to peak around 2020. Shenzhen and Wuhan issued 2022 peaking commitments; Guiyang, Jilin, and Jinchang are aiming for 2025. If these cities are successful, it may encourage others to follow suit. It is important to note that the group includes one city in Shaanxi Province, Yan’an, which is among China’s top five coal-producing provinces. Yan’an has a modest target — it is aiming to peak before 2029—but the city could serve as a model for other coal-dependent zones. One of Yan’an’s policy <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/us_china_climate_leaders_declaration_9_14_15_730pm_final.pdf" style=" text-decoration: none;">commitments</a> is to “accelerate industrial structure adjustment” — in other words, to find new development drivers that do not depend on fossil fuels.

Overall, this set of announcements makes clear that both nations are moving forward with specific new measures designed to meet and hopefully exceed the post-2020 climate targets they announced last fall. There are many <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2015/09/22/121780/dealing-with-a-proactive-china/" style=" text-decoration: none;">difficult issues</a> facing the U.S.-China relationship, and those difficulties have overshadowed opportunities for cooperation in the run-up to this particular summit. Despite those challenges, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping have just made it very clear that the climate partnership is standing strong.....

==

This <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/06/climate-change-good-news-china" style=" box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">story</a> is reproduced here as part of the <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/06/climate-change-good-news-china" style=" box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">Climate Desk</a> collaboration.

Here’s something rare in climate reporting: a bit of good news. Or, more accurately, not disastrous news.

As we <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/06/china-coal-carbon-climate-guardian" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">explained last week</a>, China has long exerted an outsize role in global climate change, not simply because it’s by far the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gas, due largely to its enormous population, its rapid growth, and its reliance on dirty coal — but also because of China’s influence over global politics as a hold-out in international climate deals.

Now the reigning heavyweight contributor to global warming might be slimming down a bit.

China’s greenhouse gas emissions are likely to peak, and then begin to taper, around 2025, according to a new report. That’s five years ahead of a promise made by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in November 2014, as part of China’s <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/11/obama-just-announced-historic-climate-deal-china" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">historic climate accord with the United States.</a>

The new analysis, <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/GranthamInstitute/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Chinas_new_normal_green_stern_June_2015.pdf" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">released Monday by the London School of Economics</a>, says China’s emissions “could peak even earlier than that” and begin to fall rapidly thereafter, holding out a tantalizing possibility: The world could stay within the internationally agreed-upon limit of 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) of warming above pre-industrial levels, according to the authors. That limit is seen by scientists as a crucial threshold to stay within to prevent some of the most dangerous impacts of climate change. It’s also a limit world leaders hope to enshrine in an international agreement in Paris later this year.

The findings are all the more startling when you consider that the growth in China’s coal consumption has been responsible for more than half of global CO2 emissions growth in the last decade, <a href="http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/2015/02/26/chinese-emissions-fossil-fuel-use-fell-2014/" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">according to a separate Greenpeace analysis</a>.

“Whether the world can get onto that pathway in the decade or more after 2020 depends in significant part on China’s ability to reduce its emissions at a rapid rate, post-peak,” write Nicholas Stern and Fergus Green, the authors of the new LES report. Stern was also the author of the U.K.’s landmark <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/earth-and-environmental-science/climatology-and-climate-change/economics-climate-change-stern-review?format=PB" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">“Stern Review”</a> on climate economics.

Driving the shift in China is a decline in the importance of coal. “It is now possible to say with confidence that coal use in China has likely reached a structural maximum and begun to plateau,” the authors write, pointing to a recent dip in coal consumption in 2014 and in the first quarter of 2015. Natural gas use will increase rapidly over the next five to 10 years, the authors say. Combined with aggressive investment in alternative energy and new restrictions on coal consumption in response to China’s air pollution crisis, the gas boom will help tamp down greenhouse gas emissions.

The report’s authors cast a surprisingly upbeat tone when describing the structural changes in China’s energy sector, including its investment in cleaner technologies such as solar and wind and its <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/09/china-climate-change-carbon-market" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">pilot carbon pricing programs</a>. “Eventually, this increasing momentum could unleash a large wave of clean energy investment, innovation and growth — a new energy-industrial revolution,” they write.

Bringing China’s emissions under control will also inspire political change, the authors argue: Continued strong action by China could silence critics in the West who justify their own inaction by using China as a climate bogeyman — <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/11/awkward-supercut-republicans-using-china-excuse-climate-inaction" target="_blank" style=" box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none; background-color: transparent;">a very common argument in the U.S.</a> — and thereby “lower the political barriers in rich countries to stronger climate action.”

“China holds the keys,” Stern and French conclude.

http://grist.org/climate-energy/this-is-crazy-but-we-actually-have-good-news-about-climate-change/

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An environmental documentary that’s being called China’s “Inconvenient Truth,” or, according to China’s new minister of environmental protection, its “Silent Spring” has already racked up more than 175 million views since it was posted online Saturday — a viral phenomenon that’s reportedly catapulted the country’s air pollution woes to the center of conversation.

The film, “Under the Dome,” is hosted by former state television reporter Chai Jing, who blends frightening statistics about the air, water and soil pollution that has accompanied China’s rapid industrial development with a personal narrative about the birth of her daughter — an event she credits with awakening her awareness of pollution’s dangerous toll.

==

After finishing a study contending that solar activity is increasing global warming, scientist Willie Soon of the<a href="https://www.cfa.harvard.edu/" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics</a>reported his news to a utility company that was a major funder of his work.

"I have a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1667906-soon-emails.html#document/p40" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">big super-duper paper</a> soon to be accepted on how the sun affects the climate system," Soon wrote in a 2009 email to Robert Gehri, a research specialist with Southern Company Services, a mega utility company in the southeastern U.S. that generates power largely from coal.

<a href="http://heartland.org/willie-soon" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Soon</a>, one of few skeptics in the climate science community, described the paper that was <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2747/0272-3646.30.2.144?journalCode=tphy20#preview" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">published in the journal Physical Geography</a> as "fairly significant scientifically in that this is the first successful formulation of a sun-climate connection." He was writing a follow-up note to Gehri, whose company has provided more than $400,000 from 2006 through 2015 to fund Soon’s research—and part of his salary.

The emails and related documents were obtained by Greenpeace through Freedom of Information Act requests. They were made public today by Greenpeace and the Climate Investigations Center, an environmental watchdog organization based in Virginia.

The communications show that Soon called his peer-reviewed research papers "deliverables" in return for funding from fossil fuel companies. In addition, the documents reveal that Soon and Harvard-Smithsonian gave the coal utility company the right to review his scientific papers and make suggestions before they were published. Soon and Harvard-Smithsonian also pledged not to disclose Southern’s role as a funder without permission.

Although the emails don’t show a response from Gehri, an industry executive with a long track record of working behind the scenes to downplay the significance of global warming, they do show Soon sharing a collegial familiarity with industry executives, media skeptics and organizations dedicated to undermining prevailing climate science.

The theory advanced by Soon that the sun is a contributor to recent climate change has been widely discredited by scientists worldwide as well as by the<a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)</a>, the world’s leading international body on climate science. Nevertheless, the theory has stoked long-simmering public confusion about the sun’s role in global warming that continues to this day.

For decades, the industry has latched on to controversial findings like those advanced by Soon and a small group of contrarian scientists to create the impression that researchers are divided about the cause of climate change. It has pumped millions of dollars into research projects to cast doubt on mainstream climate science showing that the primary driver of global warming is the burning of fossil fuels.

The trove of documents released today offers one of the starkest glimpses yet into the workings of this strategy of peddling scientific doubt. Scientists, academics and policymakers say the strategy has helped the industry in delaying or thwarting decisive steps toward curbing global warming.

"The industry has had a longstanding, rather broad-based campaign to create doubt about the science," said Michael MacCracken, a former program director for the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Research Program. He is now the chief scientist for climate change programs with the <a href="http://www.climate.org/" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Climate Institute</a>, an independent climate research organization in Washington, D.C.

The campaign "has paralyzed implementation of what could have been a reasonable ramping up of control efforts over the last few decades, putting the nation and the world now into a situation where much more aggressive action to limit emissions is needed," MacCracken said.

One of the first worldwide calls to address global warming resulted in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that mandated greenhouse gas reductions.

In response, the <a href="http://www.api.org/" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">American Petroleum Institute (API)</a> coordinated <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/784572-api-global-climate-science-communications-plan.html" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">a plan</a> to spend millions of dollars to convince the public that the climate accord was based on shaky science. The institute pulled together a Global Climate Science Communications team to enlist scientists who shared the industry's views. The action plan developed by the team said "victory will be achieved when those promoting the Kyoto treaty on the basis of extant science appear to be out of touch with reality."

Among the 12 people listed as members of the team was Robert Gehri, the Southern Co. executive who was Soon's corporate contact on the 2009 sun study. Others included representatives from Exxon and Chevron and organizations critical of global-warming science.

Today the industry persists in its campaign to muddy the picture of climate change. ExxonMobil, API and the Charles Koch Foundation for years were among the largest funders of research and lobbying intended to cast doubt on the science documenting global warming.

Soon, who is not paid a salary by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center but relies on grants for his wages, has tapped that largess. In addition to the research grants from Southern Co. totaling $409,754 between 2006 and 2015, Soon collected nearly $800,000 in funding from ExxonMobil, API and the Charles Koch Foundation between 2003 and 2012, according to years of public records obtained by Kert Davies, executive director of the Climate Investigations Center.

Soon declined numerous requests for an interview and when reached by phone Thursday after business hours said it was "rude" to be contacted at home.

The 49-year-old scientist earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in science and his Ph.D. in aerospace engineering at the University of Southern California. Soon has been affiliated with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics since 1991. (The group is not officially associated with Harvard University, though it is located on the Harvard campus in Cambridge, Mass.)

Soon and his co-authors have published dozens of papers in top scientific journals worldwide, sometimes without disclosing the source of funding for those projects, a practice that raises ethical questions and often violates the conflict-of-interest policies of the publications.

The reports cover a wide range of climate-denial perspectives. Many of the studies postulate that changes in solar activity are responsible for global temperature trends, such as the 2009 paper that Soon boasted about to Southern Co. The studies all question the extent, severity, cause and existence of man-made climate change.

Questions regarding Soon's credibility and impartiality have circulated for years and have been grist for environmental organizations critical of his research findings and his ethics.

Controversy erupted early this year with the publication of a paper co-authored by Soon in <a href="http://www.scibull.com:8080/EN/volumn/home.shtml" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Science Bulletin</a>, a scientific journal cosponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.  http://www.scibull.com:8080/EN/volumn/home.shtml

In the <a href="http://www.scibull.com:8080/EN/abstract/abstract509579.shtml" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">paper</a>, Soon and three other climate skeptics attempt to discredit the UN panel on global warming, the IPCC. Soon and his co-researchers contend the IPCC used flawed techniques to calculate changes in global temperature that exaggerated the threat of global warming by as much as 50 percent. The <a href="http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2015/01/factcheck-scientists-hit-back-at-claims-global-warming-projections-are-greatly-exaggerated/" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">paper has been roundly criticized by climate scientists and academics</a>.

Each of the writers said at the end of the piece that they had no conflicts of interest. But Davies of the Climate Investigations Center challenged that assertion because of the FOIA paper trail showing Soon has long accepted industry money.

The newly released documents show that the dust-up over the Chinese journal echoed a practice Soon engaged in with a variety of less obscure journals that published his work.

Although Soon has at times disclosed the support he received from Exxon, API and the Koch Foundation, the documents show he failed to disclose his special relationship with Southern.

"As further consideration to SCS [Southern Company Services], Smithsonian shall provide SCS an advance written copy of proposed publications regarding the deliverables for comment and input, if any, from SCS," according to a funding agreement signed by Smithsonian’s William J. Ford, contract and grant specialist; and Bryan Baldwin, Southern’s manager of environmental assessment.

Christine Pulliam, a spokeswoman for the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said Soon expressed his own opinion. She defended the center's funding agreements and its scrutiny of the research performed.

"The Smithsonian stands by the process by which the research results of all of its scholars are peer reviewed and vetted by other scientists," Pulliam said. "This is the way the scientific process works. The funding entities, regardless of their affiliation, have no influence on the research."

Southern Co. did not make an official available to explain its association with Soon. Company spokeswoman Jeannice Hall issued a brief statement that the company "funds a broad range of research on a number of topics that have potentially significant public policy implications for our business."

Agreements such as those between Soon and Southern raised troubling issues, according to <a href="http://law.case.edu/OurSchool/FacultyStaff/MeetOurFaculty/FacultyDetail.aspx?id=993" style=" text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Juscelino Colares</a>, a professor of law and associate director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law in Cleveland.

"It all goes to the matter of credibility," said Colares, who teaches courses on international environmental law. "Why are they hiding something? Why are they giving non-science the weight of science? This is manipulation that gives the funder the last word."

Davies said the close relationship with industry that the Soon documents reveal raises doubts about the impartiality that is supposed to come with scientific research.

"It shows that he is not just being funded to do science but to impact the public policy arena," Davies said.

As part of a final report to Southern in 2011 outlining the papers and presentations he produced for a $60,000 grant, Soon explained the policy relevance of the research he delivered:  "The hypothesized dangerous consequences of rising atmospheric CO2 are too speculative for responsible regulatory policy."

In announcing the completion of his 2009 sun-climate paper to Koch foundation executives, who had contributed $65,000 to fund the study, Soon said his findings were consistent with the hypothesis that the sun causes climatic change in the Arctic.

"It...raises serious questions about the wisdom of imposing cap-and-trade or other policies that would cripple energy production and economic activity, in the name of preventing catastrophic climate change," Soon told the executives in a 2009 email.

One study Soon published—funded by Southern and the Koch foundation—has stirred the debate about the fate of polar bears in the face of climate change and the loss of sea ice. In the study, Soon dismissed the idea that polar bears in the Canadian Arctic were at risk from the impacts of climate change—and questioned whether the region was even warming at all.

Davies said Soon's polar bear research goes to the heart of how the industry employs research like Soon's to deflect attention from the true cause of global warming.

"Climate change isn't something you can go out and see like a polluted river," he said. "But with the polar bears, all of a sudden you could see the results of climate change."

They were starving as their hunting grounds melted away, and people were beginning to connect all of this to the consequences of fossil fuel and atmospheric carbon, Davies said.

"So the companies are happy having Willie Soon out there," he said "These companies are paying him to go out in the world to cast doubt."

InsideClimate News reporters Lisa Song and Sabrina Shankman contributed to this report.

==

<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/11/12/3591284/us-china-climate-deal" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/11/12/3591284/us-china-climate-deal</a>

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ivory smuggle <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/06/china-tanzania-ivory-smuggling_n_6113932.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/06/china-tanzania-ivory-smuggling_n_6113932.html</a>

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<a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/09/05/china-war-pollution-kick-coal-habit/">http://ecowatch.com/2014/09/05/china-war-pollution-kick-coal-habit/</a>

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<h3 class="yiv2058586359null" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 22.5px; outline: none medium; letter-spacing: -0.5px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=7e7f6eeb52&e=c2e8fdabfa" style=" text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; word-wrap: break-word;">China’s Biggest 74 Cities All Dirtier Than L.A.</a></h3>

All of China's 74 largest cities make L.A.'s air look crystalline... 9/14

http://ecowatch.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=214ab5fbb3f6015d74ffab4ec&id=7e7f6eeb52&e=c2e8fdabfa

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<h1 class="title" style=" margin-bottom: 0px; letter-spacing: -1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Why India and China's No-Show at New York Climate Change Talks Could Be a Disaster</h1>

<div class="field-item odd">(Quartz)</div>

</div>

The leaders of the world's largest and third-largest emitters of greenhouse gases won't be attending a global summit on climate change later this month. China is sending a lower-ranked official; it's not yet clear if India will send its environmental minister.

</div>

<a href="http://qz.com/259949/why-india-and-chinas-no-show-at-climate-change-talks-could-be-a-disaster/" title="Read original story" style=" text-align: right; text-decoration: none; outline: none medium; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Read original story</a>

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<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://insideclimatenews.cmail1.com/t/t-l-ydldtkl-hdtyujtt-yd/" style=" text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;">China's Plan to Clean Up Air in Cities Will Doom the Climate, Scientists Say</a>

China is erecting huge industrial complexes in remote areas to convert coal to synthetic fuel that could make the air in its megacities cleaner. But the complexes use so much energy that the carbon footprint of the fuel is almost double that of conventional coal and oil, spelling disaster for earth's climate, a growing chorus of scientists is warning.

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://insideclimatenews.cmail1.com/t/t-l-ydldtkl-hdtyujtt-yh/" style=" text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">Read more</a>.

</div>

</td></tr><tr style=" line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; border-collapse: collapse;"><td class="yiv0554750509w580" width="580" height="10" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: top; border: none; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; border-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"> </td></tr></tbody></table>

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://insideclimatenews.cmail1.com/t/t-l-ydldtkl-hdtyujtt-yk/" style=" text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;">Slideshow: China's Coal Bases: A Tour of the Largest Fossil Fuel Development Project in the World</a>

China is building massive industrial complexes in its rural areas to convert coal to synthetic fuel that could make the air in its megacities cleaner.

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://insideclimatenews.cmail1.com/t/t-l-ydldtkl-hdtyujtt-yu/" style=" text-decoration: none; line-height: 1.2em; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">Watch here</a>. ICN 2/14

</div>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

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<h1 class="headline" style=" border: 0px none; margin: 0px 0px 0.4em; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2em; text-transform: none; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="post-title" href="http://grist.org/news/china-launches-worlds-second-biggest-carbon-trading-market/" style=" border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: inherit; max-width: 100%;">China launches world’s second-biggest carbon-trading market</a> grist</h1>

<p class="headline" style=" border: 0px none; margin: 0px 0px 0.4em; padding: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2em; text-transform: none; max-width: 100%; text-decoration: none; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://grist.org/news/china-launches-worlds-second-biggest-carbon-trading-market/">http://grist.org/news/china-launches-worlds-second-biggest-carbon-trading-market/</a>

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<a href="http://www.globaltrends.com/knowledge-center/features/shapers-and-influencers/151-special-report-corporate-clout-distributed-the-influence-of-the-worlds-largest-100-economic-entities"> http://www.globaltrends.com/knowledge-center/features/shapers-and-influencers/151-special-report-corporate-clout-distributed-the-influence-of-the-worlds-largest-100-economic-entities</a>

Of the world’s 100 largest economic entities in 2010, 42 (42%) are corporations, versus 44% in 2009.  If you look at the top 150 economic entities in 2010, the proportion of corporations rises to 58%.

The largest, as in 2009 was Wal-Mart, whose 2010 revenues exceeded the GDPs of 171 countries making it the 25th largest economic entity in the world. It ranks ahead of Norway and Iran, employing 2.1 million people or the equivalent of 43% of Norway’s population.  The next group in terms of size is the energy majors, buoyed by energy price increases over 2010, with revenues of the five largest players increasing between 25% and 45% over the year.  Combined, the revenues of these five companies (Royal Dutch Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Sinopec and China National Petroleum) were the equivalent of 2.5% of global GDP in 2010.]

==

Hydrofluorocarbons, the climate-chaing twins of ozone-ruining chlorofluorocarbons, had best watch out. The world's two most powerful countries have agreed to join forces to prevent the harmful chemicals from entering the atmosphere.

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<h1 class="headline"><a class="post-title" href="http://grist.org/news/nicaragua-may-let-chinese-company-build-a-canal-to-rival-panamas/">Nicaragua may let Chinese company build a canal to rival Panama’s</a></h1>

By <a href="http://grist.org/author/john-upton/" title="Posts by John Upton">John Upton</a>

It would take an estimated 11 years and $40 billion to excavate a proposed canal through 130 miles of Nicaragua to link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, providing shippers with an alternative route to the Panama Canal. And the project would have a huge environmental impact on the country, slicing through rainforest and messing with waterways.

But enough already with boring facts and details. President Daniel Ortega is trying to ram the project through his country's congress faster than Dick Cheney rammed America's Patriot Act through after 9/11.

</div>

==

By David Stanway

BEIJING, April 18 (Reuters) - The crisis facing the European carbon market will not deter China from plans to establish its own emissions trading platform or its other climate pledges, the senior official responsible for climate change said on Thursday.

Xie Zhenhua, vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission in charge of climate policies, said efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions were a "domestic requirement". They were, he said, designed to address longstanding inefficiency and environmental problems, and did not depend on other nations, or on the state of the economy.

"China has pledged these targets to the international community to deal with climate change and they will not change," he said at an event in Beijing. "Even if other countries say they will do nothing, we will keep to our strategy. No matter what happens to our economy, we cannot make any change."

The global financial crisis has saddled Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) with a crushing oversupply of carbon credits and record low prices, but the EU parliament this week rejected proposals to bail the market out.

The ETS allows enterprises to meet their carbon reduction targets by purchasing carbon credits from the market, enabling them to keep emitting greenhouse gases. Many credits have been generated by low-carbon projects in China as part of a United Nations scheme known as the Clean Development Mechanism.

China is planning a similar domestic scheme in which carbon-intensive enterprises and industries can meet their own targets by acquiring the emission quotas allocated to other firms.

==

H&K rep after Tiannamen Square

===

gmu:

<h3 class="feed-item-title"><a href="http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90883/8251510.html">UNEP says Bright Moon partnership reaffirms China's green aspirations</a></h3>

<div class="feed-item-meta"><a href="http://climate.society.gmu.edu/aggregator/sources/9" class="feed-item-source">UNFCC Climate Change Headlines</a> - 1 hour 29 min ago</div>

<div class="feed-item-body">Source: Xinhua - The UN Environment Program (UNEP) agency said Monday China is currently a strategic and significant player in the advancement of green transformation and sustainable development globally.</div>

<div class="feed-item-categories">Categories: <a href="http://climate.society.gmu.edu/aggregator/categories/2" class="active">Climate Change News</a></div>

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<h3 class="feed-item-title"><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-poll-global-warming-clean-energy-priorities-20130521,0,4227375.story">Majority thinks global warming, clean energy should be priorities</a></h3>

<div class="feed-item-body">Source: LA Times - Global warming and clean energy should be priorities for Congress and the president, a majority of Americans said in a recent survey.</div>

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<h3 class="feed-item-title"><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/china-agrees-to-impose-carbon-targets-by-2016-8626101.html">China agrees to impose carbon targets by 2016</a></h3>

<div class="feed-item-body">Source: The Independent - The battle against global warming has received a transformational boost after China, the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide, proposed to set a cap on its greenhouse gas emissions for the first time.</div>

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<h3 class="feed-item-title"><a href="http://www.authintmail.com/news/science/environment/world-must-face-climate-driven-disasters-un">World must face up to climate-driven disasters: UN</a></h3>

<div class="feed-item-body">Source: AFP - The world needs to wake up to the risk of a spike in natural disasters linked to climate change and strive to find ways to cut the human and economic cost, the United Nations warned on Tuesday.</div>

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<h3 class="feed-item-title"><a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/9221daf4-c221-11e2-ab66-00144feab7de.html#axzz2U05Waq9E">China reveals details of first carbon trading scheme</a></h3>

<div class="feed-item-body">Source: Financial Times - Operating details of China’s first pilot carbon-trading scheme, in Shenzhen, have been released as it gets ready to launch next month, and as the country prepares to roll out seven pilot schemes by 2014.</div>

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[China will release GHG report in 2012; spends 2x of US on green R&D.  China doing both cap and carbon tax (subsidy low carbon R&D); to buy electric car in China 1/2 of US: kpfa 1/8/11  They have had a series of 5 yr plans that address eco issues?  However, some regulations not really implemented (devices installed but only used during inspections) [China requires grid to buy any green power?]  China shut down power plants to meet target, but factories bought diesel to run (caused shortage) Doug henwood presenter

<a href="http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/chinas-green-ambition-us-sees-red?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitterhttp://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/chinas-green-ambition-us-sees-red?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter">China, for instance, invests $12 billion monthly</a> in its wind, solar, and other renewable clean energy projects.

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<a href="http://grist.org/news/almost-half-of-all-coal-burned-in-the-world-is-burned-in-china/">http://grist.org/news/almost-half-of-all-coal-burned-in-the-world-is-burned-in-china/</a>

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/14/169305324/beijings-air-quality-reaches-hazardous-levels

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