China to Donald Trump: No, We Didn’t Invent Climate Change [Time]

Oh how we LOL-ed when Donald Trump first posted what seemed like just another outlandish tweet back in 2012. Four years later, faced with the reality of President Trump, China has responded. 

Premier Li Keqiang calls for clean energy system [Xinhua]

China’s Premier Li Keqiang has called for China’s energy mix to develop sustainably which means clean, low-carbon and tackling the curtailment and distribution problems that currently plague China’s renewables industry. The announcement comes one week after China announced its energy 13th Five Year Plan, which outlined a disappointing commitment to renewables growth. However, there’s good reason to believe that the targets will not only be met, but easily surpassed.    

Read more about how we’re supporting local grassroots renewables projects here.

China’s Singles Day legacy: Mountains of waste [CNN Money]

Singles Day is over, now all that’s left is for the billions of USD of orders to be packaged and shipped out. China’s State Post Bureau estimates that it will handle 1 billion packages from singles day sales alone-  that’s about 2 million trees worth of cardboard. 

1500 officials held to account for sloppy environmental standards [Reuters]

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection has pointed the finger at 1500 officials across 3 provinces after recent inspections showed that pollution control efforts were lacking.  The MEP has been setting up real-time monitoring of air pollution levels in an attempt to tackle its urban smog problem, but falsification of data is a huge issue:last month, five officials were detained for stuffing air monitoring equipment with cotton in order to lower readings; this week another official in Hebei was detained for obstructing inspections.

China says air pollution worse in October [Reuters]

Air quality in China’s smog-hit northern regions, which include the capital Beijing, worsened in October despite overall improvements over the course of the year, the environment ministry said in a notice late on Monday. The good news is, Beijing’s pollution now contains less arsenic lead and cadmium than before. 

…and…

Hairy crab scandal reveals depth of China pollution crisis [Financial Times]

Could the famous Suzhou act as a barometer for China’s pollution progress?