碳阻迹
2021-08 23
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China's national reserve forests aid biodiversity

Date:2021-08

View:23

The levels of biodiversity as well as water and soil conservation are improving in China with the development of national reserve forests that house a variety of precious and rare trees. A core water source of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project is located in Xichuan County, central China's Henan Province. In order to guarantee water quality, the county has been developing national reserve forests to realize water and soil conservation. Xichuan County has karst landform, which makes afforestation really difficult. Therefore, the local government uses mingled forest tree planting, seedling growing and other such methods to aid afforestation.  Liu Dingzhou, head of Xichuan County Forestry Bureau, said they planted trees with a large-diameter trunk to prevent loss of water and soil. "We chose tree varieties with a large trunk diameter. When the trees grow up, their advantages will be visible. These varieties will do better in water preservation and soil consolidation," said Liu. Authorities in east China's Jiangxi Province have been growing trees of different varieties in forests according to local conditions. In Jishui County of Jiangxi's Ji'an City, a national reserve forest has been developed with a rare local tree variety. The national reserve forests in Jiangxi's Yichun City have also been contributing to biological protection. Yichun's forestry personnel report sighting rare animal species in the forests, including the Chinese stump-tailed macaque, which is under second-class state protection in China. "Our national reserve forests are good not only commercially, but also for being havens for wildlife. They are home to over 10 kinds of rare protected species, such as Thorold's deer and silver pheasants, besides Chinese stump-tailed macaques," said Yuan Chun, head of Yuanzhou District State-owned Forest Farm. A silver pheasant. /VCG The development of national reserve forests benefits the country in many ways, such as increasing high-quality wood reserves and improving local biodiversity. They also contribute to China's efforts to meet its decarbonization goals. "The national reserve forests improve the carbon aggregation capability of the forest's biological system. The establishment of national reserve forests is an important means of protecting China's biological safety," said Shi Min, deputy director of the Construction Management Office of the Forest Bases for Fast Growing and High Yield Tree Varieties with the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. Source:CGTN Author:CGTN Date:August 23, 2021

2021-08 21
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Two Chinese steelmakers to merge, become world's third largest

Date:2021-08

View:21

China's two major steelmakers, Ansteel and Ben Gang Group Corporation, inked a deal on Friday to kick off their merger and restructuring that will create the world's third-largest steelmaker. According to the deal, the owner of Ben Gang – the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Liaoning Province – will transfer a 51-percent controlling stake in the steelmaker to Ansteel, and Ben Gang will become a subsidiary of Ansteel. After the merger, Ansteel will have an annual production capacity of 63 million tonnes of crude steel, ranking third worldwide after China Baowu Steel Group Corporation Limited and Luxembourg-headquartered ArcelorMittal. The merger will consolidate the steel industry, step up high-quality development of the industry, and forge a world-class steel firm, according to a statement released by Ansteel. "This is a milestone in the development of Ansteel," said Tan Chengxu, chairman of Ansteel on Friday. Founded in 1916 and 1905 respectively, Ansteel and Ben Gang are both located in northeast China's Liaoning Province, and their major production bases are 60 kilometers apart. "After the realignment, we will realize resource integration and coordinated development in research and development, procurement and sales, making a contribution to the revitalization of Liaoning and northeast China," said Tan. "The total number of employees in Ansteel after the restructuring is about 200,000. We promise not to cut staff," he said. By 2025, Ansteel targets an annual output of about 70 million tonnes of crude steel, 50 million tonnes of iron concentrate, and around 300 billion yuan (about $46.3 billion) of operating income. The restructuring will enter into the anti-monopoly review of related government departments. Leading steel producer China has been the world's leading steel producer for years. Over the past 20 years, China's annual crude steel production has risen to 1.05 billion tonnes. However, the steel industry is currently facing the bottleneck of excess capacity, low-level supply, and high dependence on external steel resources. To address concerns about a potential glut and reduce emissions in a heavily polluting industry, China is encouraging a realignment of the country's crowded steel market. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), China's steel industry promoted supply-side structural reform and accelerated mergers and restructuring, and the efforts paid off. In 2020, the crude steel output of the top 10 steel enterprises in China accounted for 39 percent of the total national output, an increase of 4.6 percentage points over 2015, according to the China Iron and Steel Association. According to a plan released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, by 2025, China will build a number of super-large steel conglomerates, and its top 10 steel enterprises will contribute to 60 percent of the country's steel output. Meanwhile, since the beginning of the 14th Five-year Plan period (2021-2025), China has been accelerating the construction of the mechanism and policy system for carbon peaking and neutrality. The steel industry, which has the largest carbon emissions among the 31 categories of China's manufacturing sector, is expected to be the first to reach carbon peaking and neutrality. According to Ansteel, it will strive to reach its carbon peak goal by around 2024, one year earlier than the steel industry as a whole. Currently, Ansteel's emissions per tonne of steel are at the national average level, while Ben Gang is higher than the national average. Both companies are expanding the application of energy-saving and emission-reduction technologies. Source:Xinhua News Agency Author:Xinhua News Agency Date:August 21, 2021

2021-08 10
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China's carbon goals open doors for insurers

Date:2021-08

View:10

China started trials of this insurance in 2008 to test the role of market actors and mechanisms in mitigating environmental pollution. Ping An was one of the first companies to offer such services. But the company said that it's during the past five years that the demand skyrocketed.  Several green finance pilot zones were set up in eastern Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces in 2015 as the amendment to China's Environmental Protection Law took effect. Ping An is presently working with Tsinghua University and Soochow University to set up a risk management platform for the green insurers.  Another insurer, China Pacific Property Insurance, offered products for projects in hydroelectric and photovoltaic power as early as the late 1990s. The company was covering more than 150 hydroelectric power projects during the first half of this year, with policy values of more than 50 billion yuan (about $7.7 billion). Its green insurance coverage for photovoltaic power projects was almost 100 billion yuan in the same period.  "Our catastrophic loss coverage has few individual buyers, with most being company owners or the government. We're working to expand our coverage to individual purchasers," said Tao Lei, assistant general manager and board secretary at China Pacific Property Insurance. Tao said his company is taking new energy vehicles as the primary way to focus more on individuals in the green consumption network.  During the first six months of the year, China Pacific Property Insurance sold commercial auto insurance coverage of more than half a trillion yuan to 400,000 new energy vehicle owners.  China's newly opened carbon trading market has further boosted the demand for green insurance. Last year, almost 2 trillion yuan in green insurance coverage was purchased for clean energy projects, posting an annual growth rate of 20 percent. Experts say there's still plenty of room for growth. The Insurance Association of China, an industry body, released a green development report in June, which suggests further diversification of insurance products and steps to cut risks in sectors like clean energy, new energy vehicles, low-carbon technology and natural disaster prevention.  The report said that life insurance accounted for 70 percent of the total insurance funds. This means that the industry is well-positioned to participate in environmental protection causes that usually need long-term investment.  Investment in the Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) business can in return enable insurance companies to better design and price and manage the green insurance risks, said Jimi Zhou, financial service consulting partner of PwC China.  Zhou also pointed out that green insurance products should protect against a variety of risks, including environmental pollution, impact of climate change and poor handling of carbon trades. This, he said, will require more guidance from the government to help insurance companies better understand how their products should develop. Source:CGTN Author:CGTN Date:August 10, 2021

2021-08 02
View 497
China's green loan expansion picks up speed in the first half of 2021

Date:2021-08

View:02

The balance of China's green loans in local and foreign currencies stood at 13.92 trillion yuan ($2.15 trillion) at the end of June, up 26.5 percent year on year, the country's central bank data showed. By the end of 2020, the total of China's outstanding green loans was the highest in the world, People's Bank of China (PBOC) data showed. The growth rate in June was 1.9 percentage points higher than that at the end of March and 14.6 percentage points higher than that for all kinds of loans at the end of June, the PBOC said in a Saturday report. Of the total, 67.3 percent of the green loans went to projects related to carbon emission reduction. China has pledged to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060. The country is employing multiple tools to incentivize de-carbonization. Apart from issuing green loans, its much-awaited nationwide carbon trading market started trading in July. Green finance was set as a priority for China's central bank this year. The bank earlier estimated that China will need to invest 2.2 trillion yuan in carbon emission reduction every year before 2030 and an annual 3.9 trillion yuan worth of investment from 2030 to 2060. Source:CGTN Author:CGTN Date:August 2, 2021

2021-07 21
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China to U.S.: Tackling climate change is shared responsibility

Date:2021-07

View:21

China and the United States share a common responsibility in addressing climate change and should work together to set an example for other global efforts, said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Wednesday.   In response to U.S. climate envoy John Kerry's comment on Monday that the U.S. should cooperate with China on reducing carbon emissions, Zhao said China and the United States, as the world's largest developing country and the largest developed country, are supposed to improve communication and coordination on the issue.   He called on the U.S. side to create favorable conditions for coordination and cooperation with China in important fields, saying any Sino-U.S. cooperation in specific areas is closely linked with the overall picture of the bilateral relations.   "The U.S. side cannot arbitrarily interfere in China's internal affairs and undermine China's interests on the one hand and demand China's understanding of and support for it in bilateral and global affairs on the other hand," said Zhao.   China's national carbon market started online trading last week, a significant step to help the country reduce its carbon footprint and meet emission targets.   The spokesperson reiterated that China will make efforts to peak its emissions by 2030 and realize carbon neutrality by 2060.   "On addressing climate change and delivering emission cuts, the Chinese side hopes the U.S. side can also match its actions with its words, take real responsibilities and make its due contributions," he said.   Source:CGTN Author:CGTN Date:July 21, 2021