China has struck a deal to work with the European Union to cut greenhouse gases through projects including the development of Chinese emissions trading schemes, the European Commission said. At the China-EU summit in Brussels this month, Commerce Minister Chen Deming and EU Development Commissioner Andris Piebalgs signed a financing deal promoting the transition “towards a low-carbon economy and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in China”, the Commission said in a statement. The EU will contribute €25 million and technical assistance over four years to three carbon-reduction projects. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned at the summit against erecting trade barriers amid an EU threat to impose tariffs on solar panels from China. The EU opened an anti-dumping probe into Chinese makers of the panels two weeks ago.

Alternative energy

• Goldwind Science and Technology Co, China’s largest wind turbine maker, said it has received approval to connect turbines in the Gullen Range project to the Australia grid. Gullen Range, with 182 MW of capacity, is Goldwind’s largest overseas project.
• China Ming Yang Wind Power Group, China’s third-largest wind-turbine manufacturer, has formed a joint venture with India’s Reliance Group to develop 2.5 gigawatt (GW) of wind farms in South Asia. Ming Yang will provide engineering, procurement and construction, and Reliance will have a supporting role in developing wind projects.
• The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has denied requests from nine solar companies who wished to go public by the end of June because of apparent concerns about the worsening business environment for the industry. One of the rejected IPO applications was by Himin Solar, a company based in Shandong province. A supply glut and falling prices are cutting the profits of China’s solar companies. For most companies the profit margin has narrowed to 20% or lower, down from the 139% they previously enjoyed, said Wang Quan’an, Secretary General of the Shanghai Solar Energy Society, in June.
• Sky Solar Holdings Co, a Chinese solar power developer, plans to invest about USD154 million to build 20 solar power stations in Japan, each with a capacity of around 2 MW.
• In a preliminary ruling in July, the U.S. Department of Commerce imposed provisional anti-dumping duties from 20.85% to 72.69% on utility-scale wind towers from China. The anti-dumping tariffs add to countervailing duties of between 13.74% to 26%, the Department announced in May. Some wind towers from China could thus face tariffs as high as 100%. The China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products strongly opposed the move.
• An Italian court has filed charges against an investment fund controlled by China’s Suntech Power, the world’s biggest maker of solar panels, accusing it of illegally building solar farms to milk state subsidies. Legal action against the fund could result in €80 million of subsidy-backed solar farms being dismantled, a prosecutor said.
• Sunshine Oilsands held talks with China Petrochemical Corp to jointly develop the Canadian company’s estimated 71 billion barrels of oil sands reserves. The Calgary-based oil sands explorer raised HKD4.5 billion in a Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) in March, attracting cornerstone investors that include China’s sovereign wealth fund China Investment Corp, China Life Insurance Co, and Sinopec Group.
• China has connected 50.26 gigawatt (GW) of wind-generated capacity to the nation’s largest electricity grid. Growth in on-grid wind power capacity was up 87% annually over the last six years. Grid-linked capacity will rise to 100 GW by 2015 and 200 GW by 2020. China plans to have at least 15% of its energy mix come from non-fossil fuels by 2020. Wind farms are the second-biggest contributor to renewable-energy capacity after hydropower dams.
• Commercial Aircraft Corp of China (COMAC) and Boeing Co opened the Boeing-COMAC Aviation Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Technology Center. Its first research project will be to treat and clean waste cooking oil, often described in China as gutter oil, for use as jet fuel. Boeing also works on other biofuel materials, like jatropha, with other research institutes in China.
• China’s Commerce Ministry said the United States must cut support for six government-backed renewable energy programs or face penalties. The U.S. measures, supporting wind, solar and hydroelectric energy programs in several American states, were a barrier to Chinese exports, the Ministry said.
• Suntech Power Holdings Co has replaced its founding Chief Executive Shi Zhengrong, by David King, the company’s Chief Financial Officer. Shi will also step down as Chairman to become Executive Chairman as well as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). Shi is considered the most prominent of China’s solar entrepreneurs, building Suntech into the world’s largest panel maker in terms of manufacturing capacity. “At this time, I believe it’s important to devote more of my time to guiding the strategic direction of the company, building relationships with key partners, and driving the ongoing development of Suntech’s leading solar technology,” Shi said.
• The debt of 10 of China’s largest solar energy companies totaled USD17.5 billion, according to a report by the U.S. investment bank Maxim Group. It pointed out that LDK Solar and Suntech were the most likely to go bankrupt. A supply glut and falling prices are cutting profits at China’s solar companies.
• LDK Solar Co, the solar-wafer maker that has reported four straight quarterly losses, will have a portion of its debts paid by the government of Xinyu city in Jiangxi province where it is based, including loans from Huarong International Trust Co. The bailout is the first from a Chinese local government to a non-state solar company to pay off debt.
• China produced more than 103.1 billion cu m of natural gas last year with 7.3% year-on-year growth. Apparent consumption — production plus imports minus exports — was 129 billion cu m in the same year. It topped the world with its 22% year-on-year growth in natural gas demand last year, with increasing Chinese production, imported pipe gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy. China’s natural gas consumption will be doubled within the 12th Five Year Plan period (2011-2015) to account for 8% of its total energy mixture by the end of 2015.
• China imported 40,000 tons of polysilicon in the first half of the year, an increase of 34% and a new high, according to the General Administration of Customs. Germany accounts for 20% of the imports.
• China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) and Airbus announced they will jointly produce renewable aviation fuel at a newly built refinery in Hangzhou for regular commercial use in China. The refinery is one of the few in the world that has the capacity to produce aviation fuel from biomass on a large scale, Sinopec said. Using its own technology, Sinopec has already produced aviation fuel meeting international standards, according to Senior Vice President Dai Houliang. Airbus will offer Sinopec technical expertise gained in past certification processes with the EU and U.S. fuel standard bodies.
• Nearly 10 billion cubic meters of water – a quarter of the water that can be allocated for use from the Yellow river in a normal year – will be consumed by 16 new coal-fired power plants due to be built under China’s 12th Five Year Plan by 2015, exacerbating water shortages in the arid northwest, a Greenpeace report said. “China is trading millions of people’s water rights for energy,” said Li Yan, Greenpeace’s East Asia Climate and Energy Campaign Manager. “Two years into the five-year plan, it’s time to rethink the pros and cons of this westward coal expansion and acknowledge the painful heritage it will leave: huge carbon emissions, horrible air pollution and a grim future for vast arid areas,” Li said.
• China will spend CNY2.37 trillion on major energy-saving projects from 2011 to 2015 under a blueprint outlined by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). The country will invest CNY982 billion in energy conservation and set aside CNY816 billion toward reducing pollution. Another CNY568 billion will be pumped back into the circular economy.
• Shanghai-listed Sinovel Wind Group reported a 97.6% plunge in first-half net profit and Shenzhen and Hong Kong-listed Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology, the second-largest producer, reported an 83% drop in interim earnings. Goldwind summed up the predicament facing the wind power sector well in its results statement: “The rapid emergence of China’s wind power industry gained global acclaim as the industry took the lead in meeting China’s new energy development goals. However, irrational competition resulted in problems that necessitated stricter national regulations.”

Pollution

• Thirty people have died of cancer in 10 years in Yuxi village, Hunan province. A glass manufacturer nearby is allegedly the source of heavy-metal pollution, which has ruined farmland and over 100 wells. The villagers are forced to buy bottled water for drinking.
• A group of 30 Chinese fishermen are suing ConocoPhillips in the U.S. District Court in Houston, claiming their livelihoods have been greatly impacted by two oil spills last year from the company’s off-shore drilling operations in China. Courts in China blocked their efforts to file a suit. ConocoPhillips and its partner, the China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), reached a USD160 million agreement in January with China’s Ministry of Agriculture to settle compensation claims related to the spill.
• Twelve industrial plants have been suspended following tests that found more than 10 children with excessive lead in their blood in Jiangxi province. The pollution was suspected of originating in the Futan Industrial Park in Qingyuan district of Ji’an city, home to over 30 plants. The factories are mainly involved in copper, recycled paper and petrochemicals.
• Guangzhou will enact a new waste disposal policy that will levy higher fees on residents who produce rubbish that exceed an as-yet unspecified limit. Cash rebates will be given to residents who undershoot the limit. The fee for a family that generates a standard amount of garbage will be kept at CNY15. The city plans to implement the new scheme in 131 pilot communities by the end of this year.
• 28 people were hospitalized in July after a leak of poisonous sulfur dioxide at the Jiangsu Sopo Group Co, a chemical plant in Zhenjiang. A total of 68 were treated. The company blamed the release on human error at the plant.
• Thousands of people demonstrating over fears of pollution from a sewage pipeline at a paper factory in Qidong, near Shanghai, clashed with police in July. Authorities announced that the waste water pipeline project at the mill, which belongs to Japanese company Oji Paper, would be “permanently cancelled”. Oji Paper denied it was causing pollution and said closing the 110 kilometer pipeline would not affect operations at the plant, located in Nantong.
• Shanghai set stricter lead pollution regulations in August in line with the strictest limits at home and abroad. The rule will also strictly regulate working procedures. All lead-related processing must be conducted in separated and enclosed workshops, plants should have no ventilation windows and all exits should be kept closed to prevent the spread of lead pollutants. By last year, Shanghai had 17 companies involved in lead battery production, assembly or recycling.
• A pollutant discharge quota exchange platform is to be established in Shanghai next year to control emissions and trade in surplus quotas. The Shanghai  Environmental Protection Administration will issue permits to industrial plants to regulate the type of pollutant, the maximum amount allowed and how it is discharged. Pollutants include waste-water, waste gases, and solid waste. Businesses without a permit can’t discharge pollutants at all, according to the draft of the national rule. Those plants which discharge pollutants outside their permitted allowance will face fines of up to CNY500,000 or have their permits canceled.
• More than 20% of Jiangxi province suffers soil erosion that has affected agricultural productivity. More than 8 million tons of soil and sand are washed into Poyang Lake each year. Officials will be punished if they fail to help prevent erosion under a regulation taking effect this month. It also forbids quarrying in landslide-prone areas, with a maximum fine of CNY200,000.
• Starting next month, Guangzhou will release readings on 106 indicators of drinking water quality twice a year at its 30 water plants. The results of 42 indicators will be published once a month. At present, the city releases readings of six indicators twice a month, including information about pH and bacteria levels.
• City environment officials said the amount of respirable suspended particulates in Beijing would drop by 30% by 2020 if their reduction targets were met, the Beijing Daily reported. Nine measures have been formulated to tackle PM2.5. These include building 35 monitoring centers by the end of this year, taking 400,000 vehicles with high-exhaust emissions off the road next year, and closing the city’s four remaining coal-fired power plants. An early-warning system would also be built to alert people in advance of expected days of severe pollution, officials said.
• One of China’s largest freshwater lakes may disappear in the next decade or two because of pollution and ecological degradation. Fish are said to have disappeared from Wuliangsuhai Lake, located near Bayannur, Inner Mongolia, and the water has been overgrown with plants. There are also excessive amounts of phosphates and nitrogen from the nearby agricultural industry.
• The Jinao river in Wenzhou mysteriously turned black overnight in early August, and residents rushed to save as many fish as they could from the waters. The cause of the apparent contamination was under investigation, but residents blamed several factories upstream. About 50,000 fish were saved.
• Guangzhou will spend CNY300 million on 366 refuse trucks as part of its efforts to collect and recycle waste generated in the city every day. Mayor Chen Jianhua said the city government would allocate CNY200 million for the trucks. By the end of this year, dry and wet garbage will be transported separately, making landfill use more effective. Toxic and dangerous waste will also be collected and transported separately.
• China Petroleum and Chemical Corp is prepared to spend HKD10 million to clean up a beach in Hong Kong after plastic pellets were spilled into the city’s waters. The company owns the 150 tons of plastic pellets that were spilled when Hong Kong was hit by a typhoon two weeks ago in July.
• Xian authorities want to develop seven wetland areas and 28 lakes over the next decade to address drought problems and improve the local ecosystem, the Xian Evening News reported. Officials said the city was facing a severe water shortage, with each resident having access to about a third of the water available to others in the province, and a sixth of the water available to others across the nation, on average.
• Provincial authorities told the Shandong People’s Congress that 760,000 tons of polluted wastewater are discharged daily into waterways across the province that are used as tributaries for the major South-North Water Transfer Project, which is intended to alleviate water shortages in northern China. Much of the wastewater comes from farms and petrochemical plants, despite dozens of new sewage-treatment facilities in the province.
• Bird-watchers say that waste from two sewage pipelines attached to a quarry is polluting Bainiao Lake near Urumqi, Xinjiang, which attracts rare, migrating birds. The fear is that the lake will end up like others in the region that are no longer able to support aquatic life after decades of pollution. A local bird-watchers association organized more than two dozen volunteers in August to determine how many birds remain in the area.
• The Harbin Pharmaceutical Group has decided to relocate a plant from downtown Harbin to the city’s outskirts following a pollution scandal last year. Construction on a CNY700 million new site had started, a city official said, and was expected to be completed in 17 months.
• Shanghai is asking for CNY10 million in compensation from the owner of the Netherlands-flagged cargo vessel De Nederlandse Antillen that spilled 114 tons of fuel into the sea near the coast of Shanghai in June after it collided with a Chinese ship, the Shanghai Maritime Administration said. The spill contaminated water in the Nanhui area and Hangzhou Bay. The leak was one of the most severe in recent years in Shanghai.
• Following a damning report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) classifying nearly all of the seawater in Hangzhou Bay – extending from Zhejiang to southern Shanghai – as substandard, the 21st Century Business Herald has found six major clusters of petrochemical companies along the bay, comprising 210 firms. Experts were quoted as saying the heavy metals and organic pollutants have significantly threatened the oceanic ecology of the area. Fishing as an industry has almost ceased there.
• Dongguan authorities have admitted for the first time that water from the city’s section of the Dongjiang, or East River, contains excessive levels of heavy metals and industrial pollutants and is not suitable for drinking for at least six months of the year. The Dongjiang, one of the world’s most polluted rivers, supplies drinking water to Hong Kong and a dozen Pearl River Delta cities including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan and Huizhou. The water used by Hong Kong does not come from the Dongguan section but from further upstream.
• 196 children living in one community in Xingzi town, Guangdong, tested positive for lead poisoning with 95 having levels 4.5 times above the safe level, the China Business News revealed, while authorities initially said only 18 children tested positive. Since the town has 20 villages and 211 communities, the actual number of lead-poisoned children could be much higher, the paper said. The pollution is thought to come from the coal-fired Lianzhou Power Plant, while the Xingzi river is also heavily polluted. Lead pollution by power plants is rare, but the situation in Lianzhou is unique because coal from the area has a high lead content.
• The mouth of the Yangtze river in Shanghai, where the Qingcaosha Reservoir is located, faces the risk of eutrophication as upstream factories keep discharging waste water. A Japanese paper mill, which saw its sea pipeline construction suspended in July by the Qidong city government, was the biggest threat. The reservoir is also threatened by busy shipping traffic and salt tides on the Yangtze. Oil leaks from ships and chemical cargoes are other potential dangers, the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has said in a report. The Shanghai Water Authority is monitoring a 5-kilometer buffer area around the intake of the reservoir to ensure it can be shut in time should any emergency occur.
• Pollution caused by humans is the second leading cause in the melting of the No 1 glacier in the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang, experts say. It has been retreating by more than four meters every year and its thickness has shrunk by more than 15 m from 1958 to 2010, said Li Zhongqin of the Tianshan Mountains Glacier Observation Station under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The leading cause was climate change and the second one black carbon, particles generated by incomplete combustion of carbon-containing material. Several power plants and building material factories had been operating for nearly 30 years near the glacier.
• Authorities in Anxin county in Hebei province attributed the death of 1 million kilograms of fish in Baiyangdian Lake to environmental changes, but fishermen blamed illegal chemical dumping. Flooding in the upstream Xiaoyi river sent a large amount of mud and waste into the lake and decreased oxygen in the water, which caused many fish to die, authorities said. The fish died between August 12 and August 14, causing economic losses up to tens of millions of yuan. The fishermen suspected textile mills and fur processors in Gaoyang and Lixian counties caused the contamination.
• Five cities and districts in Guangdong province — Shaoguan, Qingyuan, Foshan, Shenzhen and Shunde — were found to be heavily polluted by acid rain in the first six months of this year, up from four in the same period of last year, according to a provincial environmental report for the first half of 2012. Nitrogen oxide has become a major cause of acid rain, partly as a result of the greater number of cars and an inability to adequately control their emissions. Some cement and ceramics industries have also recently moved from developed areas in the Pearl River Delta to  Shaoguan and Qingyuan, the two most affected cities.

Greenhouse gas emissions

• About 200 local companies will participate in a pilot carbon trading program in Shanghai next year, as part of China’s efforts to clean up the environment with a market-based approach rather than with administrative measures. The city was one of the seven provinces and municipalities chosen by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in November to set up carbon trade markets in a trial program from 2013 to 2015. Eventually, a national market will be created.
• China’s environmental protection agencies have been ordered to publish environmental impact assessment reports on their websites from September 1 to make the evaluations available to the public. In the first half of this year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) approved 125 projects — involving a total investment of CNY687.2 billion — and rejected or suspended 17 for failing to meet environmental standards.
• China will channel part of the Civil Aviation Development Fund (CADF) to support energy-saving campaigns of domestic airlines and plane manufacturers, and developing bio-fuel. The companies will be granted subsidies ranging from 30% to 60% of the total investment for emission reduction efforts. Passengers will be charged CNY50 each for domestic routes and those departing the country on international routes will pay CNY90. The government is expected to collect CNY15.4 billion in the CDAF this year.
• China is to have a National Low-carbon Day from next year in the latest move to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The day will fall on the third day of the National Energy Efficiency Promotion Week in June every year. The Chinese government also adopted a new sandstorm control plan in north China to minimize dust storms affecting Beijing and Tianjin, and decided to raise the subsidy standard for some reforestation projects from next year. About 9.3 million hectares of farmland returned to forest between 1999 and 2006.
• A joint estimate by the European Commission and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency found that China emitted nearly twice as much carbon as the U.S. last year – just three years after it overtook the U.S. as the world’s largest carbon polluter. China’s per capita carbon footprint – 7.2 tons last year – is almost on a par with that of the European Union (7.5 tons) and by some estimates will surpass the U.S. (17.3 tons last year) by 2017. The central government has refused to provide an update of the country’s carbon footprint since 1994.

To mark the visit of the Vice Mayor of Yuyao City (Ningbo) and his delegation, the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC), Flanders Investment & Trade, and Agoria are organizing an information meeting. This meeting will take place on Thursday, 11 October at 12h30 at the Sheraton Hotel, Place Rogier 3, Brussels.

The Vice Mayor of Yuyao, Mr Lu Jianguo, and representatives of the Yuyao investment Bureau will give an outline of the investment environment in Yuyao (Zhejiang Province). The Party Secretary will be accompanied by leading entrepreneurs from Yuyao, who wish to get acquainted with our business environment and to find potential partners. The composition of the delegation and a description of their activities is available at: info@flanders-china.be. Yuyao city is under the jurisdiction of Ningbo city and is situated in Zhejiang province. It has attracted a vast amount of foreign investment to focus on developing the industries of automobiles and parts, electronics and information, fire fighting equipment, electromechanical equipment and tools, plastics, mould industry and agriculture.

Programme:

12:30 -13:00     Registration
13:00-13:10      Opening of the symposium by Mr Cen Jie, Director of the Yuyao Investment Promotion Bureau
13:10-13:25      Welcome speech by Mrs Claire Tillekaerts, CEO, Flanders Investment & Trade
13:30-13:50     Speech by Mr Lu Jianguo, Vice Mayor of Yuyao City People’s Government
13:50-14h00    Speech by Mrs Gwenn Sonck, Executive Director, Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce
13:50-14:30    General introduction of Flanders and its investment environment by Mr Marc Van Gastel, Head of Inward Investment, Flanders Investment & Trade
14:30-15:10    General introduction of Yuyao City and its investment environment by Mrs Fang Zhen, Vice Director of the Yuyao Investment Promotion Bureau
15:10 -15.20    Opening of the reception by Mr. Cen Jie, Director of the Yuyao Investment Promotion Bureau, and Mr Lu Jianguo, Vice Mayor of Yuyao City People’s Government
15:20-16:20   Cocktail reception and B2B meetings

Registration online by Friday 5 October at the latest. Participation is free of charge.

The 8th EU-China Business Summit on 20th September 2012 in Brussels brought together the highest level of CEOs from Europe and China. European and Chinese political leaders, including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, European Commission President José Manuel Durão Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders also attended and addressed the participants.

Organized by BUSINESSEUROPE and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade – in cooperation with the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, EU-China Business Association and EUROCHAMBRES – the event, held in parallel to the EU-China Political Summit, served as an important forum for an open discussion about the current and future challenges and opportunities shaping the business environment in China and the European Union. The event was supported by the Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC)

Participants of the business summit expressed their concern about the ongoing global economic crisis and the slowdown in the Chinese economy. The business leaders discussed the challenges in innovation to remain competitive and to be able to adapt to local and global market demands. They looked at the ways of strengthening investment opportunities to boost growth by encouraging companies to invest and agreed that the EU and China should pursue an ambitious bilateral strategy to further open their markets by launching investment treaty negotiations.

BUSINESSEUROPE President Jürgen R. Thumann said: “China is already the EU’s 2nd largest trading partner and its fastest growing export market. European companies are very keen on doing more business with and in China. The EU and China need to rely on partnerships for growth. But partnerships can only work well if they are beneficial to all parties involved. Therefore the strong economic dialogue that removes trade and investment impediments is central to the EU-China relationship.”

Arnaldo Abruzzini, Secretary General of EUROCHAMBRES said: “Amidst the uncertainties we, Europeans, are facing in our home region, we wish to send a strong signal that EU-China relations remain crucial to overcome the current crisis. Despite dissensions, we need to pursue an open dialogue, to avoid protectionist temptations and to create the conditions for a harmonious and balanced business relationship for businesses from both sides, especially smaller ones.”

Davide Cucino, President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce said: “More than ever before in modern history, the global economy depends on cooperation between Europe and China. Europe’s open investment environment not only offers Chinese companies opportunities to enter a large mature marketplace, it also brings direct benefits that can help lift Europe out of its economic malaise. Likewise, European companies can be a catalyst to assist China shift its economy towards quality-driven sustainable growth, which is probably the primary challenge facing the global economy today. So, while today’s Business Summit’s theme of cooperation was apt, it also taught us that such necessary cooperation can only stem from an acknowledgement that fostering investment and healthy competition in an open marketplace is the most important goal.”

Sir David Brewer CMG, President of the EU China Business Association said: “Today’s Business Summit has yet again given European and Chinese businesses a tremendous opportunity to meet and discuss issues of common interest. Significant scope exists for even broader and deeper trade and investment links between the EU and China that will benefit our peoples. Now, as much as at any time in recent history, we need businesses to lead the way in driving economic recovery.”

The Flanders-China Chamber of Commerce (FCCC) invited its members to the annual lunch seminar “EU Business in China: Position Paper 2012/2013”, on 18 September 2012 at the Résidence Palace in Brussels. The seminar was organized by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (European Chamber) in collaboration with Business Europe and the EU-China Business Association (EUCBA), of which the FCCC is in charge of the secretariat-general. At this occasion, the European Chamber presented its European Business in China Position Paper 2012/2013. Speakers were Karel De Gucht, Commissioner for Trade, European Commission, and Davide Cucino, President, European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.

The Position Paper can be obtained at http://www.europeanchamber.com.cn/en/chamber-publications.