China plans to draw on the experience of seven regional carbon markets as it drafts new national legislation in one or two years, according to Xie Zhenhua, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Shanghai and Shenzhen are trying to set rules for carbon trading, providing expertise for the nation, he said. China plans to cut carbon emissions per unit of economic output by 40% to 45% before 2020 and learn from carbon-pricing efforts in South Korea, Australia and the European Union, Xie said. The EU price is “very low” probably because they allocated too many emission quotas when designing their market. “We are learning lessons,” he said. The Shanghai carbon exchange plans to take back allowances when carbon prices are low and sell more when they are high “to maintain relatively stable levels”, Xie said. China’s national climate legislation will have a binding effect, Charlie Cao, a Beijing-based Analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, said. “This will bring stable expectations to investors in a carbon market. Otherwise they don’t have confidence.” Seven cities and provinces were asked last year to set regional caps and pilot programs for trading emission rights. The country set targets to cut carbon intensity reduction and energy consumption by 2015 for each city and province, Xie said. Shenzhen is scheduled to start emissions trading on June 18 and Shanghai is likely to follow this year.

When part of a virgin forest in Guangdong’s Nanling National Forest Park was destroyed by developer Dongyangguang, environmentalists forced the developer to help fund an education program and adopt an eco-friendly approach. The program includes field trips to the reserve to catalogue the area’s biodiversity and free public lectures. Nanling is located in the mountainous border area of Guangdong, Hunan and Jiangxi provinces and the Guangxi autonomous region. Until the 1980s, it was home to the South China tiger and leopards, but they are extinct now due to the destruction of habitats. The area is now a protected reserve but there are few large animals, although insects and small mammals are abundant. Dongyangguang is now developing ecotourism projects in the reserve, including a five-star hotel. Some residents are concerned about the impact of large-scale commercial businesses on their way of life, but also appreciate that more tourists bring more income.

The level of environmental awareness among Beijing residents has fallen for the third consecutive year – not only general knowledge of environment issues but participation in them – according to a survey by the education center under the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. Local residents’ environmental awareness in 2012 was 71.6 points out of a possible 100, compared to 72.2 points in 2011, 74.2 points in 2010 and 75.9 points in 2009. Conducted in December 2012, the survey covered about 2,000 residents between 16 and 60 years old who have lived in the city for at least two years. “The environmental protection issue has been heatedly debated in recent years, but people’s awareness has decreased since 2009,” said Liu Jingqi, the survey’s Project Director. “Beijing’s hosting the Olympic Games in 2008 spurred people’s consciousness,” Liu added. Though people are attaching more importance to air and water quality among all environmental issues recently, poor policy execution and action have contributed to decreasing environmental-protection awareness. “Many practice energy conservation by saving water or electricity consumption, but the performance is not as good when it comes to disposable tableware, overpacked products and other issues,” said Liu. Only 24.2% of those interviewed said they had heard of the term PM2.5, and half of those who had heard of it did not know the term is related to air pollution. Zhou Rong, Director of the Greenpeace climate and energy project in Beijing, said that even when the PM2.5 index was “extremely hazardous” to people’s health, most people outdoors were not wearing any mask or taking other protection measures.

The United States and China are to set up a joint working group on climate change and have a shared view on the “increasing dangers” of global warming. The two countries “recognize that the increasing dangers presented by climate change measured against the inadequacy of the global response requires a more focused and urgent initiative”, they said in a statement issued in Beijing on April 13. The initiative came as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry visited Beijing. China and the U.S. are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. China says developing countries, which emit far less carbon per capita, should not have to bear the same burden as advanced economies in tackling the problem. “By agreeing to raise the issue of climate change and energy policy to the ministerial level, we put on an accelerated basis at a higher level our joint efforts with respect to energy and climate,” Kerry said. “And I think that globally that will be a very significant step and significant message.” In the joint statement, the two countries said they “took special note of the overwhelming scientific consensus” concerning “climate change and its worsening impacts”. Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and John Kerry also pledged to deepen Sino-U.S. cooperation in clean energy, after attending a China-U.S. energy cooperation seminar in Beijing.

The number of rivers in China with catchment areas of at least 100 square kilometers has dropped by more than 50% compared with 60 years ago, China’s Ministry of Water Resources’ first ever national census of water revealed. The survey, conducted by up to 800,000 surveyors, said there were 22,909 rivers in China which had catchment areas of at least 100 sq km as of the end of 2011, less than half the government’s previously estimated figure of over 50,000. The large fall in the number of these rivers has prompted fears that China’s rapid economic development has also caused considerable water and soil loss. Huang He, Deputy Director of the group in charge of the census, said the disparity in the numbers was caused mainly by inaccurate estimates in the past, as well as climate change and water and soil loss. Huang said many figures released in the new study had not been known before. “For example, we used to think China had 8,700 water reservoirs, but the census shows the number has now reached 98,002.” The latest research, which took three years to complete, is the first comprehensive study to show the precise number of waterways, reservoirs and irrigation zones in China.  “Of all the river sections that require constructions for flood prevention, 33% have been undergoing work, while only 17% are qualified for use,” indicating much work steel needs to be done in flood prevention.