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China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) has just finished drafting the country’s first Five Year Plan for marine environment protection. The final plan is expected to be released by the end of this year. The fact that the MEE has been able to create such a plan speaks to the far-reaching impact of 2018 ministerial reforms that re-organised China’s marine governance system. The reforms brought marine environment and ecology conservation functions that were previously scattered across six other ministries into the MEE – China’s top environmental agency. Before them, the fragmented system had made coordination difficult.

Government departments responsible for the marine environment could not, for instance, regulate rivers or land-based industries that sent massive a...

China will step up measures to protect and restore habitats for marine species over the next five years as the country strives to improve biodiversity conservation, a Ministry of Ecology and Environment official said. The quality of the marine environment has “generally improved “since 2018, when the responsibility for dealing with marine pollution was transferred from the State Oceanic Administration to the ministry, said Ke Chang, director of the ministry’s Department of Marine Ecology and Environment.

By the end of 2020, the proportion of water of “fairly good quality” near the shore of the Bohai Sea was 82.3, which was 9.3 percentage points higher than the national target, he said. The proportion of fairly good quality water stood at 77...

China will aim to hit peak emissions before 2030 and for carbon neutrality by 2060, President Xi Jinping has announced. Mr Xi outlined the steps when speaking via videolink to the UN General Assembly in New York. The announcement is being seen as a significant step in the fight against climate change. 

China is the world’s biggest source of carbon dioxide, responsible for around 28% of global emissions.

With global climate negotiations stalled and this year’s conference of the parties (COP26) postponed until 2021, there had been little expectation of progress on the issue at the UN General Assembly.

However China’s president surprised the UN gathering by making a bold statement about his country’s plans for tackling emissions. 

He called on all countries to achieve a green re...

China is the largest fishing nation in the world. It is responsible for one-fifth of the world’s total marine fish catch. It is the world’s largest fish processor and trader, with huge influence on global seafood markets and the ecosystems they depend on. Actions China takes to manage its fisheries and economy can spill over to other countries and their marine ecosystems – something we need to understand better.

But today, fisheries in China and around the world are at a standstill. While demand for local seafood has increased in some areas, global seafood supply has been severely impacted by COVID-19...

Since winning the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Young Champions of the Earth prize 12 months ago, Better Blue founder Miao Wang has taken China’s diving community by storm. Her Better Blue foundation is committed to enabling more people to learn to interact with the oceans scientifically through shaping a more responsible and stronger diving industry.

The four major fields of Better Blue include marine citizen science, marine public education, industry development support and endangered species and habitat protection.

Better blue builds capacity within diving communities by holding events to raise awareness about marine conservation and through education programmes for divers.

Now, Better Blue has fast-tracked its progress to become one of China’s top ranking marine non-governmental o...

Since winning the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Young Champions of the Earth prize 12 months ago, Better Blue founder Miao Wang has taken China’s diving community by storm.

Her Better Blue foundation is committed to enabling more people to learn to interact with the oceans scientifically through shaping a more responsible and stronger diving industry.

The four major fields of Better Blue include marine citizen science, marine public education, industry development support and endangered species and habitat protection.

Better blue builds capacity within diving communities by holding events to raise awareness about marine conservation and through education programmes for divers.

Now, Better Blue has fast-tracked its progress to become one of China’s top ranking marine non-governmental ...

China’s largest dump is already full – 25 years ahead of schedule. The Jiangcungou landfill in Shanxi Province – is the size of around 100 football fields – and borders the East China Sea, was designed to take 2,500 tonnes of rubbish per day. But instead it received 10,000 tonnes of waste per day – the most of any landfill site in China. China is one of the world’s biggest polluters, and has been struggling for years with the rubbish its 1.4 billion citizens generate.

How big is the landfill site?

The Jiangcungou landfill in Xi’an city was built in 1994 and was designed to last until 2044. The landfill serves over 8 million citizens. It spans an area of almost 700,000 square metres, with a depth of 150 metres and a storage capacity of more than 34 million cubic metres.

Until recently, ...

An industrial revolution is beginning in the oceans. Historically, the most valuable commodities drawn from the sea were products like cod, pearls, and sponges. The currencies of this new ocean economy are different: kilowatts of energy, shipping containers, metals, data, desalinated water, DNA, and oil, to name a few. The marine industrial economy has been valued at $1.5 trillion and is predicted to grow at double the rate of the rest of the global economy by 2030.

A sometimes unappreciated aspect of this recent explosive industrial marine growth is that its distribution is highly uneven. In fact, many key facets of the new ocean economy have been dominated by one nation: China.

China, for example, leads the world in industrial fishing...

I have been fortunate to work on fisheries science and policy across the globe, from my home in New England to the opposite end of the earth in Australia, from the rugged and rocky coast of Chile to the warm tranquil waters of Cuba, and beyond. Each place has a unique story of how lives, communities, and history are shaped by the sea. Recently, I’ve had the privilege of joining exciting efforts rising to reform fishery management in the People’s Republic of China.

China plays an outsized – and growing – role in world affairs.  This is certainly the case when it comes to the blue economy, in which China is the dominant actor in the global seafood supply chain, among the top five maritime shipping nations, and poised to see growth in ocean energy development, mining, and tourism.

Wi...

International judges today condemned China’s great ‘water grab’ of the South China Sea – not least for its destruction of over 100 sq.km of pristine coral reefs, dredged and ground up to build artificial islands, and the ransacking of their wildlife, from endangered sea turtles to giant clams.
Today’s ruling by the Permanent Tribunal of Arbitration in the Netherlands strongly condemns China for the serious and permanent environmental damage it has inflicted to coral reefs and and their wildlife in the South China Sea.

The case was brought by the Philippines which is infuriated at China’s ‘occupation’ of islands and waters that fall within its exclusive territorial zone, and the severe damage it has caused to coral reefs and other natural resources.

Since 1998 the Philippines has documented...