air pollution

GDP/shutterstock

It isn’t about “Green GDP” or “green accounting.” It’s honest accounting. Every ton of coal, every barrel of oil causes more in external damages than it adds value to GDP. Properly measured GDP ought to reflect that fact.[read more]

the gift of clean air

In honor of Mother’s Day, remember our daughters and sons will soon be running this country; we can show them, by working right alongside them, that being a responsible parent means being an engaged citizen.[read more]

clean air/shutterstock

OMB’s annual report to Congress on the benefits and costs of all major rules adopted by most federal agencies over the past 10 years shows the Environmental Protection Agency comes out on top.[read more]

energy efficiency in India

Increasingly Indian cities and businesses are turning to one of the fastest, cheapest, and cleanest ways to address blackouts and power demand: energy efficiency.[read more]

air pollution's victims?

Thanks to a new analysis by the Health Effects Institute, we understand that nearly 40 percent of the world’s premature deaths attributable to air pollution (1.2 million people) occurred in China.[read more]

Hung Chung Chih / Shutterstock.com

Chinese authorities from five separate government bodies are set to mandate new fuel economy standards on all vehicles in the next few years. The policy establishes two benchmarks for emissions.[read more]

environmental transparency in China

City, provincial and central government officials, business leaders and NGO representatives met in Beijing to discuss efforts to promote environmental transparency and public disclosure of pollution data.[read more]

China's new environment minister

 

Appointing Pan Yue as the new Minister of Environmental Protection would send a strong signal domestically and abroad that China is serious about addressing its environmental crises.[read more]

The recent spate of severe air pollution in China has shone a spotlight on the need for strong environmental regulation in China and prompted the government to move forward with a number of new environmental policies and laws.[read more]

China/shutterstock

The cost of environmental degradation cost to the Chinese economy is pretty heavy, and there’s reason to assume that the cost on health, corrective measures and investments in clean energy will only increase.[read more]

Last Saturday an air pollution monitor atop the U.S. Embassy in Beijing rated the pollution index at a shocking 755--on a scale of 0 to 500. (The EPA categorizes pollution levels over 300 as "hazardous.") A Time reporter wrote that the view from her 16th floor Beijing apartment was "akin to a sandstorm in Afghanistan." Even China's...[read more]

While many Beijing residents have long voiced concern and discontent over air pollution levels, it took possibly the worst air pollution in recent history to get the government to acknowledge the problem. On Saturday, January 12, air pollution levels in Beijing broke records: PM 2.5 – the fine particles that gets lodged in the lungs — spiked to 886 while the Air Quality Index (AQI) climbed to 755.[read more]

Polluted Skyline of Chongqing via Shutterstock

 The world's largest emitter and biggest importer of energy, China, has announced it will drop $382 billion in anti-pollution measures and energy conservation projects over the next three and a half years.  It is hoped the investment will cut coal use by 300 million tons annually.Consuming energy at such an unprecedented rate...[read more]

A new EPA web tool documents global warming pollution from about 6,700 facilities across the United States, filling a critical gap in the public's right to know about pollution. Polluters have been required to report on toxic chemical emissions for years, but in 2010, for the first time, big industrial polluters were asked to provide...[read more]

Power plant emissions and air quality standards targeting some of the most harmful impacts of coal are coming under greater scrutiny starting this year in China. As of January 1, new thermal power plants have tougher restrictions on soot, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxides (92% of the current fleet is coal-fired). Mercury will be controlled starting in 2015. Small particulate matter and ozone standards will take effect nationwide in 2016; Beijing announced just last week that it would publicly release small particulate matter (PM 2.5) data before February of this year. Followed closely by the U.S. unveiling new toxics controls on power plants last month, both countries are in a “race to the top” for greater health and environmental protections for its citizens. This is a race we must all win.[read more]