What’s in a name? That which we call ‘PM2.5,’ China doesn’t

By on March 1, 2013 in Air quality, China

This post originally appeared on The Metric, the blog of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy.  By Angel Hsu and William Miao The official Chinese media reported this week, China’s National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technology has been meeting to standardize a Chinese name for “PM2.5,” a harmful air pollutant that has negative human [...]

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Shanghai’s New Air Quality mascot

By on January 22, 2013 in Air quality, China

Shanghai’s Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) recently updated how it communicates daily air quality via its website and Weibo account.  Shanghai has one of the best websites for accessing information about air quality, including real-time pollution data in pollutant concentrations and Air Quality Index (AQI) readings. They also give you a bar chart of AQI readings for [...]

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Beyond ‘Crazy Bad’: Explaining Beijing’s Extreme Air Pollution

By on January 19, 2013 in Air quality, China

Beijing’s air quality once again is making international headlines for off-the-chart measurements of air pollution. Images of Beijing show China’s capital city completely shrouded in gloomy shades of grey. According to Jan. 12 readings of the city’s official real-time air quality monitoring platform, air pollution levels exceeded the upper limit of 500 on the Air Quality Index (click here to read an explanation of China’s newly adopted AQI) in many of Beijing’s districts, meaning that air pollution was beyond “hazardous” levels. The US Embassy in Beijing, which has been independently monitoring air pollution since the 2008 Olympics, independently measured and reported AQI values topping 755 .

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Germany hosts Sustainable Energy High-Level Ministerial Event with China and others at Doha Climate Talks

By on December 15, 2012 in Climate, UNFCCC

This post originally appeared on ChinaFAQs.org.  Although major greenhouse-gas emitting countries were criticized at the latest round of climate negotiations in Doha for failing to show enough ambition, an event held during the second week highlighted leadership from Germany, China, Morocco, and South Africa on clean and renewable energy. Hosted by Peter Altmaier, Federal Environment [...]

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Crowdsourcing Accountability: DecisionMakr rankings Day 1&2 – Who’s on top?

By on November 28, 2012 in Climate, UNFCCC

The COP18 UN climate negotiations have kicked off without too much fanfare.  Host country Qatar is hosting its largest ever conference, with an expected 17,000 participants, including 1,500 media (although I heard only about half of these anticipated media actually got accredited).  So far, expectations are quite muted for the conference, with Doha meant to be mainly [...]

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DecisionMakr At Doha: Can A New Smartphone App Hold Leaders More Accountable?

By on November 27, 2012 in UNFCCC

This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post and The Metric, the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy’s blog. Expectations for the global climate negotiations taking place over the next two weeks in Doha, Qatar, are dismally low, and major political transitions in China and the United States – the world’s two largest emitters of greenhouse gases – further temper hope for any kind of game-changing proposal. So what are the more than 7,000 civil society members and 1,500 journalists(myself included) in attendance going to do to make their opinions count and to hold their governments accountable for accomplishing something in Doha?

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US-China relationship live-chat on China Dialogue and Tea Leaf Nation

By on November 26, 2012 in China

I recently participated in a live-chat on the US-China relationship via China Dialogue and Tea Leaf Nation. Although I wasn’t quite sure how a live chat would work, it was extremely well moderated and prepared by the China Dialogue and Tea Leaf Nation staff. I had a ton of fun and hope they decide to do [...]

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