Measured Insights
The latest blog posts from our research projects.
Recommendations for climate impact reduction in Latvia
In May I was invited to Latvia by the non-profit Homo Ecos to participate in a campaign to raise awareness of Latvia's environment and its goal to become one of the greenest countries in the world. According to the 2008 Environmental Performance Index, Latvia ranked...
Featured in latest issue of Environment:Yale Magazine
The U.N.-led climate talks in Cancún last December were largely touted as a success. Countries reached near consensus on critical issues, such as technology transfer and the creation of a new Green Climate Fund to help developing countries adapt to global warming. The standing ovation for the Mexican hosts that erupted in the summit’s final plenary session came in stark contrast to the Copenhagen summit’s glum finish behind closed doors.
Report evaluates Beijing's air quality efforts during the Olympics
The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) has released a draft of a working paper that uses China’s own officially reported Air Pollution Index (API) and satellite data to evaluate air pollution control measures instituted before, during, and after the 2008 Olympics games in Beijing.
Chaos – it's what's for dinner
I found this piece of Chinglish on a restaurant menu in Chengdu to be not only humorous but also reflective of some of the challenges of transliteration between the Chinese and English languages. When we think of Americanized Chinese food, the popular dumplings that are often swimming in a light broth are known to us as “wontons” – a romanized pronunciation of the Chinese equivalent 馄饨 （“hun dun” in Mandarin). This is pronounced very closely to the word 混沌 (or “chaos”), so it’s no wonder that the word “chaos” would appear on the menu instead of the Americanized “wonton” we call the food in America.
Happy 100 Years, Tsinghua!
I have never seen the main quad at Tsinghua prettier - the grass is perfectly green, and flowers were planted to commemorate 100 years of Tsinghua.
Beijing to go coal-less in 2015
This post originally appeared on The City Fix. Beijing’s recent string of blue-sky days may be a more common sight to behold in 2015. This past week, the Chinese capital released the five-year “Beijing Municipal Clean Air Action Plan,” which aims to increase the...
Asian Green Cities Index Compares 22 Asian Cities, 5 in China
The Economist Intelligence Unit, sponsored by Siemens, released a first version of an Asian Green City Index last month, which compares environmental performance across 22 cities in Asia, five of which are in China (excluding Hong Kong). This work is based on similar “Green City Index” efforts by EIU and Siemens, including a Latin American Green City Index in November 2010, which evaluates 17 cities across Latin America.
Interview by Radio86 – China's 12th Five Year Plan: Taking the lead on climate and energy?
Radio86 Editor Andrew Jones interviews me on my thoughts of China’s 12th Five Year Plan. The original interview can be found here.
The National People’s Congress has very recently approved China’s plans for the next five years. Known as the 12th Five-Year Plan, it sets the targets for China over the 2011-2015 period for areas including the economy, restructuring, agriculture, livelihood and reform, as well as the environment and clean energy.
China amends air quality measures but misses key pollutant – PM 2.5
The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection has been drafting new proposals (see rough Google translation in English here) to amend former daily reporting of the Air Pollution Index (API), which has been used the last 20 years to communicate air quality and health hazards posed by air pollution on any given day. In 2000 the MEP (then the State Environmental Protection Agency, or SEPA) began reporting a daily API for 42 cities; now, data for 113 cities are available from the China National Environmental Monitoring Center.
How does China’s 12th Five-Year Plan address energy and the environment?
The draft of China’s much-anticipated 12th Five-Year Plan was released this Saturday, March 5 at the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC). The Plan will actually be brought to a vote at the close of the session later this week. While there may be some changes to the Plan, in past years these have not been large.
