The untold stories about waste are about invisible and vulnerable waste workers. China is no exception. The millions of Chinese migrant waste workers who recover 20% of the country’s urban waste are ignored. Chinese policymakers need to integrate migrant waste workers, their knowledge, and social justice issues into the country’s waste management future.

China’s power sector makes up the lion’s share of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, but rising methane emissions from rice farming and livestock, nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizers, and CO2 from food transport could all hinder China’s progress toward its 2060 carbon neutrality goal. Chinese policymakers could rein in agri-food emissions by modifying existing climate plans and policies. Climate-smart agriculture is not only a mitigation strategy, but also an adaptation strategy to intensifying extreme weather events like heatwaves and typhoons.

Many developing countries today face the dual challenges of development and decarbonization, racing against climate change that makes the latter increasingly urgent. This dilemma brings China’s railway investments in Africa under the spotlight. Can stakeholders of these megaprojects achieve the goal of boosting host countries’ economies while mitigating the socio-environmental risks of these ventures?

Extreme heat from climate change threatens food security in the world’s two food-producing superpowers. Climate adaptation for agriculture is a must. The US and China have much to share on climate-smart farming practices to help us both weather the storms and droughts. 2023 brought scorching heat waves that baked crops and livestock in China and the United States. In China, farm animals and fish died from extreme heat in June with some provinces enduring weeks of temperatures above 40°C (104°F). In one farm, a heatwave-triggered power outage resulted in hundreds of pigs suffocating to death after shed fans stopped working.

In a time where climate action is urgent, there are debates how China’s “eco-authoritarianism” can move climate and environmental policies faster than in liberal democracies. Although eco-authoritarianism has some benefits, it is no “green bullet” as divisions between China’s central and local governments and a lack of civic participation can slow or derail some climate and pollution policies.

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) can significantly affect the country’s domestic and overseas energy transition and decarbonization agenda. Electricity projects in China’s BRI investments, contrary to popular impressions of being part of a monolithic “project of the century,” have divergent implications for the host country’s shift away from coal-based power plants.

Known as “Earth’s kidneys,” wetlands provide a variety of ecological benefits: habitats for diverse species, flood containment, pollutant purification, and carbon absorption. But in China, wetland loss and degradation has exposed people to the whims of climate change. What has China done to protect its wetlands, and how should the country better adapt to climate change with wetlands—a “Great Wall” made of mudflats, mangroves, and waterbirds? Jianbin Shi and Xiaojing Gan, two China-based wetland experts from the Paulson Institute, may enlighten us.

The abundance of milk, cheese, and egg on our kitchen tables are inseparable from the rise of large feed-grain-dependent dairies. In today’s global dairy industry, giant dairy farms are displacing smaller farms and increasing methane emissions. China’s rapid dairy expansion, alongside major players like the EU, US, and New Zealand, also raises environmental concerns. What can government regulators and stakeholders do to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the dairy industry?