Like bamboo sprouts after the rain, nuclear reactors are going up quickly across China. There are 36 reactors under development, and Beijing can approve as many as 10 new ones a year. Within a decade, China will likely pass the United States—which has 93 operating commercial nuclear reactors at 54 power plants—as the world’s biggest generator of nuclear power.

High in the remote mountains of western Fujian Province, Changkou—part of Sanming Prefectural City—became the first village to launch a new forestry carbon ticket system in May 2021. Changkou farmers have long received little benefit in managing forests because of fragmented forest land, high investment risks, and limited ownership rights. To solve those problems, the Sanming Forestry Bureau issued tickets to forestry farmers, granting them the right to receive stocks on their plots of forests by cooperating with farms in a certain period. Meanwhile, the carbon tickets grant farmers the right to earn carbon emission credits for their land and trees.

This blog is modified from the Wilson Center-OSU “Cultivating US and Chinese Climate Leadership on Food and Agriculture Roadmap” publication. 

“Waste is something that most of us just don’t see,” stressed Pete Pearson, Senior Director, Food Loss and Waste, WWF, at a recent Wilson Center event. Though people are “conditioned” to be blind to food waste, continued Pearson, this not-so-invisible problem wastes a third of food grown around the world. When this wasted food decomposes, it emits methane, accounting for 8 to 10% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

A window into what we are reading at the Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program

Climate Change Worsens Human Trafficking of Impoverished Sierra Leoneans (Al Jazeera)

Poverty leaves many vulnerable to human trafficking in Sierra Leone. Youth unemployment is almost 60% there, and most of the population lives on less than $3 per day. Victims are offered employment, largely in the service industry. Yet when they arrive in their country of employment, their passports may be seized and they are forced into unpaid labor, often coupled with sexual abuse especially for young women.

For centuries, farmers around the globe have tilled the soil to prepare for planting. Traditional tilling, however, exposes the bare earth to wind and water, causing erosion and the loss of soil organic carbon, as well as lowering soil quality and crop yields. In the US Corn Belt tilling has degraded  approximately 35% of the land– about the size of Montana. In China, erosion from traditional tilling has degraded over 50% of agricultural soils. In the two countries soil erosion and loss of soil fertility is creating annual economic losses of $1.9 billion and $3.7 billion, respectively. Nevertheless, farmers are often hesitant to switch to no-till practices.

Usually, Ms. Li charges her BYD electric car at a TELD station during her half-hour lunch break. However, today was different – it took an extra ten minutes to complete the charging, providing her time to enjoy a cup of coffee. This slight delay was due to her participation in a Shanghai demand response pilot designed to encourage consumers to adjust electricity usage according to electricity grid conditions. Like a coin toss, this pilot could be a big win for protecting the grid and accelerating low-carbon transport in China, but many infrastructure obstacles could derail this decarbonization.