Environment

The EV adventure in China has been successful in some respects, not least with 5.9 million EVs sold on the Chinese market, amounting to 59% of EVs sold globally. However, as a means to reduce climate change, the effort has tended to “put the cart in front of the horse”, because EVs are not particularly environmentally friendly without a steady stream of renewable electricity supply. Academic Erik Baark lays out the factors involved.

Japan’s discharge of treated nuclear wastewater into the sea has dealt another blow to the political, economic and trade relations between China and Japan. Zaobao correspondent Yu Zeyuan elaborates.

China's energy storage sector is experiencing rapid growth due to an accelerated uptake of renewables in the country’s energy mix and other factors. But the booming industry also faces some serious challenges. Here are five things to know about China’s energy storage industry.

It has been 12 years since the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting tsunami that damaged a nuclear power plant at Fukushima. As plans progress to release treated wastewater from the nuclear power plant into the sea, Lianhe Zaobao journalists Tan Jet Min and Foo Choo Wei explore the challenges in the decision, as well as the difficulties facing related industries, such as fishing.

While Chinese e-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu have been doing well in achieving fast and high growth in the US market, they face commercial and regulatory challenges too and would need to undertake several risk mitigation strategies.

Acknowledged as a key industry in the National Mid-Term Development Plan 2015-2019, Indonesia's nickel industry has witnessed significant investments, especially from China. While the industry faced a boom from the Russian-Ukraine conflict and the easing of China’s zero-Covid policy, the unchecked growth of Class 2 nickel production from Indonesia could cause oversupply in global markets and suppress the commodity’s price. In crafting new policies, Indonesia must also prioritise stronger social and environmental safeguards.

With just about six months to go to the COP28 climate change conference in Dubai, how is China stepping up its transition to a low-carbon economy and is it on track to achieve a peak in carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060?

The Chinese government has set targets for hydrogen-powered vehicles and diverse uses of hydrogen until 2035 as part of its push to get industries to shift to clean energy. However, given the processes and costs involved, it remains to be seen whether the initiative will gather enough momentum.

China’s food self-sufficiency ratio has plummeted to 76% in 2020, sparking worries of a food shortage. While the government reassures the people that food reserves are plentiful, China is highly dependent on imported food and its area of arable land is declining. China clearly needs to come up with innovative economic, social, environmental and agricultural policies if it hopes to become an “agricultural power” and avoid a food crisis.