Effective 1 January 2018, the Environmental Protection Tax Law of PRC (hereinafter the law) ushers in a new tax regime to fight the dreadful pollution in China. The tax burdens are unevenly shared out, but all business will risk being overwhelmed if it fails to take actions immediately. Collective Responsibility has been closely tracking the development and implementation of the law. Last month…
In China, while the pressure of economic growth on the environment has been well documented, over the last few years, there have been a number of pilot and campaigns (nationally and provincially) to identify and reduce pollution at the local level. Since Chinese Premier declared “a war on pollution” in 2014, China has set up plans and targets for cleaning up its air, water, and soil. Last year,…
As millions of China’s growing middle class have become new car owners, China’s private car market has propelled it into being one of the most attractive car markets in the world. For automakers, this has been a boom as ownership oversharing was the norm, but the challenges of car ownership in the form of traffic and air pollution have also grown. To tackle the problems, China has…
“Beijing’s pollution is bad, but they'll clean their air just like London did …” In 1952, the five-day Great Smog of London killed more than 12,000 people and made over 150,000 people ill. It was an environmental disaster that many people today consider both a cautionary tale and an instructive example of how to address and overcome an air crisis for areas in similar situations – in part because…
Following up on a question posed by a viewer of Episode 005, and this weekend's announcement by China's Premier Li KeQiang that China needed to do more to clean the air, this entire episode was dedicated to China's air pollution and what efforts need to be taken towards long-lasting solutions. It was originally planned to be a quick 5 minutes, but quickly turned into 12. We hope that you enjoy…
“People are desperately hoping for faster progress to improve air quality. We will make our skies blue again.” These are the words of a commitment made by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the start of the annual National People's Congress yesterday. Li spoke of driving harder to address China’s (and Asia’s) air pollution crisis – a topic which has prompted greater public pressure on the governmen…
Air pollution is on everyone's radar, not just in China, but throughout the world. Recent news pieces are beginning to expose the extent to which air pollution is becoming a truly global problem. From London, to Delhi, to Beijing, public consciousness of the issue is higher than ever, and politicians worldwide are being forced to act. Not a New Challenge Of course, this is nothing new for Chi…
As always, we hope you find these questions and answers useful, possibly gain some new insights, and feel compelled or inspired to ask questions of your own! Enjoy Episode 003 below, check out the full playlist here, and stay tuned for Episode 004 coming soon. (To stay in the loop on what’s new at Collective, you’ll definitely want to subscribe to our channel and follow us on social media.) #As…
Last week, President Xi Jinping attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Businesses, world leaders, NGOs, and think tanks used the forum to forecast concerns, offer international solutions, and point out emerging global trends. China was often a point of discussion. Chinese Concerns Ipsos, for instance, presented new China-related findings from its 2016 study, “What Worries t…
Early this year, I took a flight from Mumbai to Shanghai - which included a five-hour, pollution-related delay in Delhi. During the whole time in the air, it was only over the Himalayas that I saw the Asian continent getting a respite from the consequences of industrial activity, localized burning, and energy consumption. India: The Next "China" India is now well-documented to follow in Chin…
It is a question that many ask themselves as they look out the window to the fresh morning haze over the Shanghai skyline: To exercise, or not to exercise? As the full force of winter hits areas of northern China, the realities of factory activity and energy consumption are clear with pollution thickening the sky. Living with the realities of pollution can be frustrating, leaving many wondering…
In a previous post, we looked at the potential future of energy, environmental, and sustainability under a Trump presidency. In our discussion, we highlighted Trump's potential impact on the Paris Agreement, the EPA, and major regulations like the Clean Power Plan, and had a recurring conclusion — the environment will likely take a back seat to coal and natural gas jobs. Our analysis was very A…
With the return of winter bringing fresh reports of smog across a number of China's cities and talk about how bad things will be this year, last week's announcement that government officials in Xi'an were arrested for faking air pollution statistics caught our eye. While the act of falsifying data — or tampering with air monitoring equipment — is nothing new for China, this news was interesting…
While it is common for Chinese citizens to find the sky covered in hazy smog, in the week leading up to G20, the skies were a crystal-clear blue. China’s white clouds and blue skies caused by the shuttering of manufacturing companies are a rare sight that has grown to synonymous with country’s most important conferences. The skies show the incredible power of the government to cease operations wit…
While some might consider a tradeoff between a country's economic development and the resulting socio-environmental burdens to be "justifiable," China has reached the tipping point at which the air crisis is significantly impacting economic development as well. The well-being of China's market is beginning to suffer, with stakeholders reluctant to engage with a country in the middle of an emiss…
