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Given that climate change is likely to exacerbate drought in certain parts of the world, a critical issue is how appropriate context-relevant drought policy can be developed and implemented. This paper examines how China is developing policies to help local communities in the Lancang River Basin to cope with the problems of climate variability and change. The research process includes (a) content analysis of relevant policies at different levels of administration and (b) stakeholder interviews to examine how effective policies are at the local level along the Lancang River in Yunnan province. The paper concludes that China needs to provide more emphasis on (a) enhancing the adaptive capacity of institutions and individuals, (b) drought risk rather than disaster management, (c) enhancing coordination between different departments and levels of government, (d) decentralization in policymaking as local governments can make context-relevant comprehensive policies more easily and are less hierarchical in their relationships, (e) involving farmers or other stakeholders in decision making, (f) building up grass root organizations to support policy implementation to compensate for the retreat of governmental organizations from the local level and (g) adopting market mechanisms which are still in a nascent stage now. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we assume that under the balanced and optimal economic growth path, the economic growth rate is equal to the consumption growth rate, from which we can obtain the ordinary differential equation governing the consumption level by solving an optimal control problem. Then, a novel numerical method, namely a so-called discontinuous Galerkin method, is applied to solve the ordinary differential equation. The error estimation and the superconvergence estimation of this method are also performed. The model’s mechanism, which makes our assumption coherent, is that once the energy intensity is given, the economic growth is determined, followed by the GDP, the energy demand and the emissions. By applying this model to China, we obtain the conclusion that under the balanced and optimal economic growth path the CO 2 emission will reach its peak in 2030 in China, which is consistent with the U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change and with other previous scientific results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a white paper published by the Chinese government titled "China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change." Greenpeace's Chinese climate and energy resources project leader Li Yan said that the white paper sent a significant message to the rest of the world and underlined the Chinese government's deep understanding of the adverse impact of climate change. The impact of climate change and how to cope with it in a coordinated manner are also detailed.

This paper presents an assessment framework that analyses the impacts of climate change on the water diversion strategies of a water transfer project in China. A water diversion strategy consists of high and low water levels as well as related diversion flows in four operating periods: pre-flood, flood, post-flood and non-flood periods. The optimal water diversion problem is defined as a multi-objective problem with two conflicting objectives: minimising human and ecological water supply shortages, and solved by the popular non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II). The derived Pareto- optimal solutions are then evaluated using the predicted runoffs based on an ensemble of three general circulation models under three climate scenarios. Results obtained from the study catchment show that intra-annual distribution of future runoff changes. The optimal solutions on the Pareto front have greatly varying performance under a climate scenario. It is critical to reveal the different impacts of climate change on the water shortages over the four operating periods, in particular when an increase of water shortage in one period is masked by a reduction in one or more periods. This study illustrates that the framework can be used to identify resilient water diversion strategies to mitigate the potential impacts of climate change on the operation of a water transfer project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is facing many challenges in the water sector while implementing integrated water resources management (IWRM). Another daunting task -- adapting to water-related impacts of climate change, is also challenging China's water managers. These challenges have been posing threats to China's economic, social and environmental development. While separate efforts in promoting IWRM and climate change adaptation have been made, the approach of mainstreaming climate change adaptation strategy within IWRM is seldom studied. Attempting to fill the gap, this paper argues that there is great potential in synergizing them after analysing their distinctions and common points. By developing climate-proofing strategies within IWRM, mainstreaming is able to minimize adverse water-related climate change risks and maximize the benefits of policies and plans. In this study, entry points of mainstreaming climate change adaptation in the sustaining environment of IWRM and its process will be identified and analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Late in 2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol came to an end, it was further extended to December 2020. This was based on the strong realisation that the clean development mechanism (CDM) projects have been playing an important role globally, particularly in promoting clean development in China. Based on a review of international and domestic sources, the paper analyses the progress in the development of CDM projects both globally and in China. China has attracted the lion share of CDM investment in terms of projects located in this country and the global annual certified emission reductions under this mechanism. Due to the relative easiness of implementation, the main area of investment is new and renewable energy. China's fast economic development, open door investment policy, political stability, high educational and technological standards and reliable infrastructure are all encouraging the interest of foreign investors seeking to reduce their domestic carbon footprint. In order to facilitate the location of CDM projects, the Chinese government formulated a series of policies and regulations as well as established national coordinating groups for climate change, CDM Designated National Authorities and projects auditing boards, which are responsible for projects application, auditing and management. There are however large differences in the regional distribution of Chinese CDM projects. Provinces, such as Yunnan, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Hunan and Gansu (located in central and western China) are attracting more projects because of their rich hydro and wind resources while there are very few projects in the eastern already developed parts of the country. This trend is consistent with the CDM's main goal to assist less developed regions to achieve a more sustainable development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This section offers news briefs on developments in China. China is developing the third-generation "Fengyun" series of weather satellites to monitor meteorological changes and help in the struggle against climate change. A report issued by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China released on December 2, 2011 reveals that China published 121,500 academic papers on science and technology in 2010.

Abstract: A 135-sector inventory and embodiment analysis for carbon emissions and resources use by Chinese economy 2007 is presented in this paper by an ecological input–output modeling based on the physical entry scheme. Included emissions and resources belong to six categories as: (1) greenhouse gas (GHG) in terms of CO2, CH4, and N2O; (2) energy in terms of coal, crude oil, natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power, and firewood; (3) water in terms of freshwater; (4) exergy in terms of coal, crude oil, natural gas, grain, bean, tuber, cotton, peanut, rapeseed, sesame, jute, sugarcane, sugar beet, tobacco, silkworm feed, tea, fruits, vegetables, wood, bamboo, pulp, meat, egg, milk, wool, aquatic products, iron ore, copper ore, bauxite, lead ore, zinc ore, pyrite, phosphorite, gypsum, cement, nuclear fuel, and hydropower; (5) and (6) solar and cosmic emergies in terms of sunlight, wind power, deep earth heat, chemical power of rain, geopotential power of rain, chemical power of stream, geopotential power of stream, wave power, geothermal power, tide power, topsoil loss, coal, crude oil, natural gas, ferrous metal ore, non-ferrous metal ore, non-metal ore, cement, and nuclear fuel. Accounted based on the embodied intensities are carbon emissions and resources use embodied in the final use as rural consumption, urban consumption, government consumption, gross fixed capital formation, change in inventories, and export, as well as in the international trade balance. The resulted database is basic to environmental account of carbon emissions and resources use at various levels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The article discusses the "China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change" white paper released by China. The white paper on global warming admits that China is one of the countries that easily feel the impact of climate change. The paper also outlines strategies to be implemented by the country which include international cooperation and innovation of science and technology.

This section offers news briefs on China's society as of November 2011. The white paper "China's Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change" notes that the nation will tackle the problem between 2011 and 2015. An anti-bribery regulation that clarifies the scope for criminal prosecution in cases involving Chinese nationals bribing foreigners working in the country was introduced. A key protein that aids the production of induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells was discovered by scientists.