Circular economy: Lessons from China

This article is written by John A. Mathews& Hao Tan in March. China's consumption of the world's resources is reaching crisis levels. To produce 46% of global aluminium, 50% of steel and 60% of the world's cement1 in 2011, it consumed more raw materials than the 34 countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) combined: 25.2 billion tonnes. In 2025, China...

Will China's factories go green?

For many years, China has been the world’s fastest-growing economy. Its dizzying growth founded super-cities and necessitated mammoth factories to deliver cheaper goods to a public clamoring for more.

But now, with a slumping economy and internal pressure to improve the environment and make cities less polluted, ...

Getting Smarter About Resource Use in Asia

When it comes to resource use, Asia is by far the world’s biggest consumer. Yet it also has enormous potential to be more resource efficient. The results of a three-year study that shine a light on how to do just that have just been made public by researchers at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in partnership with SWITCH-Asia Regional Policy Support Component, Australia’s...

IIP to support global financing initiative

IIP is working with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on a project to increase the financing of energy efficiency projects across China, India and Brazil.

The project, which is being sponsored by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), will involve replicating EBRD’s successful work...

Capping coal consumption in China

Work is advancing on China’s new coal consumption cap strategy, with 450 people attending an international workshop in Beijing on 17-18 November to discuss their research and findings. 

The workshop was organized by the Natural Resources Defense Council...

ACEEE: Germany, Italy, EU, China and France top Global Energy Efficiency Rankings

Washington, D.C. (July, 17, 2014):  Germany comes in first in a new energy efficiency ranking of the world's major economies, followed by Italy, the European Union as a whole, China, and France, according to the 2014 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard published today by the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). New to the rankings this year are four nations...

China's Energy Efficiency

As the world ramps up its efforts to mitigate climate change without negatively impacting the global economy, many are looking to China to see how it curbs its rising emissions and solves its persistent air pollution problems.

Despite, and perhaps because of, its role as the industrial powerhouse of the world, China has been exceedingly active over the past ten years in developing new...