Do China's EVs really reduce emissions and improve air quality? - with Zhang Shaojun
Release Date: 08/28/2023
(Repost for missing audio) Comparing offshore wind in China and Norway - with Erlend Ek
Environment China
Dear listeners, we hope you missed us during the long summer break! Now, we're back, and hope you'll join us again for another in-depth episode dealing with a rapidly expanding element of China's energy transition: offshore wind. Today, we’re talking about China’s offshore wind sector and how it compares to the strategies pursued by Western countries, typified perhaps by the example of Norway. Our guest is longtime Beijing Energy Network member Erlend Ek, who was posted to Beijing and lived in China for over 15 years. He is now senior research strategy and energy lead with China...
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Comparing offshore wind in China and Norway - with Erlend Ek
Environment China
Dear listeners, we hope you missed us during the long summer break! Now, we're back, and hope you'll join us again for another in-depth episode dealing with a rapidly expanding element of China's energy transition: offshore wind. Today, we’re talking about China’s offshore wind sector and how it compares to the strategies pursued by Western countries, typified perhaps by the example of Norway. Our guest is longtime Beijing Energy Network member Erlend Ek, who was posted to Beijing and lived in China for over 15 years. He is now senior research strategy and energy lead with China...
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Young Professionals in Sustainability - Maggie Yao (in Chinese)
Environment China
In the latest episode of Environment China's podcast, we speak to Maggie Yao. Maggie is a Senior Consultant at CCaSS EY Netherlands, primarily focusing on EU environmental policy, ESG due diligence, ESG strategy, and CSRD implementation. Prior to EY, she worked as an Associate at RMI China, where she conducted research on coal transition, renewable energy integration and system impact, and power market analysis. She also worked as a Senior Analyst for Coho Climate Advisors, a DC-based energy consulting firm and an ERM Group company. There, she engaged with multiple corporate and industrial...
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Young Professionals in Sustainability - UB Qiu (in Chinese)
Environment China
In the latest episode of Environment China's podcast series on Young Professionals in Sustainability, we speak to UB Qiu. UB is a sustainability professional with diverse, international, cross-sector experiences, including in ESG consulting, in-house corporate sustainability, partnership development at a plant-based protein startup, and multiple internships and projects at climate-tech startups/social enterprises in the U.S., China, Kenya, and India. Additionally, she was part of Antler's inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence cohort in Saudi Arabia in 2023. UB holds a Master's Degree in...
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Young Professionals in Sustainability: Ruixin Li (in Chinese)
Environment China
In the latest episode of Environment China's podcast, we speak to Ruixin Li as part of our Young Professionals in Sustainability series. Ruixin currently works as the lead climate specialist at ICF International Consulting (Beijing). He has eight years of experience working on climate change issues and more than four years of experience implementing international cooperation projects. His focuses include carbon market, green finance, and sustainable aviation. Previously, Ruixin worked for Greenovation Hub and China Youth Climate Action Network. He has also assisted several international NGOs...
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Energy and AI: with Anders Hove of BEN and OIES
Environment China
Today, we have a special cross-over episode with the podcast called Preparing for AI, which is hosted by Matt Cartwright and Jimmy Rhodes. The guest for this episode is Anders Hove, long-time host of the Environment China podcast, and Beijing-based Matt Cartwright interviews him about the impact of AI on the clean energy transition. Anders ‘references several points related to China, such as efforts to locate data centers in colder regions, and the results of experiments seeking to make data centers respond to the output of renewables. We hope you enjoy it! You can read a full transcript...
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Young Professionals in Sustainability - Zhinan Chen, RMI (in Chinese)
Environment China
In the latest episode of 's podcast, we speak to as part of our Young Professionals in Sustainability series. Zhinan is a senior associate with Rocky Mountain Institute's India Program, based in Oakland, California, United States. She collaborates with national and state-level partners in India to accelerate the country’s transition to zero-emission trucking. At RMI, she also helped shape the concrete and cement initiative as one of the founding members, where she designed net-zero strategies for the global concrete and cement industry through thought leadership and...
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Corporate climate disclosure in China - with Erica Downs, Ned Downie, and Yushan Lou
Environment China
Today's episode looks at the complex topic of corporate climate disclosures. Our guests today are Erica Downs, Ned Downie, and Lou Yushan. They are the authors of a recent report, published by the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy (CGEP), entitled “China’s Climate Disclosure Regime: How Regulations, Politics, and Investors Shape Corporate Climate Reporting.” Erica Downs is senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University; Edmund Downie is PhD Candidate in Public Affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; and...
info_outline![Micromobility and sustainability: A day in the life of a bike-sharing scholar - with Wen Yi [in Chinese] show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/item/29593603?height=50&width=50)
Micromobility and sustainability: A day in the life of a bike-sharing scholar - with Wen Yi [in Chinese]
Environment China
In the latest episode of Environment China's podcast, we speak to Wen Yi as part of our Young Professionals in Sustainability series. Wen Yi is a doctoral graduate in Transportation Engineering from the University of Tennessee in the United States and a master's degree in statistics. He previously received a master's degree in Environmental Science and Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Wen Yi has been deeply involved in the environmental field since his undergraduate degree. During his PhD, Wenyi’s main research area was micro-mobility, especially the study of the...
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Emergency Podcast! Sunnylands Declaration and COP28 - with Li Shuo
Environment China
This is an emergency podcast about the Sunnylands Statement on Enhancing Cooperation to Address the Climate Crisis, which was released just a day ago. Top US and China climate negotiators Xie Zhenhua and John Kerry have held several days of talks at the Sunnylands estate near Palm Springs in California, and released this joint US-China statement in the lead-up to COP28 in Dubai. Just a few months ago, Kerry had visited BJ to negotiate similar topics, and President Xi had used the occasion to emphasize that China would set its own path on climate, and not give in to pressure. So this joint...
info_outlineToday's episode looks at the topic of electric vehicles and their impact on both carbon emissions and urban air quality. China has the world’s largest market for electric vehicles, and it is the largest maker of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles manufactured worldwide. Hence, the environmental impact of EVs, even outside of China, often goes back upstream to China.
Our guest is Zhang Shaojun, Associate Professor at the Tsinghua University School of the Environment. His research examines the environmental impacts of emissions from road transportation systems on air quality, climate and public health. Before joining Tsinghua University, he was a Postdoctoral Associate at University of Michigan and Atkinson Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Cornell University.
Shaojun and his colleagues have published two important papers on these topics this year. The first, in the journal PNAS Nexus, looks at the upstream greenhouse gas emissions from battery manufacturing as well as a regional breakdown of power sector emissions from EV charging. The second paper, in Environmental Pollution, looks at the impact of EVs on air quality, employing Tsinghua's CMAQ model to look at how EVs affect ozone and PM2.5, in particular considering the seasonal effects on air chemistry, which relates to the formation of secondary pollution. (Primary emissions refer to pollutants directly emitted from vehicles or power plants, whereas secondary pollutants are formed in the atmosphere through mixing of chemical precursors.)
For further reading:
Fang Wang, Shaojun Zhang, Yinan Zhao, Yunxiao Ma, Yichen Zhang, Anders Hove, and Ye Wu, “Multisectoral drivers of decarbonizing battery electric vehicles in China,” PNAS Nexus, Volume 2, Issue 5, May 2023, https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/2/5/pgad123/7159885.
Yiliang Jiang, Xinyu Liang, Shaojun Zhang, Zechun Hu, Anders Hove, and Ye Wu, “The future air quality impact of electric vehicle promotion and coordinated charging in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region,” Environ Pollut., 1 September 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121928.
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Episode Executive Producer: Anders Hove