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I had mild problems breathing last night here in north-west Beijing – I am a once-a-year asthmatic. This morning I sought to check out air pollution conditions in Beijing. A website from the US embassy describes conditions today (Sunday) as hazardous to the entire population although it is difficult to interpret this information. More information that suggests [...] I have discussed this situation a few times but, with a comfortable load of beer in my belly, I thought I’d take a second look at the basic economics. BHP-Billiton have made a $39b bid for Potash Corporation of Canada. This amount is close to the estimated cost of the Australian NBN network. Serious, serious money. Now China’s [...] In the press today it was announced that China would agree to resume the supply of rare earths to Japan. It is a puzzling claim since the Chinese Government stated that no ban was ever in place. The difficulty for China is that other countries now believe – rightly or wrongly – that China might [...] Theodore Moran argues at East Asia Forum that whether China’s actions in natural resource markets are ‘distorting’ or not depends on whether China acts to tie up supplies from existing large producers by making them loans or taking substantial equity stakes or whether China acts to support by investment and loans stakes in smaller producers. [...] Rare earths are a collection of seventeen elements in the periodic table – scandium, yttrium and the fifteen lanthanides. These elements have various applications – superconductors, high-flux magnets, , refining catalysts, hybrid car components, wind energy components, communications, TV sets, in welding, in smart phones and smart bombs …. See here. [...] Monopolist sellers and monopsonistic buyers contain their struggles to control crucial world resource markets. China’s Sinochem has hired two large banks to advise it on the case for buying a large stake in the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan. BHP-Billiton has extended its $39b bid for the company ( I discussed this in an August post [...] Shenzhen is the miraculous Special Economic Zone established on the mainland of China in Guangdong Province opposite Hong Kong. Its growth is closely linked to that of Hong Kong which, in turn, depends critically on the low labour cost manufacturing opportunities in Shenzhen. Both centres are now increasingly economically and administratively integrated. The basic idea [...] Can anyone explain to me why Qantas operates only a single daily flight to China, namely to Shanghai? Why don’t they operate direct flights to cities such as Beijing? China is Australia’s fourth largest source of tourists – in 2009 366,000 tourists came from China – and many Australians are now visiting Chinas for business and [...] This week I visited Inner Mongolia with a friend from Peking University. We travelled by train from Beijing – it is about a 10 hour trip. This is an ‘autonomous region’ of China in the far north of the country. It is land-locked with borders with the Republic of Mongolia and the Russian Federation. Its [...] I am settling quite happily into life in Beijing. It’s hot – around 31oC one day – and muggy with occasional showers. The heat gets to you the same way it does in Bangkok – the Joules interact with the smog and the excessive concrete making the heat feel as if it has just gushed [...] China is serious about cutting energy use intensities & carbon emissions. It has targets of cutting energy use intensities by 20% in the 5 years to December this year and by 40-45% by 2020. The US criticises these targets because they do not involve absolute emissions cuts. But in a practical sense China is doing [...] I enjoyed reading Barbara Finamore’s piece on transparency in environmental regulation in China which I posted earlier. This is a partial and somewhat shorter re-post. The use of transparency as an environmental policy tool in China has particular interest for the US given the stumbling block of verifiability on Chinese carbon emissions reductions at [...] One of the plausible hypotheses I have seen raised is that China’s internal environmental problems (air, water) are improving but it is the regional and global problems that are continuing to worsen. This article in The Economist suggests that internal problems are not improving – they are worsening. The only possible ray of light is [...] I’ll be in Canberra tomorrow presenting a seminar at 2-30 pm in the Arndt-Corden Division of Economics, Crawford School of Economics and Government, Australian National University on: Strategic Aspects of International Climate Agreements: China and the United States If you are at the ANU and would like to catch up meet me there. Its [...] Huw Slater at East Asia Forum thinks so. He argues that a carbon tax in China is being considered within the period of the 12th Five Year Plan, beginning next year. A workshop I attended earlier this year suggested the same. My own work suggests that strategically China needs to mitigate its emissions because it has no [...] Ex Rio Tinto employee Stern Hu cops 10 years in jail from a Shanghai Court. I am disappointed – not yet because of the verdict – but at present because of the way the way the trial was implemented. The bribery charges have not been fully articulated and the ‘stealing secrets’ charges have not been articulated at [...] Another nice paper from PEW. Abstract: Over the last decade, a growing body of evidence indicates that soot and smoke from incomplete combustion are major contributors to climate change. Black carbon (BC), a soot component, is a potent climate driver that absorbs sunlight in the atmosphere, changes rainfall patterns, and when deposited on snow and [...] It is China not the US – a fascinating report from PEW on the dawn of a new industry. Globally the renewable energy sector is experiencing explosive growth – investment growth of 230% from 2005-2009. In 2009 global investment was $162 billion in clean energy. It is forecast to be $200 billion in 2010. Much of this has [...] India and China the world’s emerging economic giants will determine the world’s environmental future – there is also the threat of resource-driven conflicts between the two. This Science Magazine report sets out the issues. The report has to be purchased - I’ll summarise the main issues. [...] Paul Krugman suggests that the US should impose a 25 per cent surcharge on imports from China to protect American exports from an undervalued renminbi. The effect of the alleged undervaluation of the Chinese exports is to provide US consumers with a bonus – to subsidize their consumption. Maintaining a stable RMB also preserves for [...] |
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