The United States Environmental Protection Agency and the China Standard Certification Center have agreed to work toward harmonizing information on their respective energy-efficiency labels for consumer electronics and office equipment.

The Guardian

Emissions from China’s export industry are everyone’s responsibility – future trade and climate policy must be linked, says Glen Peters. Glen Peters is a senior research fellow at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, Norway.

News Blaze is reporting that the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China wants to invite wind energy companies to take advantage of that area’s abundant wind resources. The region intends to be China’s largest supplier of wind-based energy by 2010. The short time line illustrates how committed the Chinese government is to creating alternative energy sources to reduce that country’s CO2 production.

Green Biz

Thirty-one percent of Chinese consumers rated the environment a higher priority than the economy compared with 17 percent of consumers in the U.S. and 28 percent in the U.K., according to recent surveys.

The findings of green brands research in China and their comparison with results of similar surveys conducted this year in the United States and Britain were presented yesterday at the Economist Conferences’ Fifth China Branding Roundtable in Beijing.

The Telegraph

Last year, China spent £6 billion on renewable energy projects, just slightly short of Germany, the world leader. This year, the Communist Party has vowed to redouble its efforts.

Li Junfeng, an energy expert at the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said that in terms of the “overall scale of renewable energy development”, China already leads the way.

The Guardian

Lavish parties tend to leave a hangover as the problems of daily life, put aside for the celebrations, come crowding back. China’s Olympic party is not likely to prove an exception. The full legacy of the extraordinary events of 2008 in the People’s Republic of China will take many years to emerge, but in the short term, a number of pressing problems are clear.

Planet Ark

China should bind itself to international goals to slash greenhouse gas pollution, one of the nation’s most prominent policy advisers said, in a striking break with Beijing’s official stance.

BusinessGreen

Companies operating in China are to face tough new green legislation after the country’s top legislature passed a package of laws designed to underpin the government’s climate change strategy.

Over the past year, the Chinese government has set out a range of targets designed to shrug off its tag as the world’s largest polluter, including goals to reduce energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent, double renewable energy capacity and cut pollution levels 10 percent by 2010 compared to a 2005 baseline.

GreenBiz

When we look back at the Beijing Olympics, great sporting moments will stay with us. Watching Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt break world records made all the air quality concerns leading into the Olympics seem like distant memories. But before the world bids “zaijian” to Beijing, it’s worth reflecting on what this Olympics meant and could mean for China.

Environmental News Network

The Chinese government’s energy policy has led to a large rise in investment in renewables, helping it to dislodge the UK in a ranking of the top five most attractive countries for investment in renewable energy, according to a study published on 19 August.