Category: Environment

Chinese Mining Companies Need Deeper Dialogue With Overseas Communities

By Chen Yu Minerals like nickel, lithium, cobalt, and copper are foundational to the global clean-energy transition. Solar panels, wind turbines, EVs, and battery storage cannot be built without them. Yet extracting, processing, and transporting these “transition minerals” can be resource-intensive, ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

The Pain of Un-Polarity

“THE G2 WILL BE CONVENING SHORTLY!”
This post by U.S. President Donald Trump in the run-up to his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week may end up leaving a more lasting mark than the actual summit he attended.

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G7 to Launch ‘Alliance’ Countering China’s Critical Mineral Dominance

By Ben Simon G7 energy ministers meeting in Canada on Thursday planned to launch a new alliance to counter China's critical mineral dominance, in a push for more reliable access to the resources that power advanced technologies.

Eye-Rolling Through the Apocalypse

November’s COP30 gathering in Belém, Brazil, marks three decades since COP1 in Berlin in 1995, and raises a sobering reminder of how deep we’ve sunk into a climate morass of our own making amid non-stop warnings. The evacuation of millions of people and the deaths ...

Chinese Online Outrage Over $80 Billion Zambia River Suit

More than six months after 50,000 liters of toxic water from a Chinese-run mining site spilled into Zambia's Kafue River, there's still no resolution to what's become a massive environmental crisis.  The government is siding ...

Turning Trash into Treasure: Chinese Waste-to-Energy Projects in Central Asia

Since the 1990s, energy has been at the heart of China’s engagement with Central Asia. What began with oil and gas pipelines has, in recent years, expanded into solar and wind, reflecting Beijing’s push toward greener development. Now, a new frontier is opening: waste-to-energy (WtE).

China May Strengthen Climate Role Amid U.S. Fossil Fuel Push

By Issam Ahmed and Ivan Couronne All eyes are on China this week, as the world's biggest polluter readies a new emissions-cutting plan -- reinforcing its role as a steadfast defender of global climate diplomacy while Europe stalls and the United ...

How Chinese Takeout Bags Became Africa’s Street-Style Hit

Chinese social media spotted a quirky trend in African cities like Nairobi. Sturdy, brightly printed Chinese takeout bags, the kind you get from a hotpot chain or milk tea shop, are showing up everywhere. These are not souvenirs from China. They sell for over a dollar ...

Zambian Government Tries to Calm Fears Over Contaminated Water From Chinese Mine Disaster

The Zambian government is seeking to reassure the public that municipal water supplies in communities along the Kafue River are still safe, even though recent tests detected excessive levels of heavy metals following a major environmental disaster at a Chinese-owned copper mine six months ago.

Zambian Documentary Slams Chinese Companies’ Environmental Record; Embassy Responds, Accuses Producers of “Hidden Motive”

The Chinese embassy in Zambia denounced an hour-long documentary program made by the independent national daily newspaper News Diggers that detailed extensive environmental and labor violations committed by Chinese mining companies operating in the country.

Can China and Indonesia Help Save the World’s Rainforests?

Tropical forests around the world are vanishing fast. Logging, mining, and industrial agriculture continue to raze the world’s most carbon-rich ecosystems, accelerating the climate crisis and displacing the people who have protected these forests for generations. Efforts to halt deforestation have largely failed—not because the science is ...

Grassroots Diplomacy in Dairi: How a Small Indonesian Community is Challenging China’s Zinc Ambitions

The sounds of mining machinery in the highlands of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province have fallen silent — not due to proactive government intervention or seamless regulatory enforcement, but because of relentless grassroots resistance. A controversial mining project in the Bukit Barisan ...

ASEAN, Gulf, and China Signal New Phase in Global South Climate Leadership

For decades, global climate action has been largely shaped by the Global North—through frameworks like the Paris Agreement and funding mechanisms such as the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P). These initiatives have set the tone, the goals, and the financial flows, often leaving countries in the Global ...

Europe’s Green Mining Regulations May Push Africa Closer to China

While Europe’s environmental policy to limit carbon emissions is well-meaning and aims to fight climate change, it could actually make things worse for Africa. Instead of helping the continent to develop its industries, EU policy might instead give China more control over access to valuable mineral resources, ...
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