from chinadialogue and PACE

The first full public lawsuit with an environmental organisation as the main plaintiff will be heard by the Jiangsu Provincial Intermediate People’s Court, China.org.cn reported, citing China Business News. The All-China Environmental Federation is suing Jiangyin Port Container Company over pollution involving iron-ore powder. China moved a step closer to securing a new source of gas supply when Kazakhstan finished building its segment of a pan-Central Asian gas pipeline designed to address China’s growing energy needs, according to Reuters. More than 196,000 residents of north-west China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region are facing drinking-water shortages because of a six-month drought, Xinhua said. Plans for a new joint Chinese-American clean-energy research centre were announced in Beijing by China’s ministry of science and technology and the United States’ department of energy, Xinhua reported. Prompted by a government initiative to reduce the country’s dependence on coal as an energy source, many Chinese companies are investing heavily in alternative-energy projects, according to China Daily. Critically endangered Chinese alligators are multiplying in the wild, following their successful reintroduction through a partnership with three American animal parks and China’s state forestry administration, the Wildlife Conservation Society said. Water prices must rise in line with China’s growing wealth, even if increases put access to water beyond the reach of the poorest people, some experts said at a conference in Beijing, according to China-CBN.com Industrial enterprises have been warned to take major responsibility for China’s environmental problems, according to a report by CIDR, a leading research centre, Global Times reported. Chinese scientists monitoring water quality have adapted the principle of the coal-mine canary by using fish to test for pollutants, according to Xinhua.  Street-level pollution in Hong Kong’s busiest districts has soared over the past four years despite a government campaign to curb vehicle emissions, Agence France-Presse reported. China has initiated an environmental monitoring system at the Mount Qomolangma (Everest) Nature Reserve, according to China Tibet Online.