Some ethanol plants in China have suspended production due to the high cost of corn coupled with low ethanol prices. The tightness of the corn market is blamed on traders stockpiling corn in the expectation of higher prices. Government concern that China's ethanol producers are jeopardising China's food supply is also dampening prospects for the sector...    more »

In 2006, China surpassed the US to become the world's largest emitter of CO2, according to the Dutch environmental assessment agency. The figures are the most alarming yet and contrast with predictions made last year by the International Energy Authority, which maintained that China would not surpass the US until 2009 at the earliest...   more »

Bad news from London-listed China Biodiesel International. China, more than any country, could do with some greener alternatives to fuel its rapidly growing economy. But biodiesel's attractions have waned because of a rise in the price of the feedstock that CBI uses to make its fuel...   more »

Siemens has won a €300m order to bring electrical power to China's power-hungry Pearl River Delta. It will help build the world's highest capacity power link stretching 1,400km beween the provinces of Yunnan, where new hydroelectric plants are being built, and Guangdong...    more »

Investment house London Asia Capital is betting on growing environmental awareness in China by investing £2.7m in Hainan Zhengye Zhongnong High-tech Co (ZYZN), a maker of bio-pesticides. China is the largest consumers of pesticides in the world but the high-toxicity products that dominate the market cause severe damage to the agricultural ecosystem...   more »

Johnson Controls, the US automotive supplier, wants to show China a better way to recycle lead-acid batteries. China is woefully behind the west in lead-acid battery recycling and nearly 70% of the lead scrap from batteries is not recycled, a stark contrast to recycling rates of 97% achieved in the west...   more »

Chinese consumers have a green conscience too. Under pressure from environmentalists, B&Q, the UK-based home improvement retailer, today announced it had stopped selling endangered hardwood in its Chinese stores...   more »

To celebrate World Environment Day, staff members of Beijing's Olympic organising committee promised they would leave their car at home today and take the bus or bike instead. Symbolic gestures like that made today are good as far as they go, but that is not very far, unfortunately...   more »