Discussion of the Belt and Road Initiative usually encompasses the likelihood of it changing global trade patterns, while less attention has been paid to the environmental impact of such a massive infrastructure development plan. However, the BRI provides a unique opportunity to raise the standards of environmental protection around the world.

China has made impressive strides in addressing air pollution issues, but continued progress may hinge on market-based institutional reforms of the electricity sector.

The challenges China faces in combating climate change are similar to those the U.S. faced.

China’s decision to ban waste imports has exposed the deep structural flaws and interdependencies that support the global waste-management system. Western countries who have long depended on China as a destination for their garbage are straining to accommodate their own waste, while China struggles to find the labor to effectively sort and process waste amidst a “low-end population” crisis.

To achieve its goal of becoming a leading global power by 2050, China must resolve its looming water shortage, writes Charlie Parton.

Contemporary discourse around climate change, energy consumption and geopolitics typically depicts China either as a 21st century redeemer or as an inevitable tragedy. Both of these narratives tend towards the extreme.

President Xi’s new buzzword “Ecological Civilization” regarding China’s climate change efforts deserves more international attention. The phrase is an example of “environmentalism with Chinese characteristics.”

At the 19th Party Congress, President Xi announced that China had “taken a driving seat in international cooperation to respond to climate change.” But as much as Beijing has done to get its own house in order domestically, it has hasn’t always let concern over climate change inform its trade policy or diplomacy. And while China is becoming a cleaner, lower-emissions country at a national level, it has done so by "outsourcing" emissions, both internally and overseas.

China plans to stop accepting imports of solid waste materials by end of 2017. This ban is expected to improve China’s domestic environmental and food safety issues. While the U.S. recycling industry is worrying about the economic damage of this policy change, the ban could trigger a positive change in U.S. domestic recycling policies.

China seized global attention in September with the announcement that it had begun earnestly planning a ban on traditional gas-fueled vehicles. So far, no date has been set for the final cutoff, and important strategic details remain murky. But the decisiveness and finality of the announcement has animated environmentalists, investors and auto manufacturers, who sense a unique business opportunity.