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Released the first week of every new quarter, the BCCC Quarterly is a magazine-style newsletter that records the most important trends and developments regarding blue carbon and climate change policies and regulations in China, the U.S., and other regions, as well as international regimes such as the United Nations. It also includes two special sections — the ‘Theme of the Quarter’ and the ‘Blue Carbon Country Profile’ — that aim to bring a fresh element to each issue.
Despite how slowly the climate change and blue carbon field evolves, both in the private and public sectors, there will inevitably be an identifiable trend of interest across a three month period. Thus, every quarter the ICAS Team will identify and summarize a major trend or long-term topic of interest relevant to the most recent quarter.
In addition to collections of relevant news summaries, government actions and statements, and scientific research activities, the theme includes an analytical commentary from our researchers on how this theme relates to other present-day developments, policy interests, climate change and environment concerns, and implications for the blue carbon field.
The renewable energy industry is entering a high-speed development stage, with more countries paying attention to reducing carbon emissions. There is global interest in replacing fossil fuel-generated power with renewable energies. Despite what can be described as a growing, multinational consensus to pursue green energy transition, concerns exist. Some still doubt the reasonable applicability of renewable energy due to its high cost and low conversion rate. Some even worry that the development of renewable energy will negatively impact their existing interests. Such discussions and debates that have been seen in the first part of 2023 have shown that, despite its rising popularity, renewable energy still has a long way to go.
This BCCC Quarterly’s Theme of the Quarter, Renewable Energy is on the Table, aims to capture the recent developments in renewable energy by exploring the expanding global interests and investments in green technologies, analyzing global conflicts on renewable energy, and discussing the impacts of the Ukraine-Russia conflict on renewable energy. The Theme of the Quarter section also aims to capture the recent trends by including government statements and actions as well as third-party analyses. The section concludes with a commentary discussing the negative impacts of “greenwashing” on renewable energy development.
Given how ‘blue carbon’ is a relatively new subject to both scientists and policymakers, the ICAS Team wants to provide a collective view on how individual nations are recognizing, analyzing, and applying blue carbon at all levels of the government, through cross-border and international engagements, and in private sector and non-profit activities.
This profile is also intended to identify places that are in need of particular attention. It will conclude with issues that interested parties should pay attention to in the coming months and years, including areas that need improvement, potentials worth exploring as well as possibilities of bilateral and multilateral cooperation in both policymaking and scientific exploration.
China has a continental coastline of nearly 18,000 kilometers and is one of the few countries in the world with the capacity to naturally maintain all three coastal blue carbon ecosystems. Simultaneously, China was one of the first countries to recognize the importance and urgency of protecting and restoring blue carbon-sourced ecosystems. However, China’s blue carbon ecosystem coverage is not at the forefront of the world and the condition of its blue carbon ecosystems has also degraded significantly for several reasons. Despite challenges in China’s blue carbon development, China has a noticeable policy focus on blue carbon research, which have led to considerable progress, and, in some cases, remarkable achievements.
This quarter’s BCCC Blue Carbon Country Profile aims to help readers better understand China’s government actions, private efforts, and international cooperation on the research, protection, and development of its blue carbon ecosystems. While demonstrating and acknowledging the progress and accomplishments that China has made on blue carbon, the country profile also offers insights into the future steps that China could take to further improve its blue carbon projects, perfect legal management, attract private interests and engagement, and take its blue carbon initiatives to the international level.
The Institute for China-America Studies is an independent nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization dedicated to strengthening the understanding of U.S.-China relations through expert analysis and practical policy solutions.
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