In China, the government is relaunching an initiative that provides subsidies for “green cars,” aimed at promoting the growth of the electric and plug-in hybrid car industry, as well as reducing urban air pollution. The initiative is being relaunched with increased oversight and technical standards after widespread cheating. Last week, the Chinese government released its first list of “recommended” vehicles, which makes 185 car models eligible for government subsidies.

China has already begun to make good on a promise from November 2016 in which the government committed to shut down or delay at least 150 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired energy by 2020 and to cap coal power generation at 1,100 GW. To put this in perspective, as of February 2016, China had just over 1,000 GW of thermal-powered energy, most of which consists of coal-fired capacity. Earlier this month, the Chinese energy regulator halted more than 100 coal-fired projects, which have a combined capacity exceeding 100 GW.

At the end of 2016, China announced a total ban on the domestic ivory trade, to be enforced by the end of this year. China, the world’s largest ivory market, hopes that this ban will reduce the illegal poaching of African elephants, whose numbers have declined dramatically in the last century. The ban will shut down a large number of factories and shops. Legally obtained ivory will still be permitted to be displayed at museums and traded as antiques under strict supervision, though certification will be required.

With China’s air pollution now featured in international headlines, China’s legal system is making it easier to take legal action against polluters. The courts are planning to widen the definition of what constitutes an “environmental crime.” This development is particularly useful in the fight against air pollution as it is very difficult to collect evidence (air pollution “undergoes a large degree of dispersal, and is very quickly diluted”). Under the new terms, prosecutors will be able to focus on tampering with sensor equipment and falsification of data.

As China faces one of its worst air pollution incidents to date, leading to a national smog red alert, the country is taking a variety of steps to combat coal-fired electricity production by 2020. The Chinese government is planning to create a nationwide emissions permitting system to cover all major industrial sectors, is placing stricter emissions caps for sulfur dioxide on a larger number of industries, hoping to cut sulfur dioxide emissions 15% in the next 3 years, and is upgrading coal plants of 300,000 KW capacity to improve efficiency.

Earlier this month the Chinese State Council vowed to introduce an environment tax by 2020. The tax would tackle “chronic and intractable pollution” by raising the operational costs of polluting industries, encouraging them to install cleaner technologies. Although China has had a pollutant discharge fee since 1979, the system has been exploited by local governments, among others.

China aims to provide clean air in its largest cities for 80% of each year, or more than 9-1/2 months, by 2020, up from a figure of 76.7% last year, the country's cabinet announced today. Amid concern that pollution was stirring social unrest, China launched a campaign in 2014 to revitalize its tainted air, water and soil, which have been ravaged by more than three decades of breakneck industrial growth.

The Chinese State Council announced plans to increase agricultural production while simultaneously promoting more environmentally friendly agricultural techniques within the next five years. The plans include stimulating sustainable agriculture to protect water resources and arable lands, improving agricultural technology, in part by involving the information industry, and upgrading fisheries and plantation structures.

China has accused more than 20 car makers of breaking rules on green car subsidies, according to a state media report, widening a scandal over a $4.5 billion annual payout program. On September 8, China's Ministry of Finance punished at least five companies, accusing them of cheating its program to subsidize electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, thus receiving roughly 1 billion yuan ($150 million U.S.) in illegal subsidies.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague declared China in violation of Philippine sovereign rights in the South China Sea. The dispute was taken to the PCA in January of 2013 by the Philippines after the Chinese Navy seized Scarborough Shoal, a chain of reefs and rocks off of a Philippine island. Under the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, only natural islands that can sustain human habitation would qualify for legitimate Chinese territorial jurisdiction of surrounding waters (up to 200 nautical miles in an exclusive economic zone).