Reform-Transform

“Time stops for no one, and the seasons keep changing” says President Xi. And indeed China is not stopping. More reforms are coming to beautify China so keep up with the makeovers in our review of the recent Two Sessions. 2018 was tough for China but still it ploughed ahead with ministry reforms and its War of Pollution. As part of this transformation, China is trying to create “Zero Waste Cities” to deal with mountains of garbage. Get the lowdown on how it intends to do this and what is in store for pilot cities in our review. Meanwhile, China’s financial institutions are also transforming and embracing responsible investment. From new ESG reporting guidelines to ESG integration for PE and VC funds, get up to speed with SynTao’s 10 responsible investment trends for 2019. Even on ground action is ramping up and transforming lives in China. Students Jerry Jiang & Wanying Na partnered with Zhenzhen Xu from AWS to showcase their education pilot to raise awareness & improve local water quality. Change may be afoot across China but perceptions are hard to change. Does China really deserve its bad reputation as an “upstream controller” of water who is “stealthily waging a water war”? Chongqing University’s Dr. Devlaeminck re-examines water sharing norms through a Chinese lens. As China shifts from “big development” to “big protection”, risks can also become “big blindspots”. Didn’t have time to get on top of all the regulations last year? Stay ahead with our list of key environment and water-related policies or come to our events around World Water Day. In the spirit of water for all, we are spreading the love and speaking at the largest environmental exhibition in Western China in Chengdu, water pow-wows in Shanghai, a couple of TEDx talks and even a Buddhist workshop in Hong Kong!