Interesting article from today’s Financial Times about China’s search for oil in Africa. It states: “Conventional wisdom suggests that China’s energy companies are marching across Africa, shoving aside established majors and grabbing huge oil reserves with the help of bottomless funding from Beijing.”
“A closer look reveals a more nuanced picture: China’s giants have won only […]

A famous ice festival in China, that attracts tens of thousands of tourists, appears to be the latest victim of rising global temperatures.
The festival, in Harbin in the far northeast of China, has become the city’s biggest individual source of income since it was launched in 1985.
But that income is under threat because the ice […]

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has warned China that the EU could penalise cheap imports from high carbon-emitting countries in order to defend European companies that are obliged to meet strict environmental standards.
In a speech to students at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, Mr Sarkozy urged China to shoulder its environmental responsibilities as a global economic power […]

Ecuador is the latest oil-producing country to try and renegotiate the terms and conditions over contracts, this time trying to impose a windfall tax on Chinese companies in the country.
However the Chinese state oil firms are seeking international arbitration to try to overturn the move, arguing it threatens millions of dollars of investment in the […]

The world’s largest greenhouse-gas emitter, China, will agree to cut its soaring carbon dioxide emissions, one of the country’s leading environmentalists forecast yesterday.
But it would only be on the basis of a deal with the United States and the rest of the developed world.