Trilateral conference in Saskatoon recognizes First Nations' importance in agriculture
Local Journalism Initiative
Thu, August 17, 2023
The story of nature’s unwavering magnitude and man’s stewardship has persevered among First Nations people, even as communities have moved away from hunting and gathering. “They respect the land and want to make sure it’s protected for the next generation,” Derrick Meetoos said of elders at Thunderchild First Nation in west central Saskatchewan, where he manages Thunder Farms, a fully-owned First Nation company. There’s a story in the exchange between man and nature by First Nation peoples that details the relationship between humans and the natural world. Man was born disadvantaged to animal and plant. Unable to fend for himself, Mother Earth was compassionate towards the struggling man and brought her plants and animals as part of an agreement to let him live. In return, man agreed to become a steward of the natural world, to care for and respect Mother Earth, her animals and plants.
“For us, it’s really not about profit. It’s about respecting the land,” said Meetoos, who was invited to speak this week in Saskatoon at the Tri-National Agricultural Accord on a panel about Indigenous agriculture and trilateral rural development.
Saskatoon hosted delegates from Canada, the United States and Mexico for the 2023 conference. Attendees peppered Meetoos with questions about how an Indigenous farm runs and operates. All in all, he was encouraged to see the interest around the need for communication and support, he said.
“I’m hopeful the understanding they reached was we need to start communicating better.” The accord is part of a commitment between Canada and its two North American counterparts to collaborate on agricultural trade and development, including how to bring matters of interest to First Nations more to the forefront.
Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister David Marit said Indigenous communities “play a critical role” in meeting agriculture targets laid out in the province’s growth plan. The government “realizes the importance of building and strengthening relationships and opportunities with Indigenous communities,” he said.
Oklahoma Secretary of Agriculture Blayne Arthur, who attended the conference, said this was the first time the Tri-National Agricultural Accord has had a focus on Indigenous agriculture. Oklahoma has 39 federally-recognized tribes within its borders, she said.
“We need to continue to initiate those conversations but then make certain both that at state level and the federal level that we are having collaboration there.”
Constitutionally, the Crown has the duty to consult with First Nation people regarding industry activities that might affect treaty rights. Agriculture activities that are part of the regulation of First Nation communities in Saskatchewan include cattle farming and crop land for Indigenous operations as well as in leasing of lands. The province has also been called on to improve collaborative planning in reducing barriers to federal and provincial programs. Further to this is the emphasis on building meaningful community engagement with First Nations such as understanding practical structures, requirements and Indigenous values.
First Nations groups have often played a leading role in preventing climate disasters connected with commercial production. Organizations such as the Saskatchewan First Nations Natural Resource Centre of Excellence have worked to ensure protection of the environment, including assessment work around water security.
The three-day, closed-door conference included representatives discussing priorities such as economic growth, trade, and food security in North America.
Saskatchewan continues increase its agricultural exports. In 2022, they were the largest on record, with total international sales of $18.5 billion. Exports have increased 58 per cent since 2013.
The U.S. is the province’s top export destination, accounting for 33 percent of its agricultural food exports with sales valued at $6.2 billion. Mexico is the province’s fourth-largest market, with an export valuation of $992 million. For farming experts like Meetoos, attaining loans for farms is an ongoing and difficult effort, but he said he’s pleased that agricultural partners are starting to recognize First Nations are capable of running their own operations, and how successful they can be with greater collaboration.
“I hope they realize that we are capable of running our own land,” he said. “I’m very encouraged.”
Kimiya Shokoohi, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The StarPhoenix
Friday, August 18, 2023
Pacific island sea levels rising faster than global average, WMO says
Reuters
Thu, August 17, 2023
Rising sea levels are forcing Fiji's villagers to relocate.
Reuters
Thu, August 17, 2023
Rising sea levels are forcing Fiji's villagers to relocate.
They want polluters to pay instead
GENEVA (Reuters) - Sea levels in the South-West Pacific are rising faster than the global average, threatening low-lying islands while heat damages marine ecosystems, the U.N. meteorological agency said on Friday.
In its State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2022 report, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said water levels were rising about 4 mm per year in some areas, slightly above the global mean rate.
That means low-lying territory such as Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands over time could become flooded, destroying agricultural and habitable lands with inhabitants unable to move to higher elevations.
The report added that marine heatwaves had occurred in a large area northeast of Australia and south of Papua New Guinea over more than six months, affecting marine life and the livelihoods of local communities.
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said that El Niño, a warming of water surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean that returned this year, would strongly affect the region.
"This will have a big impact on the South-West Pacific region as it is frequently associated with higher temperatures, disruptive weather patterns and more marine heatwaves and coral bleaching," Taalas said in a statement.
The region last year recorded 35 natural hazards, including floods and storms, that killed more than 700 people, according to the report. These hazards directly affected more than 8 million people.
Although the number of reported disaster weather events in the region decreased last year compared to 2021, the scale of economic losses due to flooding and weather events increased, according to the report.
Flood damage, including in Australia and the Philippines, amounted to $8.5 billion, almost triple the previous year.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
GENEVA (Reuters) - Sea levels in the South-West Pacific are rising faster than the global average, threatening low-lying islands while heat damages marine ecosystems, the U.N. meteorological agency said on Friday.
In its State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2022 report, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said water levels were rising about 4 mm per year in some areas, slightly above the global mean rate.
That means low-lying territory such as Tuvalu and the Solomon Islands over time could become flooded, destroying agricultural and habitable lands with inhabitants unable to move to higher elevations.
The report added that marine heatwaves had occurred in a large area northeast of Australia and south of Papua New Guinea over more than six months, affecting marine life and the livelihoods of local communities.
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said that El Niño, a warming of water surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean that returned this year, would strongly affect the region.
"This will have a big impact on the South-West Pacific region as it is frequently associated with higher temperatures, disruptive weather patterns and more marine heatwaves and coral bleaching," Taalas said in a statement.
The region last year recorded 35 natural hazards, including floods and storms, that killed more than 700 people, according to the report. These hazards directly affected more than 8 million people.
Although the number of reported disaster weather events in the region decreased last year compared to 2021, the scale of economic losses due to flooding and weather events increased, according to the report.
Flood damage, including in Australia and the Philippines, amounted to $8.5 billion, almost triple the previous year.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
UK birth slump dubbed ‘good for planet’ as number of babies born hits 20-year low
Eir Nolsoe
Thu, 17 August 2023
Little newborn baby relaxing on woman hands in bed
Britain’s top demographics expert has said the falling number of babies born in Britain is a “good thing” after new data showed the number of births had hit a 20-year low.
Professor Sarah Harper CBE, founder and director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and a former government adviser, said falling birth rates in the West were “good for… our planet”.
Her comments came after official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed there were 605,479 live births in England and Wales last year, the lowest number since 2002.
The total was down 3.1pc compared to 2021 and is part of a long-term decline in the number of births across Britain and the developed world.
Prof Harper told the Telegraph: “I think it’s a good thing that the high-income, high-consuming countries of the world are reducing the number of children that they’re having. I’m quite positive about that.”
The academic said declining fertility in rich countries would help to address the “general overconsumption that we have at the moment”, which has a negative impact on the planet.
Prof Harper served on the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology between 2014 and 2017. She was awarded a CBE for services to demography in 2018.
She said the UK’s declining birth rate was “inevitable” and in-line with trends in other developed economies.
She said: “We will see smaller populations in high-income countries going forward. It’s just going to be a trend of the 21st century and that will actually be good for general overall overconsumption that we have at the moment and our planet.”
Research has found that wealthy nations tend to have much larger carbon footprints than poorer countries, as rich people can afford to buy more goods, travel more and do other activities that generate emissions.
Carbon emissions from high-income countries were 29 times larger than low-income countries on a per capita basis in 2020, World Bank figures show.
While slowing population growth may reduce carbon emissions, analysts have warned that it also poses significant challenges for economic growth.
A shrinking workforce puts pressure on younger generations to pay more tax for the healthcare of older people. It can also lead to worker shortages that can slow growth.
While the overall number of births in Britain is declining, the share of children born to women from outside of Britain has hit a record high.
Almost one in three children born last year were delivered by mothers born outside of the UK. The number of births by women born outside the UK rose 3,600 year-on-year to account for 30.3pc of all births. The previous peak was 29.3pc in 2020.
When including the father, more than one in three children born last year had at least one foreign-born parent. In London, the figure was two thirds.
The ONS said: “In 2022, India replaced Romania as the most common country of birth for non-UK-born mothers, and Pakistan as the most common country of birth for non-UK-born fathers.”
For the first time since records began in 2003, Afghan women were among the top ten most common nationalities for foreign-born mothers.
It comes after Afghan women were granted humanitarian protection by the UK following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
The number of births is separate from Britain’s fertility rate, which measures the ratio of live births to women of childbearing age. This will be published later in the year, as population estimates for mid-2022 are yet to be released.
The fertility rate sank to a record low of 1.58 children per woman during the first year of Covid and recovered slightly to 1.61 in 2021.
Eir Nolsoe
Thu, 17 August 2023
Little newborn baby relaxing on woman hands in bed
Britain’s top demographics expert has said the falling number of babies born in Britain is a “good thing” after new data showed the number of births had hit a 20-year low.
Professor Sarah Harper CBE, founder and director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing and a former government adviser, said falling birth rates in the West were “good for… our planet”.
Her comments came after official figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed there were 605,479 live births in England and Wales last year, the lowest number since 2002.
The total was down 3.1pc compared to 2021 and is part of a long-term decline in the number of births across Britain and the developed world.
Prof Harper told the Telegraph: “I think it’s a good thing that the high-income, high-consuming countries of the world are reducing the number of children that they’re having. I’m quite positive about that.”
The academic said declining fertility in rich countries would help to address the “general overconsumption that we have at the moment”, which has a negative impact on the planet.
Prof Harper served on the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology between 2014 and 2017. She was awarded a CBE for services to demography in 2018.
She said the UK’s declining birth rate was “inevitable” and in-line with trends in other developed economies.
She said: “We will see smaller populations in high-income countries going forward. It’s just going to be a trend of the 21st century and that will actually be good for general overall overconsumption that we have at the moment and our planet.”
Research has found that wealthy nations tend to have much larger carbon footprints than poorer countries, as rich people can afford to buy more goods, travel more and do other activities that generate emissions.
Carbon emissions from high-income countries were 29 times larger than low-income countries on a per capita basis in 2020, World Bank figures show.
While slowing population growth may reduce carbon emissions, analysts have warned that it also poses significant challenges for economic growth.
A shrinking workforce puts pressure on younger generations to pay more tax for the healthcare of older people. It can also lead to worker shortages that can slow growth.
While the overall number of births in Britain is declining, the share of children born to women from outside of Britain has hit a record high.
Almost one in three children born last year were delivered by mothers born outside of the UK. The number of births by women born outside the UK rose 3,600 year-on-year to account for 30.3pc of all births. The previous peak was 29.3pc in 2020.
When including the father, more than one in three children born last year had at least one foreign-born parent. In London, the figure was two thirds.
The ONS said: “In 2022, India replaced Romania as the most common country of birth for non-UK-born mothers, and Pakistan as the most common country of birth for non-UK-born fathers.”
For the first time since records began in 2003, Afghan women were among the top ten most common nationalities for foreign-born mothers.
It comes after Afghan women were granted humanitarian protection by the UK following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
The number of births is separate from Britain’s fertility rate, which measures the ratio of live births to women of childbearing age. This will be published later in the year, as population estimates for mid-2022 are yet to be released.
The fertility rate sank to a record low of 1.58 children per woman during the first year of Covid and recovered slightly to 1.61 in 2021.
WAR IS ECOCIDE
Dolphins are dying in droves in the Black Sea, and Ukraine says it's evidence that Russia is committing a new kind of war crimeSonam Sheth,Jenny McGrath
Thu, 17 August 2023
A stranded dolphin on the Black Sea.rai36de/Getty Images
Ukrainian officials have documented an uptick in dolphin and porpoise deaths near the Black Sea.
They may use the data to build a case accusing Russia of environmental war crimes, NYT reported.
Factors like maritime mines and pollutants from explosives likely contribute to the dolphin die-off.
As Russia's war against Ukraine rages on, Ukrainian officials have noticed an uptick in marine mammal deaths — and they want to use it as evidence to accuse Russia of ecocide and environmental war crimes.
That's according to The New York Times, which reported that there's been a significant increase in dead dolphins and porpoises washing ashore in the Black Sea.
What's causing massive dolphin die-offs
The Times reported that a number of factors related to the war could be contributing to marine mammal die-off including maritime mines, pollutants from explosives and fuel leaks, and toxic algae brought about by the presence of pesticides and heavy metals in the water.
An explosion in Khmelnytskyi, UkraineTwitter
The cacophony of sounds coming from Russian fighter jets, explosions, and rocket launches could also be a contributing factor, the report said. Noise from ships, sonar, and drilling is known to affect marine mammals' communication, ability to hear predators and prey, and navigation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In a peace plan he laid out last November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the environmental damage Russia's war was causing.
"Due to the Russian aggression, 6 million domestic animals died," he wrote in the plan. "These are official numbers. At least 50,000 dolphins were killed in the Black Sea."
Currently, there are four acts that are considered international crimes that the International Criminal Court (ICC) oversees: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression. Ukraine proposes to add a fifth act to the list: ecocide.
'Fuel of the future': Gulf states bet on 'green' hydrogen
AFP
Wed, 16 August 2023
After riding a fossil-fuel boom for decades, Gulf Arab states are eyeing "green" hydrogen as they try to transition their economies and ease the climate crisis at a stroke.
Oil producers Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman are investing heavily in the climate-friendly fuel in a search for alternative revenues to crude and gas.
Green hydrogen, which is the hydrogen created when renewable energy electrolyses water, appears to solve many problems: it is low-polluting and has widespread potential uses, which could make it lucrative and planet-saving at the same time.
But the fuel, which currently makes up less than one percent of total hydrogen production, is not yet commercially viable and needs a major scaling-up of renewable energy sources -- a process that could take years.
Despite this, the Gulf monarchies sense an opportunity to remain major players in energy markets as oil revenues fall.
"Gulf states aim to lead the global hydrogen market," said Karim Elgendy, associate fellow at Britain's Chatham House think tank.
"They see green hydrogen as critical to remain major energy powers, allowing them to continue their influence as fossil fuel demand declines."
Most hydrogen is produced from polluting fossil fuels, but green hydrogen is extracted from water using renewable energy such as wind, solar and hydropower.
While fossil fuels create harmful greenhouse gases when they burn, hydrogen emits only water vapour. It is touted for potential use in high-polluting industries such as transport, shipping and steel.
- 'Export leaders' -
Wielding its massive investment capital, oil-rich Saudi Arabia is constructing the world's largest green hydrogen plant at NEOM, the $500 billion futuristic megacity being built on the Red Sea.
The $8.4-billion plant will integrate solar and wind energy to produce up to 600 tonnes of green hydrogen a day by the end of 2026, officials say.
In July the UAE, which will host the United Nations' COP28 climate conference this year, approved a hydrogen strategy that aims to make it one of the top 10 producers by 2031.
"Hydrogen will be a critical fuel for the energy transition," said Hanan Balalaa, a senior official at the UAE's oil firm ADNOC, calling it a "natural extension" for the company.
"We believe hydrogen and its carrier fuels have great potential as new, low carbon fuels, that the UAE is well placed to capitalise" on, Balalaa told AFP.
But it is Oman, which lags Saudi Arabia and the UAE in fossil fuel production, that looks poised to lead the Gulf's clean hydrogen race.
The sultanate is on track to become the sixth-largest exporter globally and the biggest in the Middle East by the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency said in a June report.
Oman aims to produce at least one million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030, and up to 8.5 million tonnes by 2050, "which would be greater than total hydrogen demand in Europe today", the IEA said.
According to auditing firm Deloitte, Middle Eastern countries, primarily the Gulf, will lead global clean hydrogen trade in the short-term, exporting around half of their domestic production by 2030.
By 2050, North Africa and Australia are projected to have the greatest potential, although Gulf states will remain "export leaders", the company said in a June report.
- Hope or hype? -
The investment in green hydrogen has not curbed expansion in oil and gas, with both the UAE and Saudi Arabia planning to grow their hydrocarbon industries.
Experts predict it could still take years before Gulf countries can produce green hydrogen at a cost competitive with fossil fuel-based alternatives.
While the cost of renewable energy has fallen due to technological advances, green hydrogen cannot yet be produced at a profit.
"Gulf countries will focus on maximising the sales of hydrocarbons as long as possible," said Aisha al-Sarihi, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute.
"It will take years of trial and error for green hydrogen to become a commercially traded commodity," the expert said, adding that it "can be the new fuel of the future" once the technology matures and costs fall.
Demand for hydrogen also remains unclear.
But Gulf states are long-time energy suppliers of import-dependent Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea that plan to incorporate it in their decarbonisation plans.
Abdullah al-Nuaimi, the UAE's former climate change minister, cautioned, however, that "the existing infrastructure for transporting hydrogen is not adequate and would require massive investment to modify".
"The time required to overcome and solve the challenges facing hydrogen is too long," he told AFP.
ho/th/dv/lb
AFP
Wed, 16 August 2023
After riding a fossil-fuel boom for decades, Gulf Arab states are eyeing "green" hydrogen as they try to transition their economies and ease the climate crisis at a stroke.
Oil producers Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman are investing heavily in the climate-friendly fuel in a search for alternative revenues to crude and gas.
Green hydrogen, which is the hydrogen created when renewable energy electrolyses water, appears to solve many problems: it is low-polluting and has widespread potential uses, which could make it lucrative and planet-saving at the same time.
But the fuel, which currently makes up less than one percent of total hydrogen production, is not yet commercially viable and needs a major scaling-up of renewable energy sources -- a process that could take years.
Despite this, the Gulf monarchies sense an opportunity to remain major players in energy markets as oil revenues fall.
"Gulf states aim to lead the global hydrogen market," said Karim Elgendy, associate fellow at Britain's Chatham House think tank.
"They see green hydrogen as critical to remain major energy powers, allowing them to continue their influence as fossil fuel demand declines."
Most hydrogen is produced from polluting fossil fuels, but green hydrogen is extracted from water using renewable energy such as wind, solar and hydropower.
While fossil fuels create harmful greenhouse gases when they burn, hydrogen emits only water vapour. It is touted for potential use in high-polluting industries such as transport, shipping and steel.
- 'Export leaders' -
Wielding its massive investment capital, oil-rich Saudi Arabia is constructing the world's largest green hydrogen plant at NEOM, the $500 billion futuristic megacity being built on the Red Sea.
The $8.4-billion plant will integrate solar and wind energy to produce up to 600 tonnes of green hydrogen a day by the end of 2026, officials say.
In July the UAE, which will host the United Nations' COP28 climate conference this year, approved a hydrogen strategy that aims to make it one of the top 10 producers by 2031.
"Hydrogen will be a critical fuel for the energy transition," said Hanan Balalaa, a senior official at the UAE's oil firm ADNOC, calling it a "natural extension" for the company.
"We believe hydrogen and its carrier fuels have great potential as new, low carbon fuels, that the UAE is well placed to capitalise" on, Balalaa told AFP.
But it is Oman, which lags Saudi Arabia and the UAE in fossil fuel production, that looks poised to lead the Gulf's clean hydrogen race.
The sultanate is on track to become the sixth-largest exporter globally and the biggest in the Middle East by the end of the decade, the International Energy Agency said in a June report.
Oman aims to produce at least one million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030, and up to 8.5 million tonnes by 2050, "which would be greater than total hydrogen demand in Europe today", the IEA said.
According to auditing firm Deloitte, Middle Eastern countries, primarily the Gulf, will lead global clean hydrogen trade in the short-term, exporting around half of their domestic production by 2030.
By 2050, North Africa and Australia are projected to have the greatest potential, although Gulf states will remain "export leaders", the company said in a June report.
- Hope or hype? -
The investment in green hydrogen has not curbed expansion in oil and gas, with both the UAE and Saudi Arabia planning to grow their hydrocarbon industries.
Experts predict it could still take years before Gulf countries can produce green hydrogen at a cost competitive with fossil fuel-based alternatives.
While the cost of renewable energy has fallen due to technological advances, green hydrogen cannot yet be produced at a profit.
"Gulf countries will focus on maximising the sales of hydrocarbons as long as possible," said Aisha al-Sarihi, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute.
"It will take years of trial and error for green hydrogen to become a commercially traded commodity," the expert said, adding that it "can be the new fuel of the future" once the technology matures and costs fall.
Demand for hydrogen also remains unclear.
But Gulf states are long-time energy suppliers of import-dependent Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea that plan to incorporate it in their decarbonisation plans.
Abdullah al-Nuaimi, the UAE's former climate change minister, cautioned, however, that "the existing infrastructure for transporting hydrogen is not adequate and would require massive investment to modify".
"The time required to overcome and solve the challenges facing hydrogen is too long," he told AFP.
ho/th/dv/lb
Bloomberg News
Thu, August 17, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Only a week ago, Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co. attracted little notice within China and was almost unheard of everywhere else.
Now, the secretive shadow banking giant has become the latest symbol of financial fragility in an $18 trillion economy where confidence among investors, businesses and consumers is rapidly dwindling.
The privately owned manager of more than 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) and its trust-company affiliates are under intense scrutiny after halting payments to thousands of customers. Underlining its importance, regulators have formed a task force as they seek to prevent contagion. Behind the scenes the firm has hired KPMG to carry out what is likely to be a protracted restructuring process. Potential asset sales threaten to weigh on broader markets.
Zhongzhi’s troubles have also sparked protests, prompting the police around the country to order disgruntled clients not to go public in their desperation to recoup losses. Chinese assets have tumbled as word of Zhongzhi’s difficulties spread, helping pushing the yuan close to a 16-year low. A central bank rate cut this week has done little to bolster confidence as concerns mount about more failures in the nation’s $2.9 trillion trust sector.
The turmoil represents yet another challenge for Xi Jinping’s government, which is already grappling with a weak economy, a property selloff and growing geopolitical tensions with the US. It’s also a reminder of the potential for unwelcome surprises in an opaque Chinese financial system that has long been dogged by concerns about unsustainable debt.
“This is a problem that’s only going to intensify” with more funds missing payments, Kathy Lien, managing director of BK Asset Management, said in an interview Thursday on BNN Bloomberg Television. “There is only so much they can do,” she said, referring to Chinese authorities, calling this a “crisis of confidence.”
For Zhongzhi, the pieces unraveled quickly. The first public sign of trouble came with three stock exchange filings by corporate clients in Shanghai late last Friday. The filings sounded the alarm about missed payments on high-yield investment products offered by the firm and Zhongrong International Trust, a trust firm closely linked to Zhongzhi.
Zhongrong is a top-10 trust, pooling deposits from largely wealthy individual investors and companies to make investments in stocks, bonds and others assets, while lending to firms that can’t access traditional banks. Though they operate in the shadows, the trusts account for almost 10% of total loans in China, according to Bloomberg Economics.
Zhongrong has 270 products totaling 39.5 billion yuan due this year, according to data provider Use Trust.
To lure cash, trusts like Zhongrong offer rates as high as 6% or 8% for a one-year term, about double what commercial banks pay on similar products. With stocks in China tumbling and real estate in a two-year decline, these seemingly can’t-miss funds with quarterly payouts have attracted trillions of yuan.
The pitch worked for Joey, a client in northern China who invested about 2 million yuan — more than a quarter million dollars — into four Zhongrong products earning 4% to 6%. Several neighbors invested as well. She now wonders whether she will get any money back after payments stopped in June. Visits to the local regulator and police have been fruitless.
“We are very desperate,” Joey said, declining to give her full name because of privacy concerns. “We may have no choice but take to the streets sooner or later.”
Zhongzhi was founded as a lumber business in 1995 by Xie Zhikun, who before he passed away in 2021 made a fortune in printing before expanding into distressed assets including real estate.
Before Zhongzhi’s troubles emerged into the opening, it was already acting behind the scenes. In late July it hired KPMG to review its balance sheet amid a worsening liquidity crunch, people familiar said earlier, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. The Beijing-based company plans to restructure debt and sell assets after the review in order to repay investors, the people said.
It’s unclear how many products Zhongzhi has defaulted on and whether the company has sufficient assets to cover the shortfall if liquidated.
In recent years, even as rival trusts pared risks, Zhongzhi and its affiliates, especially Zhongrong, extended financing to troubled developers and snapped up assets from companies including China Evergrande Group.
The real estate investments soured after a crackdown on property lending and a slump in sales during the pandemic led to a flurry of defaults. Even developers like Country Garden Holdings Co. that survived the first wave of failures are under pressure as the slowdown continues. China’s home sales tumbled the most in a year last month, and Country Garden is on the verge of default after it missed coupon payments.
The property woes created a cash crunch for trusts like Zhongrong, which count on investments and loans to pay depositors. An estimated 10% of all trust assets — some $300 billion — are tied to the property sector, according to Bloomberg Economics.
Trouble in the trust sector is nothing new, but the size of Zhongzhi has ratcheted up concerns. About 106 trust products worth 44 billion yuan defaulted this year through July 31, according to Use Trust. Real estate investments accounted for 74% of the defaults by value. Last year also saw billions of dollars in defaults.
“The defaults could continue to hurt investor and market sentiment,” Fitch CreditSights analysts Zerlina Zeng and Karen Wu said in a note. “Disorderly winding-up of any large trust or wealth management company could test near-term financial stability.”
As payment delays mounted this week, so did the protests.
About two dozen people rallied outside the firm’s Beijing offices, in a rare show of public outrage in the capital. In one of the video clips posted on Wechat seen by Bloomberg News, a woman is heard shouting: “Give us the money back, or we will die here.”
In an effort to quell the social unrest, China police responded swiftly, setting up metal gates around the office. They also visited the homes of several protesters, urging them to avoid public demonstrations, according to investors who asked not to be identified. The police visits spanned a massive area, including the southwestern province of Sichuan, and the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Shandong.
The failures have drawn attention from Beijing. The National Financial Regulatory Administration, China’s top banking regulator, established a working group to examine the risks at the financial holding company, according to people familiar. The regulator required Zhongrong to report its plans for future payments and assets that can be sold to deal with the liquidity crunch, said the people.
While it’s unlikely Zhongzhi’s woes will impact the big commercial banks, it could spread to other asset managers if wealthy investors start pulling their money, said Dinny McMahon, an analyst for Trivium China and author of China’s Great Wall of Debt.
“When investors start to lose faith, then all of a sudden an outfit’s ability to continue to raise new funds becomes more difficult,” McMahon said. “Then the potential for defaults to cascade becomes more and more.”
--With assistance from Zhang Dingmin.
China Shadow Bank Crisis Sparks Protest by Angry Investors
Bloomberg News
Wed, August 16, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese investors protested outside the office of one of the country’s biggest shadow banks, in a rare show of public outrage after the firm skipped payments on dozens of investment products.
Videos of the incident appear to show about two dozen protesters at Zhongrong International Trust Co., demanding payment on high-yield products that were pitched as safe investments. In one of the clips posted on Wechat seen by Bloomberg News, a woman angrily asks: “Why doesn’t the company pay us back?” she says. “It has already matured. Your financial statements said there is a profit.”
The protests indicate troubles at the embattled Chinese shadow bank are deeper than previously known, and underscore how the fallout from the real estate slump is spreading to the financial sector. Many trust products sold by Zhongrong and others are backed by housing projects run by troubled developers such as China Evergrande Group.
Pressure is building across China’s financial markets given a slew of disappointing economic data, renewed concerns about the property sector and the unfolding crisis in the shadow banking system. Investors are calling for more aggressive easing by Beijing as the incremental policies have so far failed to revive confidence. A selloff in Chinese assets deepened on Wednesday, with the MSCI China Index down as much as 1.3%.
Read more: Country Garden Warns on ‘Major Uncertainties’ in Bond Payments
Zhongrong is among the biggest firms in the country’s $2.9 trillion trust industry, which pools savings from wealthy households and corporate clients to make loans and invest in real estate, stocks, bonds and commodities. The firm has 270 high-yield products totaling 39.5 billion yuan ($5.4 billion) due this year, according to data provider Use Trust.
Chinese authorities have already set up a task force to study any possible contagion from the shadow banking group, which manages about $138 billion. The firm said it has no immediate plans to make clients whole.
“Given the recent net asset value markdowns and redemptions, we expect growth in trust products to slow, which could result in tighter property financing conditions, and affect banks’ earnings and balance sheets,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Shuo Yang wrote in a note.
Wang Qiang, board secretary of the firm partly owned by financial giant Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., told investors in a meeting earlier this week that the firm missed payments on a batch of products on Aug. 8, adding to delays on at least 10 others since late July, according to people familiar with the matter. At least 30 products are now overdue and Zhongrong also halted redemptions on some short-term instruments, one of the people said.
Cash Crunch
Wang said liquidity at the firm has suddenly dried up. The company is facing a “tsunami” of questions from investors and their own wealth managers, according to people familiar, who asked not to be identified because the meeting was private. Wang asked for patience as the firm seeks to recoup the value of its investments.
Zhongzhi is among the private wealth managers that Beijing has been trying to rein in for years to minimize risks for the hundreds of thousands of retail clients who buy these products assuming they’re safe. China is already struggling with a weak economy and fallout from the property slump that’s threatening to push giants like Country Garden Holdings Co. into default. The central bank on Tuesday cut interest rates by the most in three years in a bid to revive growth.
According to Bloomberg Economics, the trust sector’s exposure to real estate is about 2.2 trillion yuan, or 10% of total assets as of the end of 2022. Zhongrong is the ninth-biggest trust, with about 600 billion yuan in assets.
“The big danger is that a negative feedback loop kicks in, with property stress causing strains in the financial system, undermining credit expansion and depressing growth, which, in turn, exacerbates the slump in the property sector,” Bloomberg Economics said in a note.
Zhongrong investors are now losing patience. Many bought the products paying as much as 7% annual interest, betting they would be a safe bet as Chinese stocks and real estate prices tumble.
The protesters in Beijing were met by about 10 police and security officers, while a company official tried to keep the peace.
One woman is heard shouting: “Give us the money back, or we will die here.” Another says: “Why you don’t give us a clear explanation?”
Read more: China Shadow Bank Misses Dozens of Payments as Risks Grow
A reporter who visited the Zhongrong office Wednesday afternoon didn’t see any protesters but there was an unusually heavy police presence around the building. Officers were seen sitting in several police vans and cars parked inside and outside the office compound, and other police vehicles were placed on roads nearby.
Officers were also watching the area from inside one of the several city buses that were parked at the main gate or nearby. Workers were erecting extra fencing around the building.
Police in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Protests over financial disputes are fairly common in China but the authorities are unlikely to tolerate them for long, especially in the capital where authorities prize stability.
Police quickly broke up demonstrations in Beijing and other cities late last year over the government’s harsh Covid Zero rules. Officers maintained a presence for days at the site of the unrest to deter any repeat.
Shortly afterward, China started dismantling Covid Zero yet still arrested several people on a catch-all charge called “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” A conviction on that charge can mean up to five years in prison. It is unclear how their cases were resolved.
A series of demonstrations also erupted in 2022 in the central province of Henan over a suspected financial scam. Police and protesters clashed as hundreds of people demanded the return of deposits worth up to tens of billions of yuan.
Bloomberg News
Wed, August 16, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese investors protested outside the office of one of the country’s biggest shadow banks, in a rare show of public outrage after the firm skipped payments on dozens of investment products.
Videos of the incident appear to show about two dozen protesters at Zhongrong International Trust Co., demanding payment on high-yield products that were pitched as safe investments. In one of the clips posted on Wechat seen by Bloomberg News, a woman angrily asks: “Why doesn’t the company pay us back?” she says. “It has already matured. Your financial statements said there is a profit.”
The protests indicate troubles at the embattled Chinese shadow bank are deeper than previously known, and underscore how the fallout from the real estate slump is spreading to the financial sector. Many trust products sold by Zhongrong and others are backed by housing projects run by troubled developers such as China Evergrande Group.
Pressure is building across China’s financial markets given a slew of disappointing economic data, renewed concerns about the property sector and the unfolding crisis in the shadow banking system. Investors are calling for more aggressive easing by Beijing as the incremental policies have so far failed to revive confidence. A selloff in Chinese assets deepened on Wednesday, with the MSCI China Index down as much as 1.3%.
Read more: Country Garden Warns on ‘Major Uncertainties’ in Bond Payments
Zhongrong is among the biggest firms in the country’s $2.9 trillion trust industry, which pools savings from wealthy households and corporate clients to make loans and invest in real estate, stocks, bonds and commodities. The firm has 270 high-yield products totaling 39.5 billion yuan ($5.4 billion) due this year, according to data provider Use Trust.
Chinese authorities have already set up a task force to study any possible contagion from the shadow banking group, which manages about $138 billion. The firm said it has no immediate plans to make clients whole.
“Given the recent net asset value markdowns and redemptions, we expect growth in trust products to slow, which could result in tighter property financing conditions, and affect banks’ earnings and balance sheets,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analyst Shuo Yang wrote in a note.
Wang Qiang, board secretary of the firm partly owned by financial giant Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., told investors in a meeting earlier this week that the firm missed payments on a batch of products on Aug. 8, adding to delays on at least 10 others since late July, according to people familiar with the matter. At least 30 products are now overdue and Zhongrong also halted redemptions on some short-term instruments, one of the people said.
Cash Crunch
Wang said liquidity at the firm has suddenly dried up. The company is facing a “tsunami” of questions from investors and their own wealth managers, according to people familiar, who asked not to be identified because the meeting was private. Wang asked for patience as the firm seeks to recoup the value of its investments.
Zhongzhi is among the private wealth managers that Beijing has been trying to rein in for years to minimize risks for the hundreds of thousands of retail clients who buy these products assuming they’re safe. China is already struggling with a weak economy and fallout from the property slump that’s threatening to push giants like Country Garden Holdings Co. into default. The central bank on Tuesday cut interest rates by the most in three years in a bid to revive growth.
According to Bloomberg Economics, the trust sector’s exposure to real estate is about 2.2 trillion yuan, or 10% of total assets as of the end of 2022. Zhongrong is the ninth-biggest trust, with about 600 billion yuan in assets.
“The big danger is that a negative feedback loop kicks in, with property stress causing strains in the financial system, undermining credit expansion and depressing growth, which, in turn, exacerbates the slump in the property sector,” Bloomberg Economics said in a note.
Zhongrong investors are now losing patience. Many bought the products paying as much as 7% annual interest, betting they would be a safe bet as Chinese stocks and real estate prices tumble.
The protesters in Beijing were met by about 10 police and security officers, while a company official tried to keep the peace.
One woman is heard shouting: “Give us the money back, or we will die here.” Another says: “Why you don’t give us a clear explanation?”
Read more: China Shadow Bank Misses Dozens of Payments as Risks Grow
A reporter who visited the Zhongrong office Wednesday afternoon didn’t see any protesters but there was an unusually heavy police presence around the building. Officers were seen sitting in several police vans and cars parked inside and outside the office compound, and other police vehicles were placed on roads nearby.
Officers were also watching the area from inside one of the several city buses that were parked at the main gate or nearby. Workers were erecting extra fencing around the building.
Police in Beijing didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Protests over financial disputes are fairly common in China but the authorities are unlikely to tolerate them for long, especially in the capital where authorities prize stability.
Police quickly broke up demonstrations in Beijing and other cities late last year over the government’s harsh Covid Zero rules. Officers maintained a presence for days at the site of the unrest to deter any repeat.
Shortly afterward, China started dismantling Covid Zero yet still arrested several people on a catch-all charge called “picking quarrels and provoking trouble.” A conviction on that charge can mean up to five years in prison. It is unclear how their cases were resolved.
A series of demonstrations also erupted in 2022 in the central province of Henan over a suspected financial scam. Police and protesters clashed as hundreds of people demanded the return of deposits worth up to tens of billions of yuan.
Chinese asset manager signals debt overhaul, stokes contagion fears
Jason Xue and Clare Jim
Wed, August 16, 2023
By Jason Xue and Clare Jim
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) -A major Chinese asset manager has told its investors it needs to restructure its debt, stoking fears that a chain of defaults could spread through the financial sector and deliver a destabilising shock to the country's weakened economy.
Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, which raises money from companies and the wider public and is reported to manage 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) in assets, spoke of the restructuring in an investor meeting on Wednesday, a video seen by Reuters showed.
The Beijing-based firm, which has sizeable exposure to the country's cash-squeezed real estate sector, has already stopped payment to investors in all investment products.
Zhongzhi operates in China's $3 trillion shadow finance sector, selling high-yielding investment products via its trust and wealth management units, and has strong links with banks and other financial institutions.
Anxious retail investors are bombarding listed companies with questions about their exposure to Zhongrong, a subsidiary of Zhongzhi, after missed payments by the trust company triggered fears of wider contagion.
Citigroup said in a note that it expected more trust-fund defaults due to their exposure to the property sector downturn in China, but this was unlikely to lead to a "Lehman moment".
"As the problems in the property development sector are not new and have already been unfolding for several years, we think investors would have already psychologically prepared for the potential of defaults."
Zhongzhi's financial trouble is the latest challenge forChinese authorities as they battle to contain a worseningproperty sector crisis and revive a faltering recovery in the world's second-largest economy.
Morgan Stanley has become the latest among some of the major brokerages to cut China's growth forecast for this year. It now sees China's gross domestic product (GDP) growing 4.7% this year, down from an earlier forecast of 5%.
Zhongzhi has hired one of the Big Four accounting firms toconduct a comprehensive audit of the company, and is seekingstrategic investors, its management told investors inWednesday's meeting. The plan is for "self-rescue" through restructuring, with afocus on debt collection and asset liquidation, but bankruptcyis also an option, they added, without disclosing the amount ofdebt that needed to be restructured. It was not possible to determine whether the company isinsolvent before the completion of auditing work, which began inJuly, the executives told its investors, according to the videoseen by Reuters. Zhongzhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Wednesday's meeting was held after Zhongrong International Trust Co, a leading trust company controlled by Zhongzhi, missed payments on dozens of investment products since the end of July, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources.
PROPERTY CRISIS The liquidity stress facing Zhongzhi highlights the rippleeffect of an unprecedented debt crisis in China's propertysector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the economy that has rapidly lost momentum in recent months.
-
The central bank said on Thursday it would keep liquidity reasonably ample and keep its policy "precise and forceful" to support the country's economic recovery, amid rising headwinds.
Zhongzhi runs a shadow banking empire, holding stakes in five asset management companies, four wealth management firms, and Zhongrong International Trust, a major trust company thatmanages more than 700 billion yuan ($95.69 billion) of assets.
The group has been selling stakes in some listed companiesit controlled over the past few years, and reducing the size ofit business, which came under increased pressure after China'scrackdown on shadow banking, and the property market downturn.
China's property market has lurched from one crisis toanother in the last couple of years with a string of leadingdevelopers including China Evergrande Group and SunacChina defaulting on their debt repayment obligations.
Country Garden, the country's largest privatedeveloper, has become the latest to flag a stifling liquiditycrunch at a time when property investment, home sales and new construction have contracted for more than a year.
Evergrande said late on Wednesday it would delay the votingdate and scheme meetings with creditors for its offshore debtrestructuring plan to Aug 23 and Aug 28, respectively, to givecreditors more time to consider the terms. The delay comes after the deal this week to sell a 27.5%stake in its unit China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, and swap part of the debt in the NEV unit owed to theparent company and current controlling shareholder into shares. Evergrande is the first defaulted developer to hold schememeetings and its years-long restructuring practice highlights the challenges facing its peers to put their operations to back on track. ($1 = 7.3155 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Jason Xue in Shanghai, Clare Jim in Hong Kong; additional reporting by Shanghai newsroom; Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Jamie Freed and Shri Navaratnam)
China Evergrande's Shenzhen-listed unit probed by securities regulator for alleged breach of information disclosure rules
South China Morning Post
Thu, August 17, 2023
Hengda Real Estate Group is being investigated by China's securities regulator for allegedly violating information disclosure rules, in the latest blow for its embattled parent, China Evergrande Group.
The developer said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday evening that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) had sent a letter notifying it of the probe earlier the same day.
"The company is actively assisting the regulator in conducting the probe," Hengda said in the filing.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
It comes just a few months after the home builder was reprimanded by the two major mainland bourses for missing a deadline for publishing its annual results.
Hengda is an indirectly owned unit of Guangzhou-based Evergrande Group, the world's most indebted developer saddled with total liabilities of 2.44 trillion yuan (US$335.3 billion).
"Evergrande and its onshore unit found themselves in hot water after a 2021 default which triggered a chain of bad reactions," said Zhou Ling, a fund manager with Shanghai Shiva Investment. "The investigation could further hurt investors and creditors' confidence in the developer."
Of the 73 mainland-listed firms that had been probed by the CSRC as of July 18, 54 of them were suspected of irregularities related to divulging information, according to the state-owned Economic Information Daily newspaper.
State-owned juggernauts like China Shipbuilding Industry and Beijing Capital Development were also targeted by the watchdog for breaching information disclosure rules.
In April, both the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges chastised Hengda Real Estate and two of its top executives - chairman Zhao Changlong and chief financial officer Qian Cheng - for breaching listing requirements.
They said the real estate company failed to publish its 2021 annual report by the April 30 deadline last year.
The Shenzhen-listed company said it would accept any disciplinary action imposed on it or the two bosses, though none was taken in the end.
Three of Hengda Real Estate's bonds are listed on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges.
On July 17, Evergrande Group, whose Hong Kong-listed shares have been suspended from trading since March last year, said it posted a net loss attributable to shareholders of 476 billion yuan for 2021, and of 105.9 billion yuan for 2022, according to exchange filings.
The group's total liabilities stood at 2.44 trillion yuan at the end of last year. The company's borrowings rose to 612.39 billion yuan from 607.38 billion yuan in 2021, according to the filings.
Evergrande was the main victim of Beijing's clampdown on the red hot property market after the government introduced the "three red lines" policy to reduce developers' leverage.
Since late 2021 the Guangzhou-based developer has been struggling to complete projects and repay suppliers and creditors.
Creditors will vote on Evergrande Group's restructuring proposal for US$20 billion of offshore debt at meetings scheduled for August 23 and 24, after the company got the go-ahead from a Hong Kong court on July 24.
During the hearing, a lawyer for Evergrande told the court that under its proposal the developer is likely to have an asset recovery rate of about 22.5 per cent, significantly higher than the 3.4 per cent estimated in November, should it be liquidated, citing an updated analysis by Deloitte, the consultancy commissioned by the developer.
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Jason Xue and Clare Jim
Wed, August 16, 2023
By Jason Xue and Clare Jim
SHANGHAI/HONG KONG (Reuters) -A major Chinese asset manager has told its investors it needs to restructure its debt, stoking fears that a chain of defaults could spread through the financial sector and deliver a destabilising shock to the country's weakened economy.
Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, which raises money from companies and the wider public and is reported to manage 1 trillion yuan ($137 billion) in assets, spoke of the restructuring in an investor meeting on Wednesday, a video seen by Reuters showed.
The Beijing-based firm, which has sizeable exposure to the country's cash-squeezed real estate sector, has already stopped payment to investors in all investment products.
Zhongzhi operates in China's $3 trillion shadow finance sector, selling high-yielding investment products via its trust and wealth management units, and has strong links with banks and other financial institutions.
Anxious retail investors are bombarding listed companies with questions about their exposure to Zhongrong, a subsidiary of Zhongzhi, after missed payments by the trust company triggered fears of wider contagion.
Citigroup said in a note that it expected more trust-fund defaults due to their exposure to the property sector downturn in China, but this was unlikely to lead to a "Lehman moment".
"As the problems in the property development sector are not new and have already been unfolding for several years, we think investors would have already psychologically prepared for the potential of defaults."
Zhongzhi's financial trouble is the latest challenge forChinese authorities as they battle to contain a worseningproperty sector crisis and revive a faltering recovery in the world's second-largest economy.
Morgan Stanley has become the latest among some of the major brokerages to cut China's growth forecast for this year. It now sees China's gross domestic product (GDP) growing 4.7% this year, down from an earlier forecast of 5%.
Zhongzhi has hired one of the Big Four accounting firms toconduct a comprehensive audit of the company, and is seekingstrategic investors, its management told investors inWednesday's meeting. The plan is for "self-rescue" through restructuring, with afocus on debt collection and asset liquidation, but bankruptcyis also an option, they added, without disclosing the amount ofdebt that needed to be restructured. It was not possible to determine whether the company isinsolvent before the completion of auditing work, which began inJuly, the executives told its investors, according to the videoseen by Reuters. Zhongzhi did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Wednesday's meeting was held after Zhongrong International Trust Co, a leading trust company controlled by Zhongzhi, missed payments on dozens of investment products since the end of July, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing sources.
PROPERTY CRISIS The liquidity stress facing Zhongzhi highlights the rippleeffect of an unprecedented debt crisis in China's propertysector, which accounts for roughly a quarter of the economy that has rapidly lost momentum in recent months.
-
The central bank said on Thursday it would keep liquidity reasonably ample and keep its policy "precise and forceful" to support the country's economic recovery, amid rising headwinds.
Zhongzhi runs a shadow banking empire, holding stakes in five asset management companies, four wealth management firms, and Zhongrong International Trust, a major trust company thatmanages more than 700 billion yuan ($95.69 billion) of assets.
The group has been selling stakes in some listed companiesit controlled over the past few years, and reducing the size ofit business, which came under increased pressure after China'scrackdown on shadow banking, and the property market downturn.
China's property market has lurched from one crisis toanother in the last couple of years with a string of leadingdevelopers including China Evergrande Group and SunacChina defaulting on their debt repayment obligations.
Country Garden, the country's largest privatedeveloper, has become the latest to flag a stifling liquiditycrunch at a time when property investment, home sales and new construction have contracted for more than a year.
Evergrande said late on Wednesday it would delay the votingdate and scheme meetings with creditors for its offshore debtrestructuring plan to Aug 23 and Aug 28, respectively, to givecreditors more time to consider the terms. The delay comes after the deal this week to sell a 27.5%stake in its unit China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, and swap part of the debt in the NEV unit owed to theparent company and current controlling shareholder into shares. Evergrande is the first defaulted developer to hold schememeetings and its years-long restructuring practice highlights the challenges facing its peers to put their operations to back on track. ($1 = 7.3155 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Jason Xue in Shanghai, Clare Jim in Hong Kong; additional reporting by Shanghai newsroom; Writing by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Jamie Freed and Shri Navaratnam)
China Evergrande's Shenzhen-listed unit probed by securities regulator for alleged breach of information disclosure rules
South China Morning Post
Thu, August 17, 2023
Hengda Real Estate Group is being investigated by China's securities regulator for allegedly violating information disclosure rules, in the latest blow for its embattled parent, China Evergrande Group.
The developer said in a filing to the Shanghai Stock Exchange on Wednesday evening that the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) had sent a letter notifying it of the probe earlier the same day.
"The company is actively assisting the regulator in conducting the probe," Hengda said in the filing.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
It comes just a few months after the home builder was reprimanded by the two major mainland bourses for missing a deadline for publishing its annual results.
Hengda is an indirectly owned unit of Guangzhou-based Evergrande Group, the world's most indebted developer saddled with total liabilities of 2.44 trillion yuan (US$335.3 billion).
"Evergrande and its onshore unit found themselves in hot water after a 2021 default which triggered a chain of bad reactions," said Zhou Ling, a fund manager with Shanghai Shiva Investment. "The investigation could further hurt investors and creditors' confidence in the developer."
Of the 73 mainland-listed firms that had been probed by the CSRC as of July 18, 54 of them were suspected of irregularities related to divulging information, according to the state-owned Economic Information Daily newspaper.
State-owned juggernauts like China Shipbuilding Industry and Beijing Capital Development were also targeted by the watchdog for breaching information disclosure rules.
In April, both the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges chastised Hengda Real Estate and two of its top executives - chairman Zhao Changlong and chief financial officer Qian Cheng - for breaching listing requirements.
They said the real estate company failed to publish its 2021 annual report by the April 30 deadline last year.
The Shenzhen-listed company said it would accept any disciplinary action imposed on it or the two bosses, though none was taken in the end.
Three of Hengda Real Estate's bonds are listed on both the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges.
On July 17, Evergrande Group, whose Hong Kong-listed shares have been suspended from trading since March last year, said it posted a net loss attributable to shareholders of 476 billion yuan for 2021, and of 105.9 billion yuan for 2022, according to exchange filings.
The group's total liabilities stood at 2.44 trillion yuan at the end of last year. The company's borrowings rose to 612.39 billion yuan from 607.38 billion yuan in 2021, according to the filings.
Evergrande was the main victim of Beijing's clampdown on the red hot property market after the government introduced the "three red lines" policy to reduce developers' leverage.
Since late 2021 the Guangzhou-based developer has been struggling to complete projects and repay suppliers and creditors.
Creditors will vote on Evergrande Group's restructuring proposal for US$20 billion of offshore debt at meetings scheduled for August 23 and 24, after the company got the go-ahead from a Hong Kong court on July 24.
During the hearing, a lawyer for Evergrande told the court that under its proposal the developer is likely to have an asset recovery rate of about 22.5 per cent, significantly higher than the 3.4 per cent estimated in November, should it be liquidated, citing an updated analysis by Deloitte, the consultancy commissioned by the developer.
Copyright (c) 2023. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Xi’s Visit to South Africa for BRICS Marks Rare Trip Abroad
Bloomberg News
Thu, August 17, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the BRICS summit in South Africa next week, a rare journey abroad for the leader who has preferred to stay home this year amid mounting political problems.
Bloomberg News
Thu, August 17, 2023
(Bloomberg) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the BRICS summit in South Africa next week, a rare journey abroad for the leader who has preferred to stay home this year amid mounting political problems.
Xi will make the trip to Johannesburg starting Monday at the invitation of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday.
Ramaphosa and Xi will also host a dialogue of leaders from around Africa — where China has pushed to expand its influence with infrastructure projects, a strategy the US says has entrapped some nations in debt.
Xi spent just two days outside China in the first six months of 2023, the fewest in any first half since he took power more than a decade ago, excluding the pandemic. That trip in March was a border hop to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has maintained China’s economic and diplomatic support during his invasion of Ukraine.
See: Xi’s Spent Two Days Outside China in 2023 as Problems Mount
The Chinese leader has instead made foreign dignitaries come to him, a tactic that has allowed him to focus on problems at home. China is dealing with worries about an economic recovery hampered by troubles in the property market, financial contagion due to a crisis at a giant shadow bank, and corruption probes in the health-care industry and military.
The trip to South Africa will give Xi a chance to meet leaders from the Global South, which China is courting to offset what it sees as the US’s undue global influence.
This week, Indian and Chinese army commanders agreed to work swiftly toward easing their border dispute, which included a deadly clash in 2020. While the talks didn’t amount to a breakthrough, they did open the door for progress in negotiations between Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
More: China’s Bid to Expand BRICS Said to Get India, Brazil Pushback
The trip will also give Xi a chance to make his case for BRICS expansion, something India and Brazil have opposed. China has been a keen proponent of the bloc comprising the Asian nation, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa that was officially formed in 2009-2010, largely to counter what it calls US “hegemony.” BRICS has even discussed a potential a common currency, though progress toward that goal isn’t expected.
The summit comes amid heightened China-US tensions and after South Africa fretted over Putin’s attendance. He will participate virtually to avoid South Africa having to carry out an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on him for alleged war crimes.
Ramaphosa and Xi will also host a dialogue of leaders from around Africa — where China has pushed to expand its influence with infrastructure projects, a strategy the US says has entrapped some nations in debt.
Xi spent just two days outside China in the first six months of 2023, the fewest in any first half since he took power more than a decade ago, excluding the pandemic. That trip in March was a border hop to visit Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has maintained China’s economic and diplomatic support during his invasion of Ukraine.
See: Xi’s Spent Two Days Outside China in 2023 as Problems Mount
The Chinese leader has instead made foreign dignitaries come to him, a tactic that has allowed him to focus on problems at home. China is dealing with worries about an economic recovery hampered by troubles in the property market, financial contagion due to a crisis at a giant shadow bank, and corruption probes in the health-care industry and military.
The trip to South Africa will give Xi a chance to meet leaders from the Global South, which China is courting to offset what it sees as the US’s undue global influence.
This week, Indian and Chinese army commanders agreed to work swiftly toward easing their border dispute, which included a deadly clash in 2020. While the talks didn’t amount to a breakthrough, they did open the door for progress in negotiations between Xi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
More: China’s Bid to Expand BRICS Said to Get India, Brazil Pushback
The trip will also give Xi a chance to make his case for BRICS expansion, something India and Brazil have opposed. China has been a keen proponent of the bloc comprising the Asian nation, Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa that was officially formed in 2009-2010, largely to counter what it calls US “hegemony.” BRICS has even discussed a potential a common currency, though progress toward that goal isn’t expected.
The summit comes amid heightened China-US tensions and after South Africa fretted over Putin’s attendance. He will participate virtually to avoid South Africa having to carry out an International Criminal Court arrest warrant on him for alleged war crimes.
BUILDING CIVILIZATION AS A MONUMENT
Xi Jinping is building a dream city. Devastating floods raise questions about his plan
Office buildings are under construction in the main urban district of the Xiong'an New Area, a brand new city born from the vision of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Xi Jinping is building a dream city. Devastating floods raise questions about his plan
Office buildings are under construction in the main urban district of the Xiong'an New Area, a brand new city born from the vision of Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Xing Guangli/Xinhua/Getty Images
By Simone McCarthy and Nectar Gan, CNN
Updated 1:12 AM EDT, Fri August 18, 2023
CNN —
On a gray day in late February 2017, Chinese leader Xi Jinping gathered with a handful of close advisers to survey crop fields and polluted wetlands some 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the capital Beijing.
Just over a month later, the future of those hinterlands would change drastically, as China announced Xi’s plan of “1,000-year significance” to transform the area into an eco-friendly, high-tech hub that would serve as the sub-capital of the country and a new model for urban planning.
At the time, the plan to launch the “Xiong’an New Area” raised questions – including over how the new city would cope with the environmental challenges known to plague the low-lying, marshy area, which is prone to flooding and drought.
Six years on, those questions have returned as Beijing and surrounding Hebei province, where Xiong’an is located, grapple with the fallout from record rains and flooding that killed dozens and displaced more than 1.5 million people in late July and early August.
Xiong’an’s main urban areas, where offices for dozens of state-owned enterprises are under construction, did not report major flooding.
But the surrounding devastation has underscored concerns about the decision to build a multibillion-dollar city in a flood-prone plain.
It’s also raised questions about the extent to which Xi’s dream city – and the political pressure to protect it – impacted how officials made decisions about managing the flood waters from a storm which was the region’s most severe flooding event since Xiong’an’s construction.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping inspects the construction sites of a railway station and an international trade center in Xiong'an on May 10.Xinhua/Shutterstock
‘Absolutely safe’
As heavy rains moved toward the region in late July, China’s top flood control officials met to hash out their response plan. Among their priorities was to keep the capital Beijing and Xiong’an “absolutely safe” – a demand repeated numerous times in the days to come.
The mountainous western outskirts of Beijing were hit first, as flash floods unleashed by the heaviest rains in 140 years washed away cars, bridges and roads.
Further downstream, officials had to make difficult decisions about how to manage the churning flood waters that gushed out of the mountains into the rivers snaking through cities, villages and farmlands on the plains of Hebei.
On July 30, the first of the decisions was made to discharge water into the “flood storage zones” – designated areas for the emergency overflow of flood waters, which were home to hundreds of thousands of people.
Zhuozhou, a city south of Beijing, took the worst hit, with streets, homes and neighborhoods inundated in meters of murky water. On social media, some residents claimed they did not receive advance warning, others said the evacuation notices arrived too late or did not explain how serious the situation was.
Flood waters also submerged villages and farmlands in Bazhou, another city in Hebei, where dozens of residents protested outside the city government’s offices to demand compensation, according to social media videos.
Some unfurled a red banner that read: “Give me back my home. The flood was caused by flood water discharge, not by heavy rainfall.”
CNN has reached out to the Zhuozhou and Bazhou governments for comment. Under Chinese law, residents of flood storage areas are entitled to compensation for 70% of housing damage.
Suggestions by officials that decisions about releasing flood waters into Zhuozhou and elsewhere in Hebei were made to minimize the impact on the capital Beijing, Xiong’an and the port city of Tianjin also caused a backlash.
In particular, Hebei’s party chief Ni Yuefeng angered some when he called the province a “moat” for Beijing. Censors later wiped his comments from the Chinese internet.
Rescuers use rubber boats to transfer Zhuozhou residents trapped by flood waters after days of downpours brought by Typhoon Doksuri on August 2.
Reducing pressure on Xiong’an
Experts say various factors likely determined how – and where – flood waters were diverted, including the speed and intensity of the waters, reservoir levels and existing guidelines and regulations on flood management. And amid a lack of transparency from officials, it remains unclear exactly why decisions were made.
But in the case of Zhuozhou, which lies 30 miles upstream along the Baigou river from Xiong’an, repeated high-level calls to protect Xi’s dream city – and concern for how its defenses would stand up against heavy flood waters – may have played a role, experts say.
Preparing for the storms on July 20, China’s Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying ordered officials to make flood diversion plans to “keep the flood waters outside (Xiong’an’s) periphery and reduce the flood control pressure on its newly built embankments.”
Hongzhang Xu, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Australian National University, said it was “possible that authorities released water in Zhuozhou to pre-emptively ease pressures on Xiong’an, considering its new flood control infrastructure.”
Conserving bigger cities by sacrificing smaller ones and rural areas has long been a major flood management strategy in China and elsewhere, he added.
Fan Xiao, a Chinese geologist, said by holding up some of the flood waters in Zhuozhou, authorities were able to reduce the flood peak and delay its arrival downstream. “It mitigates the impact on Xiong’an,” he said.
Li Na, a water resources official in Hebei, admitted as much, telling state media “if it had not been for the two areas (in Zhuozhou) controlling flood waters, the pressure on flood control in downstream Xiong’an and Tianjin would be very heavy.”
Tianjin, a major port city of nearly 14 million, is where several of the region’s rivers release into the sea.
Located inside Xiong'an, the Baiyangdian Lake is the largest freshwater wetland in northern China.
A man wades through receding floodwaters in a street in Zhuozhou on August 5
Flood control coordination
China is not alone in relying on imperfect systems of flood control that sometimes prove costly.
Many countries have systems that involve discharging pent up flood waters into otherwise dry land after major storms.
In the US, the Mississippi River has multiple floodways. This at times has led to the flooding of farmlands, including areas with residents. But, unlike in China, where the designation of flood storage zones may not have kept up with urbanization, such systems typically do not flood highly populated areas.
Some 847,000 people were evacuated from the seven flood storage zones Hebei province ultimately opened to handle the recent rains.
There are signs Chinese officials were aware of an issue. Before the floods, a group of water officials from the region in late July acknowledged “increasing conflict” between the use of flood storage zones and rapid development in the region, including the construction of Xiong’an.
But in the wake of China’s latest disaster, experts interviewed by CNN have called for a review of the emergency management systems and stronger coordination between officials in the region – including with Xiong’an – to ensure there aren’t such high costs the next time.
Experts suggested that a convoluted system of authority and jurisdictions when it comes to making decisions about managing flood emergencies in China impacts how well authorities deal with these crises.
“The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is quite large and most of the time, the management of flood events is not centralized by one authority in (the region) – it is divided into different departments and by different government agencies,” said Meili Feng of the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Nottingham Ningbo in China.
“In the future, it would definitely be good to start thinking about … integrated flood event management at the large river basin scale.”
Sheep grazing on grass on the idled construction site of a high-end residential real estate project in Hebei province in April 2017. The project was suspended after the central government announced its decision to build the Xiong'an New Area.
‘1,000-year significance’
Xiong’an is widely seen as Xi’s answer to the bustling coastal tech hub of Shenzhen, linked to former leader Deng Xiaoping, and the glittering financial center in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area spearheaded by another predecessor, Jiang Zemin.
But its relatively low elevation and sprawling wetlands had already raised concern about flood risks in 2017, when the central government announced the plan for the city.
At the time, experts evaluating the area’s environment found that if the population reached 5 million up to half of the developed parts of Xiong’an New Area would be at risk in the event of a 100-year-level flood.
“The New Area has an obvious location advantage, rich land resources, while there are some problems involving the shortage of water resources, serious pollution of surface water, high rate of flood disaster risk,” they wrote in an assessment published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
But prominent engineer and politician Xu Kuangdi, a former mayor of Shanghai who headed an expert group on developing Hebei, Tianjin and Beijing, downplayed flood concerns.
Xu pointed to other reasons for why the location was selected, including traditional Chinese philosophy and the wetlands’ national significance as a site of guerilla-style fighting against invading Japanese forces during World War II, according to an account of his comments at the time reported by state media.
Nonetheless, the new city is equipped with defenses largely superior to its neighbors. That includes infrastructure to withstand flooding of an intensity that may be seen only once every 200 years, as well as “sponge city” features like permeable urban surfaces that can absorb water, according to reports and plans available online.
Some office buildings in Xiong'an have finished construction, including the Urban Computing Center, which is open to visitors.
By Simone McCarthy and Nectar Gan, CNN
Updated 1:12 AM EDT, Fri August 18, 2023
CNN —
On a gray day in late February 2017, Chinese leader Xi Jinping gathered with a handful of close advisers to survey crop fields and polluted wetlands some 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the capital Beijing.
Just over a month later, the future of those hinterlands would change drastically, as China announced Xi’s plan of “1,000-year significance” to transform the area into an eco-friendly, high-tech hub that would serve as the sub-capital of the country and a new model for urban planning.
At the time, the plan to launch the “Xiong’an New Area” raised questions – including over how the new city would cope with the environmental challenges known to plague the low-lying, marshy area, which is prone to flooding and drought.
Six years on, those questions have returned as Beijing and surrounding Hebei province, where Xiong’an is located, grapple with the fallout from record rains and flooding that killed dozens and displaced more than 1.5 million people in late July and early August.
Xiong’an’s main urban areas, where offices for dozens of state-owned enterprises are under construction, did not report major flooding.
But the surrounding devastation has underscored concerns about the decision to build a multibillion-dollar city in a flood-prone plain.
It’s also raised questions about the extent to which Xi’s dream city – and the political pressure to protect it – impacted how officials made decisions about managing the flood waters from a storm which was the region’s most severe flooding event since Xiong’an’s construction.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping inspects the construction sites of a railway station and an international trade center in Xiong'an on May 10.Xinhua/Shutterstock
‘Absolutely safe’
As heavy rains moved toward the region in late July, China’s top flood control officials met to hash out their response plan. Among their priorities was to keep the capital Beijing and Xiong’an “absolutely safe” – a demand repeated numerous times in the days to come.
The mountainous western outskirts of Beijing were hit first, as flash floods unleashed by the heaviest rains in 140 years washed away cars, bridges and roads.
Further downstream, officials had to make difficult decisions about how to manage the churning flood waters that gushed out of the mountains into the rivers snaking through cities, villages and farmlands on the plains of Hebei.
On July 30, the first of the decisions was made to discharge water into the “flood storage zones” – designated areas for the emergency overflow of flood waters, which were home to hundreds of thousands of people.
Zhuozhou, a city south of Beijing, took the worst hit, with streets, homes and neighborhoods inundated in meters of murky water. On social media, some residents claimed they did not receive advance warning, others said the evacuation notices arrived too late or did not explain how serious the situation was.
Flood waters also submerged villages and farmlands in Bazhou, another city in Hebei, where dozens of residents protested outside the city government’s offices to demand compensation, according to social media videos.
Some unfurled a red banner that read: “Give me back my home. The flood was caused by flood water discharge, not by heavy rainfall.”
CNN has reached out to the Zhuozhou and Bazhou governments for comment. Under Chinese law, residents of flood storage areas are entitled to compensation for 70% of housing damage.
Suggestions by officials that decisions about releasing flood waters into Zhuozhou and elsewhere in Hebei were made to minimize the impact on the capital Beijing, Xiong’an and the port city of Tianjin also caused a backlash.
In particular, Hebei’s party chief Ni Yuefeng angered some when he called the province a “moat” for Beijing. Censors later wiped his comments from the Chinese internet.
Rescuers use rubber boats to transfer Zhuozhou residents trapped by flood waters after days of downpours brought by Typhoon Doksuri on August 2.
Zhai Jujia/China News Service/VCG/Getty Images
Reducing pressure on Xiong’an
Experts say various factors likely determined how – and where – flood waters were diverted, including the speed and intensity of the waters, reservoir levels and existing guidelines and regulations on flood management. And amid a lack of transparency from officials, it remains unclear exactly why decisions were made.
But in the case of Zhuozhou, which lies 30 miles upstream along the Baigou river from Xiong’an, repeated high-level calls to protect Xi’s dream city – and concern for how its defenses would stand up against heavy flood waters – may have played a role, experts say.
Preparing for the storms on July 20, China’s Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying ordered officials to make flood diversion plans to “keep the flood waters outside (Xiong’an’s) periphery and reduce the flood control pressure on its newly built embankments.”
Hongzhang Xu, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Australian National University, said it was “possible that authorities released water in Zhuozhou to pre-emptively ease pressures on Xiong’an, considering its new flood control infrastructure.”
Conserving bigger cities by sacrificing smaller ones and rural areas has long been a major flood management strategy in China and elsewhere, he added.
Fan Xiao, a Chinese geologist, said by holding up some of the flood waters in Zhuozhou, authorities were able to reduce the flood peak and delay its arrival downstream. “It mitigates the impact on Xiong’an,” he said.
Li Na, a water resources official in Hebei, admitted as much, telling state media “if it had not been for the two areas (in Zhuozhou) controlling flood waters, the pressure on flood control in downstream Xiong’an and Tianjin would be very heavy.”
Tianjin, a major port city of nearly 14 million, is where several of the region’s rivers release into the sea.
Located inside Xiong'an, the Baiyangdian Lake is the largest freshwater wetland in northern China.
Zhu Xudong/Xinhua/Getty Images/File
Closer to Xiong’an’s center, it’s not clear whether the development of the city changed decisions about the diversion of flood waters into Baiyangdian Lake. As northern China’s largest freshwater body, the lake serves a key role in the web of rivers and reservoirs that manage water – and flooding – in the region.
In the recent rains, at least three upstream reservoirs released flood waters into rivers flowing into Baiyingdian from the west and the south, according to state media.
But to the north, a canal that connects Baiyangdian with the Baigou River – which flows from Zhuozhou south toward Xiong’an – was shut before the flood peak arrived. Instead, the torrents were guided east through a much broader floodway to the Dongdian flood storage zone near Bazhou, where villages were inundated.
Authorities did not say why the decision was made or specifically whether protecting Xiong’an was a factor.
The floodway leading to Dongdian can contain ten times the water of the canal linking the Baigou River to Baiyangdian, and serves as the main flood relief channel for the Baigou River.
Authorities are meant to make decisions about diverting flood waters into Baiyangdian from the Baigou River based on the lake’s own water levels, according to government guidelines. Open-source data show that Baiyangdian’s water level was already high in late July and rose further in August.
Xu, the researcher at the Australian National University, said historically, waters from the Baigou river would likely have been diverted to both the Baiyangdian and Dongdian flood storage zones.
In August 1996, when the region was hit by the largest flood in three decades, Baiyangdian Lake took in 30% of the flood waters from the Baigou River, according to Chinese researchers.
CNN has reached out to China’s Ministry of Water Resources and the Hebei Provincial Department of Water Resources for comment.
Closer to Xiong’an’s center, it’s not clear whether the development of the city changed decisions about the diversion of flood waters into Baiyangdian Lake. As northern China’s largest freshwater body, the lake serves a key role in the web of rivers and reservoirs that manage water – and flooding – in the region.
In the recent rains, at least three upstream reservoirs released flood waters into rivers flowing into Baiyingdian from the west and the south, according to state media.
But to the north, a canal that connects Baiyangdian with the Baigou River – which flows from Zhuozhou south toward Xiong’an – was shut before the flood peak arrived. Instead, the torrents were guided east through a much broader floodway to the Dongdian flood storage zone near Bazhou, where villages were inundated.
Authorities did not say why the decision was made or specifically whether protecting Xiong’an was a factor.
The floodway leading to Dongdian can contain ten times the water of the canal linking the Baigou River to Baiyangdian, and serves as the main flood relief channel for the Baigou River.
Authorities are meant to make decisions about diverting flood waters into Baiyangdian from the Baigou River based on the lake’s own water levels, according to government guidelines. Open-source data show that Baiyangdian’s water level was already high in late July and rose further in August.
Xu, the researcher at the Australian National University, said historically, waters from the Baigou river would likely have been diverted to both the Baiyangdian and Dongdian flood storage zones.
In August 1996, when the region was hit by the largest flood in three decades, Baiyangdian Lake took in 30% of the flood waters from the Baigou River, according to Chinese researchers.
CNN has reached out to China’s Ministry of Water Resources and the Hebei Provincial Department of Water Resources for comment.
A man wades through receding floodwaters in a street in Zhuozhou on August 5
.Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Flood control coordination
China is not alone in relying on imperfect systems of flood control that sometimes prove costly.
Many countries have systems that involve discharging pent up flood waters into otherwise dry land after major storms.
In the US, the Mississippi River has multiple floodways. This at times has led to the flooding of farmlands, including areas with residents. But, unlike in China, where the designation of flood storage zones may not have kept up with urbanization, such systems typically do not flood highly populated areas.
Some 847,000 people were evacuated from the seven flood storage zones Hebei province ultimately opened to handle the recent rains.
There are signs Chinese officials were aware of an issue. Before the floods, a group of water officials from the region in late July acknowledged “increasing conflict” between the use of flood storage zones and rapid development in the region, including the construction of Xiong’an.
But in the wake of China’s latest disaster, experts interviewed by CNN have called for a review of the emergency management systems and stronger coordination between officials in the region – including with Xiong’an – to ensure there aren’t such high costs the next time.
Experts suggested that a convoluted system of authority and jurisdictions when it comes to making decisions about managing flood emergencies in China impacts how well authorities deal with these crises.
“The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region is quite large and most of the time, the management of flood events is not centralized by one authority in (the region) – it is divided into different departments and by different government agencies,” said Meili Feng of the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Nottingham Ningbo in China.
“In the future, it would definitely be good to start thinking about … integrated flood event management at the large river basin scale.”
Sheep grazing on grass on the idled construction site of a high-end residential real estate project in Hebei province in April 2017. The project was suspended after the central government announced its decision to build the Xiong'an New Area.
Simon Song/South China Morning/Getty Images
‘1,000-year significance’
Xiong’an is widely seen as Xi’s answer to the bustling coastal tech hub of Shenzhen, linked to former leader Deng Xiaoping, and the glittering financial center in Shanghai’s Pudong New Area spearheaded by another predecessor, Jiang Zemin.
But its relatively low elevation and sprawling wetlands had already raised concern about flood risks in 2017, when the central government announced the plan for the city.
At the time, experts evaluating the area’s environment found that if the population reached 5 million up to half of the developed parts of Xiong’an New Area would be at risk in the event of a 100-year-level flood.
“The New Area has an obvious location advantage, rich land resources, while there are some problems involving the shortage of water resources, serious pollution of surface water, high rate of flood disaster risk,” they wrote in an assessment published by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
But prominent engineer and politician Xu Kuangdi, a former mayor of Shanghai who headed an expert group on developing Hebei, Tianjin and Beijing, downplayed flood concerns.
Xu pointed to other reasons for why the location was selected, including traditional Chinese philosophy and the wetlands’ national significance as a site of guerilla-style fighting against invading Japanese forces during World War II, according to an account of his comments at the time reported by state media.
Nonetheless, the new city is equipped with defenses largely superior to its neighbors. That includes infrastructure to withstand flooding of an intensity that may be seen only once every 200 years, as well as “sponge city” features like permeable urban surfaces that can absorb water, according to reports and plans available online.
Some office buildings in Xiong'an have finished construction, including the Urban Computing Center, which is open to visitors.
Yi Haifei/China News Service/VCG/Getty Images
The construction of the city, which aims to be greener than Beijing and support restoration of the Baiyangdian wetlands, has echoes of other ambitious Chinese projects – like the Three Gorges Dam – that have used large-scale engineering to get around natural challenges.
When it comes to Xiong’an, there’s thinking in China “that if we can build a city here we can show that we can have both urbanization and an improved natural environment at the same time,” said Andrew Stokols, an MIT doctoral candidate who is researching urban planning in the area.
But the flood risks in Xiong’an – and perhaps by extension the surrounding region – are likely only to grow as the area develops to meet Xi’s vision of becoming a “modern city” by 2035.
Experts say that a growing population and increasing economic development can exacerbate that risk – as will climate change, which makes extreme weather more frequent, intense and unpredictable.
This time, however, even as villages to the north and east of Xiong’an remained waterlogged, with some residents facing at least weeks before they can return home, Xiong’an New Area’s government last week posted an article touting the return to business as usual.
There, colorful photos featured families walking through parks and “raining” sweat at the gym – as well as construction workers back on the job building out the new city.
“Work and life of the people are gradually recovering,” the article said.
CNN’s Berry Wang contributed reporting.
The construction of the city, which aims to be greener than Beijing and support restoration of the Baiyangdian wetlands, has echoes of other ambitious Chinese projects – like the Three Gorges Dam – that have used large-scale engineering to get around natural challenges.
When it comes to Xiong’an, there’s thinking in China “that if we can build a city here we can show that we can have both urbanization and an improved natural environment at the same time,” said Andrew Stokols, an MIT doctoral candidate who is researching urban planning in the area.
But the flood risks in Xiong’an – and perhaps by extension the surrounding region – are likely only to grow as the area develops to meet Xi’s vision of becoming a “modern city” by 2035.
Experts say that a growing population and increasing economic development can exacerbate that risk – as will climate change, which makes extreme weather more frequent, intense and unpredictable.
This time, however, even as villages to the north and east of Xiong’an remained waterlogged, with some residents facing at least weeks before they can return home, Xiong’an New Area’s government last week posted an article touting the return to business as usual.
There, colorful photos featured families walking through parks and “raining” sweat at the gym – as well as construction workers back on the job building out the new city.
“Work and life of the people are gradually recovering,” the article said.
CNN’s Berry Wang contributed reporting.
Associated Press
Thu, August 17, 2023
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has called for measures to mitigate the effects of this year’s disastrous flooding which has left scores dead and inflicted massive damage on crops, homes and infrastructure, including in and around Beijing.
At least 90 rivers have risen above warning levels and 24 have already overflowed their banks, according to state media, threatening a vast area in northeastern China with flooding, including the Songliao Basin north of the capital, which encompasses more than 1.2 million square kilometers (482,200 square miles) with a population of almost 100 million.
“As China is still in the main flood season, rainstorms, floods, typhoons and other disasters still occur frequently in many places across the country,” the Xinhua News Agency said, summarizing conclusions of Thursday's meeting of the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee presided over by Xi.
Participants “urged relevant localities and departments to always prioritize the safety of people’s lives and property, and keep doing a good job in flood prevention and disaster relief,” Xinhua said.
The reinforcement of dams and the efficient use of disaster relief funds to “repair damaged infrastructure such as transport, communications and electricity, and restore farmland and agricultural facilities” is crucial, it said.
Schools, hospitals and nursing homes must be swiftly restored, along with damaged housing “to ensure the affected residents can return home or move to new homes before the winter.”
The flooding this year has also affected large parts of the central and eastern parts of the country, both in the semi-tropical south and the northern plains.
Much of China is having a particularly damp summer, with 142 people killed by flooding i n July and dozens more this month.
Meteorologists warned that thunderstorms, gales and hail will affect parts of Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Hebei, Beijing, and Tianjin in the north, along with Henan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian to the center and southeast.
Residents have been urged to reduce outdoor activities and seek shelter.
The severe weather comes as economic growth slid to 0.8% in the three months ending in June, down from 2.2% in January-March. That is equivalent to a 3.2% annual rate, which would be among China’s weakest in decades.
A survey in June found unemployment among urban workers aged 16 to 24 spiked to a record 21.3%. The statistics bureau said this week it would withhold updates while it refined its measurement.
In a speech recently published by Qiushi, the party’s top theoretical journal, Xi called for patience in a as the party tries to reverse the deepening economic slump.
That came hours after data Tuesday showed consumer and factory activity weakened further in July despite official promises to support struggling entrepreneurs. The government skipped giving an update on a politically sensitive spike in unemployment among young people.
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Study finds 'rare but real risk' of tsunami threat to parts of Alaska's largest city
Thu, August 17, 2023
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Researchers have concluded there is a “rare but real risk” that an earthquake-produced tsunami could inundate parts of coastal Anchorage under certain conditions, a newspaper reported, a shift from the prior understanding of the risk posed to Alaska's largest city.
Previously, researchers said the shallow waters of Upper Cook Inlet would work to diminish the power of a tsunami wave. But that was not based on scientific modeling, said Elena Suleimani, an author of the report and a tsunami modeler with the Alaska Earthquake Center, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
“Up until now, our understanding of the risk or level of hazard exposure was just anecdotal,” Suleimani said.
The findings from the study by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys — released Wednesday — stem from a first-time effort to model potential tsunami impacts on Anchorage based on various earthquake scenarios, according to the newspaper.
“A rare combination of earthquake magnitude, location, and timing must be satisfied for tsunami wave energy to reach upper Cook Inlet coincident with a natural high tide,” the study states.
Part of the reasoning for the belief that Anchorage was not susceptible was that during a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in 1964, there was no observation of a tsunami in the city, the researchers said. But they found through modeling that the earthquake did produce a 10-foot (3-meter) tsunami — one that went unnoticed because it arrived at 2 a.m. during a minus-16-foot (minus-4.9-meter) low tide that resulted in the water level staying below normal high tide levels.
The modeling of future tsunami potential for Anchorage evaluates hypothetical situations involving a quake above 8.5 in magnitude.
A potential worst-case scenario would largely affect park land and infrastructure, such as the port, but also could affect some waterfront homes, said Amanda Loach, director of Anchorage's emergency management office. The dynamics of Upper Cook Inlet are such that a destructive wave would probably be hours away, so people could be warned in advance, she said.
The city and state plan to work on a plan to address the risk, Loach said. Residents shouldn’t be alarmed by the report but should think about preparedness, she said.
The Associated Press
Thu, August 17, 2023
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Researchers have concluded there is a “rare but real risk” that an earthquake-produced tsunami could inundate parts of coastal Anchorage under certain conditions, a newspaper reported, a shift from the prior understanding of the risk posed to Alaska's largest city.
Previously, researchers said the shallow waters of Upper Cook Inlet would work to diminish the power of a tsunami wave. But that was not based on scientific modeling, said Elena Suleimani, an author of the report and a tsunami modeler with the Alaska Earthquake Center, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
“Up until now, our understanding of the risk or level of hazard exposure was just anecdotal,” Suleimani said.
The findings from the study by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys — released Wednesday — stem from a first-time effort to model potential tsunami impacts on Anchorage based on various earthquake scenarios, according to the newspaper.
“A rare combination of earthquake magnitude, location, and timing must be satisfied for tsunami wave energy to reach upper Cook Inlet coincident with a natural high tide,” the study states.
Part of the reasoning for the belief that Anchorage was not susceptible was that during a magnitude 9.2 earthquake in 1964, there was no observation of a tsunami in the city, the researchers said. But they found through modeling that the earthquake did produce a 10-foot (3-meter) tsunami — one that went unnoticed because it arrived at 2 a.m. during a minus-16-foot (minus-4.9-meter) low tide that resulted in the water level staying below normal high tide levels.
The modeling of future tsunami potential for Anchorage evaluates hypothetical situations involving a quake above 8.5 in magnitude.
A potential worst-case scenario would largely affect park land and infrastructure, such as the port, but also could affect some waterfront homes, said Amanda Loach, director of Anchorage's emergency management office. The dynamics of Upper Cook Inlet are such that a destructive wave would probably be hours away, so people could be warned in advance, she said.
The city and state plan to work on a plan to address the risk, Loach said. Residents shouldn’t be alarmed by the report but should think about preparedness, she said.
The Associated Press
Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Updated Thu, August 17,2023
Devastation from wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii. Aug. 9.
(Mason Jarvi/Handout via Reuters)
Between Maui’s deadly wildfires, flash floods in Vermont, overwhelming wildfire smoke and more record-breaking heat waves, this summer has again provided more evidence of how climate change can upend daily life in the U.S.
“We’re seeing a confluence of factors come together this summer. Human-caused climate change is a key factor, and adding extra ‘fuel to the fire,’ as it were, is the transition from a sustained La Nina state of the climate to an El Nino state, which is spiking global temperatures,” Michael Mann, a professor of environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania, told Yahoo News in an email.
These are the biggest climate-change-related natural disasters from this summer.
Wildfires on Maui
A man walks through wildfire wreckage in Lahaina, Aug. 11.
Between Maui’s deadly wildfires, flash floods in Vermont, overwhelming wildfire smoke and more record-breaking heat waves, this summer has again provided more evidence of how climate change can upend daily life in the U.S.
“We’re seeing a confluence of factors come together this summer. Human-caused climate change is a key factor, and adding extra ‘fuel to the fire,’ as it were, is the transition from a sustained La Nina state of the climate to an El Nino state, which is spiking global temperatures,” Michael Mann, a professor of environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania, told Yahoo News in an email.
These are the biggest climate-change-related natural disasters from this summer.
Wildfires on Maui
A man walks through wildfire wreckage in Lahaina, Aug. 11.
(Rick Bowmer/AP)
The death toll from last week’s wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui has surpassed 100 and is expected to continue to climb in the days ahead. According to the National Weather Service, the fires on Maui were fueled in part by dry vegetation, which scientists say is becoming more common as warmer temperatures cause more water evaporation from plants and soil.
“Climate change doesn’t usually start the fires; but it intensifies them, increasing the area they burn and making them much more dangerous,” Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, said in a tweet.
On Maui, strong winds from Hurricane Dora made dry conditions much more dangerous.
“When those strong winds hit, if you already have the heat and the dryness and if you have a spark, a wildfire becomes more likely to grow rapidly,” Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University, told CNN.
Wildfire smoke
Haze from wildfires in Canada engulfs Manhattan, June 7.
The death toll from last week’s wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui has surpassed 100 and is expected to continue to climb in the days ahead. According to the National Weather Service, the fires on Maui were fueled in part by dry vegetation, which scientists say is becoming more common as warmer temperatures cause more water evaporation from plants and soil.
“Climate change doesn’t usually start the fires; but it intensifies them, increasing the area they burn and making them much more dangerous,” Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, said in a tweet.
On Maui, strong winds from Hurricane Dora made dry conditions much more dangerous.
“When those strong winds hit, if you already have the heat and the dryness and if you have a spark, a wildfire becomes more likely to grow rapidly,” Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University, told CNN.
Wildfire smoke
Haze from wildfires in Canada engulfs Manhattan, June 7.
(David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
Due to an atypical drought and above-average temperatures in Canada this spring, that country’s wildfire season started early this year, resulting in massive waves of smoke spreading across the northern portions of the U.S. this summer. Over 120 million Americans from the Midwest to the East Coast were under air quality alerts.
In the last five years, the U.S. and Canada both saw more than three times as much forest land burn on average as they did during a five-year span in the 1980s. Studies have linked that change to hotter temperatures and worsening droughts, an effect of climate change.
Longer, more expansive heat waves
A man braves the heat in downtown Phoenix, July 14.
The Florida coast near Key Largo, where the world record for ocean heat was recently broken.
Torrential downpours
Otter Creek overflows its banks in Middlebury, Vt., July 16. (Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe via Getty Images)
In mid-July, extreme rainfall in upstate New York and Vermont led to flash flooding that blocked roads, overflowed rivers and caused widespread damage. Parts of Vermont saw two months’ worth of rain in a few hours.
Since warmer air holds more moisture, climate change is making these so-called 1,000-year storms more frequent.
A study in the journal Climactic Change in May warned that heavy rainfall events could increase in the Northeast by an additional 52% by 2099 because of climate change.
“While it’s difficult to decisively say anything about one event, this is completely consistent with increasing precipitation in the Northeast and part of that is being driven by climate change,” said Jonathan Winter, associate professor of geography at Dartmouth College and senior author of the study, told USA Today of the July flooding.
Scientists say these kinds of events are becoming more common because of climate change. Between 1958 and 2016, the amount of rain falling in the heaviest rain storms increased everywhere in the U.S., but most of all in the Northeast, where it rose 71%, according to the 2018 National Climate Assessment.
“The rain is falling heavier,” Lauren Casey, a meteorologist with the research nonprofit Climate Central, told Philadelphia-area radio outlet WHYY about the Pennsylvania flood. “It’s falling faster, it’s falling harder, and it’s accumulating more quickly.”
Due to an atypical drought and above-average temperatures in Canada this spring, that country’s wildfire season started early this year, resulting in massive waves of smoke spreading across the northern portions of the U.S. this summer. Over 120 million Americans from the Midwest to the East Coast were under air quality alerts.
In the last five years, the U.S. and Canada both saw more than three times as much forest land burn on average as they did during a five-year span in the 1980s. Studies have linked that change to hotter temperatures and worsening droughts, an effect of climate change.
Longer, more expansive heat waves
A man braves the heat in downtown Phoenix, July 14.
(Matt York/AP)
Throughout the summer, tens of millions of Americans across the South and Southwest have been subject to extreme heat alerts from the National Weather Service, meaning the heat index — a measure of heat and humidity — rises above 103 degrees Fahrenheit. (On Thursday, 52 million Americans were under heat alerts.)
Cities such as Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., and Houston and Austin, Texas, sweltered under a persistent heat dome for weeks. In Arizona’s Maricopa County, where Phoenix experienced a record-smashing 31 consecutive days of 110 degrees Fahrenheit that ended July 31, there have been 89 confirmed heat deaths with nearly 350 deaths more still under investigation.
The rise in global average temperatures results in more heat waves and longer ones. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. heat waves are now three times as common as in the 1960s.
An analysis by the research organization Climate Central, found climate change made the recent Texas heat dome’s severity at least five times more likely than it otherwise would have been.
A Gulf of Mexico hot tub
Throughout the summer, tens of millions of Americans across the South and Southwest have been subject to extreme heat alerts from the National Weather Service, meaning the heat index — a measure of heat and humidity — rises above 103 degrees Fahrenheit. (On Thursday, 52 million Americans were under heat alerts.)
Cities such as Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz., and Houston and Austin, Texas, sweltered under a persistent heat dome for weeks. In Arizona’s Maricopa County, where Phoenix experienced a record-smashing 31 consecutive days of 110 degrees Fahrenheit that ended July 31, there have been 89 confirmed heat deaths with nearly 350 deaths more still under investigation.
The rise in global average temperatures results in more heat waves and longer ones. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. heat waves are now three times as common as in the 1960s.
An analysis by the research organization Climate Central, found climate change made the recent Texas heat dome’s severity at least five times more likely than it otherwise would have been.
A Gulf of Mexico hot tub
The Florida coast near Key Largo, where the world record for ocean heat was recently broken.
(Daniel Kozin/AP)
Earlier this month, a buoy in Manatee Bay just off the coast southwestern Florida registered an ocean temperature of 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit, one of three readings in Florida that surpassed the previous world record for warmest ocean temperature ever recorded.
Studies show that the ocean, which covers roughly 70% of the Earth’s surface, has absorbed more than 90% of the heat increase caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
The ocean is “the most accurate thermometer we have for the actual effect of climate change, because it’s where most of the heat ends up,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, told the New York Times.
Earlier this month, a buoy in Manatee Bay just off the coast southwestern Florida registered an ocean temperature of 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit, one of three readings in Florida that surpassed the previous world record for warmest ocean temperature ever recorded.
Studies show that the ocean, which covers roughly 70% of the Earth’s surface, has absorbed more than 90% of the heat increase caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
The ocean is “the most accurate thermometer we have for the actual effect of climate change, because it’s where most of the heat ends up,” Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, told the New York Times.
Torrential downpours
Otter Creek overflows its banks in Middlebury, Vt., July 16. (Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe via Getty Images)
In mid-July, extreme rainfall in upstate New York and Vermont led to flash flooding that blocked roads, overflowed rivers and caused widespread damage. Parts of Vermont saw two months’ worth of rain in a few hours.
Since warmer air holds more moisture, climate change is making these so-called 1,000-year storms more frequent.
A study in the journal Climactic Change in May warned that heavy rainfall events could increase in the Northeast by an additional 52% by 2099 because of climate change.
“While it’s difficult to decisively say anything about one event, this is completely consistent with increasing precipitation in the Northeast and part of that is being driven by climate change,” said Jonathan Winter, associate professor of geography at Dartmouth College and senior author of the study, told USA Today of the July flooding.
Scientists say these kinds of events are becoming more common because of climate change. Between 1958 and 2016, the amount of rain falling in the heaviest rain storms increased everywhere in the U.S., but most of all in the Northeast, where it rose 71%, according to the 2018 National Climate Assessment.
“The rain is falling heavier,” Lauren Casey, a meteorologist with the research nonprofit Climate Central, told Philadelphia-area radio outlet WHYY about the Pennsylvania flood. “It’s falling faster, it’s falling harder, and it’s accumulating more quickly.”
UK firms top world in corporate work on science-based net zero targets – report
Rebecca Speare-Cole, PA sustainability reporter
Thu, 17 August 2023
The UK is the world leader in terms of the number of companies that have set or committed to science-based net zero targets, a new report shows.
The Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a global body that defines, promotes and validates the best practice in setting climate targets in line with the Paris Agreement goals of limiting warming to 1.5C, released its annual monitoring report for 2022 on Thursday.
The report shows the UK tops the G20 in terms of the number of companies to have set or committed to science-based targets as of December 2022 – with 722 firms, including 69% of the FTSE Index.
This was followed by the US with 585 companies and Japan with 398 companies.
The UK came second in terms of growth, with 181 companies to set targets in 2022, after Japan which took the lead with 201.
It comes as the report shows a significant acceleration in corporate climate action globally.
Last year saw an 87% increase in companies setting science-based targets.
More companies were setting them in 2022 than the entire prior seven-year period, the SBTi said.
Meanwhile, more than a third (34%) of the global economy by market capitalisation now have science-based targets or have committed to set them, the report says.
As of July 2022, the SBTi has accepted only new target submissions which are aligned with a 1.5C pathway, meaning the level of ambition in setting SBTi targets has now increased.
Luiz Amaral, the SBTi’s chief executive, said: “This annual update from the SBTi shows the enormous demand from the business world for credible, ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“As catastrophic floods in Pakistan to deadly heatwaves in Europe in 2022 demonstrated, the human and economic costs of climate change are already being felt around the world. Companies must act now.”
The report showed that within the G20 countries there was also strong growth in the numbers of companies with validated targets based in South Korea, Brazil, China and South Africa.
Meanwhile, five countries – Albania, Malta, Myanmar, Romania and Tunisia – had companies getting science-based targets validated for the first time in 2022.
Companies from five further countries also committed to setting science-based targets for the first time – Argentina, Liechtenstein, Morocco, Sierra Leone, and Trinidad and Tobago.
By the end of the year, there were companies with validated science-based targets in 61 countries, with companies in a further 16 countries having committed to setting targets.
Asia showed strong growth overall with a 127% increase in companies setting science-based targets in 2022.
China experienced the steepest growth curve with a 194% increase in the number of companies validated.
In terms of sectors, the materials industry experienced the greatest growth with a 160% increase in the number of companies setting targets.
Meanwhile, the top three sectors for setting targets by the end of 2022 were services, manufacturing and infrastructure, representing more than 60% of companies setting targets.
The three slowest growth sectors were power generation, biotech, healthcare and pharma, and hospitality, with the SBTi identifying them as needing urgent improvement.
Rebecca Speare-Cole, PA sustainability reporter
Thu, 17 August 2023
The UK is the world leader in terms of the number of companies that have set or committed to science-based net zero targets, a new report shows.
The Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), a global body that defines, promotes and validates the best practice in setting climate targets in line with the Paris Agreement goals of limiting warming to 1.5C, released its annual monitoring report for 2022 on Thursday.
The report shows the UK tops the G20 in terms of the number of companies to have set or committed to science-based targets as of December 2022 – with 722 firms, including 69% of the FTSE Index.
This was followed by the US with 585 companies and Japan with 398 companies.
The UK came second in terms of growth, with 181 companies to set targets in 2022, after Japan which took the lead with 201.
It comes as the report shows a significant acceleration in corporate climate action globally.
Last year saw an 87% increase in companies setting science-based targets.
More companies were setting them in 2022 than the entire prior seven-year period, the SBTi said.
Meanwhile, more than a third (34%) of the global economy by market capitalisation now have science-based targets or have committed to set them, the report says.
As of July 2022, the SBTi has accepted only new target submissions which are aligned with a 1.5C pathway, meaning the level of ambition in setting SBTi targets has now increased.
Luiz Amaral, the SBTi’s chief executive, said: “This annual update from the SBTi shows the enormous demand from the business world for credible, ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“As catastrophic floods in Pakistan to deadly heatwaves in Europe in 2022 demonstrated, the human and economic costs of climate change are already being felt around the world. Companies must act now.”
The report showed that within the G20 countries there was also strong growth in the numbers of companies with validated targets based in South Korea, Brazil, China and South Africa.
Meanwhile, five countries – Albania, Malta, Myanmar, Romania and Tunisia – had companies getting science-based targets validated for the first time in 2022.
Companies from five further countries also committed to setting science-based targets for the first time – Argentina, Liechtenstein, Morocco, Sierra Leone, and Trinidad and Tobago.
By the end of the year, there were companies with validated science-based targets in 61 countries, with companies in a further 16 countries having committed to setting targets.
Asia showed strong growth overall with a 127% increase in companies setting science-based targets in 2022.
China experienced the steepest growth curve with a 194% increase in the number of companies validated.
In terms of sectors, the materials industry experienced the greatest growth with a 160% increase in the number of companies setting targets.
Meanwhile, the top three sectors for setting targets by the end of 2022 were services, manufacturing and infrastructure, representing more than 60% of companies setting targets.
The three slowest growth sectors were power generation, biotech, healthcare and pharma, and hospitality, with the SBTi identifying them as needing urgent improvement.
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