China

As China works to tackle climate and environmental challenges, NRDC continues to help accelerate solutions that benefit people, communities, and the planet.

Buildings in the central business district of Beijing, China, lit up at sunset

Buildings in the central business district of Beijing

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China has made a serious commitment to turning the country into a healthier place to live and currently leads the world in renewable energy installation and electric vehicle penetration. But the planet’s second-most populous country still faces impacts from climate change and other environmental challenges. The more the country pushes for sustainable options, the more its residents—and the entire planet—will benefit.

NRDC has been supporting China’s sustainable development for more than 30 years. Since the mid-1990s, we have been collaborating with a wide range of partners to facilitate exchanges and learning, develop innovative policy tools, and introduce and demonstrate best practices into the country in the sectors of clean power, industry decarbonization, pollution controls, environmental governance, green finance, biodiversity, and climate resilience.

Progress in China

  • As the first international nonprofit to launch a clean energy program in China, NRDC helped develop many of the nation’s firsts; among them, energy codes for residential and commercial buildings, a research and development program for clean vehicles, and a utility-based initiative for energy conservation.
  • Our pilot efficiency programs in Jiangsu province were so successful that they inspired the central government to issue a national requirement that all grid companies invest in similar measures.
  • China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016–2020) established, for the first time, a mandatory target for decreasing the share of coal in total energy consumption. NRDC is also promoting ways to add more wind and solar to the grid and bring low-carbon measures to more of the country’s industries.

  • NRDC has doggedly pursued wildlife conservation and bans on the ivory trade globally. In China, we supported studies of the legal barriers to an ivory ban. In a major victory for the conservation of elephants, the Chinese government shut down its legal commercial ivory trade on December 31, 2017.

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Latest Expert Blogs

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry delivers a speech at the High-Level Segment of the 28th meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (MOP28) in Kigali, Rwanda, on October 14, 2016.Envoys from nearly 200 nations are in the capital to work on an agreement to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Halting the use of HFCs is crucial to meeting the goals to curb the rise of global temperatures agreed in a historic accord signed in Paris the previous year.

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China’s Climate Progress Ahead of COP27

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China’s efforts to shift to a new energy system and meet its 2030 climate goals can boost both energy security and climate security.
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Court Finds Port of L.A. in Violation of California Environmental Law

Expert BlogLos Angeles, ChinaDavid Pettit
A judge has decided that the port put the profits of its tenant, China Shipping, above of the health of harbor workers and local residents.

LATEST DATA, REPORTS & RESOURCES

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The NRDC logo on dark blue background

Mobile Source Emission Assessment from Port Planning to Operation: International Best Practices

ReportInternational, Los Angeles, Long Beach, China
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NRDC is helping the country reduce its fossil fuel consumption, boost energy efficiency, and accelerate the shift to clean, renewable energy.
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Strengthen Environmental Laws and Governance in China

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When industrial polluters contaminate rivers or pump dangerous emissions into the air, strong environmental laws can help rein them in and hold them accountable.
The image captures the Eiffel Tower in Paris displaying the message "CLIMATACTION" during the COP21 climate change conference in December 2015.

The Paris Agreement on Climate Change

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While the Paris Agreement does not “solve” climate change, it is a critical inflection point that brings us much closer to a safer climate trajectory and creates an ambitious path forward for decades to come.

Enforcement of Fuel Switching Regulations: Practices Adopted in the US, EU and Other Regions, and Lessons Learned for China

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China enters a new era of green shipping with its commencement of the enforcement of the Domestic Emission Control Area (DECA) regulation at its major port regions. This regulation limits the sulfur level of fuel used on ships in and…

LATEST NEWS & COMMENTARY

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These NRDC Experts Show Us How We Can Slow the Spread of Zoonotic Diseases

NRDC in ActionChina, United StatesCourtney Lindwall
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Facing Down the Ivory Sellers, Pangolin Poachers, and Giraffe Traders

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Elly Pepper, deputy director of NRDC’s Wildlife Trade Initiative, says there’s much that U.S. advocates can do to end the illegal marketplaces endangering animals across the globe.

Will China Save the Planet?

NRDC in ActionBeijing, ChinaNicole Greenfield
Barbara Finamore, NRDC’s senior strategic director for Asia, witnessed the birth of China’s clean energy movement. Her new book considers its future.

After 140 Million Years, the Chinese Sturgeon May Soon Be Extinct

ExplainerChinaJason Bittel
As dams have popped up in the Yangtze River, one of the world’s biggest freshwater fish is running out of room—and time.

LEARN MORE ABOUT NRDC'S INTERNATIONAL WORK

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An aerial view of old growth boreal forest near Dryden in Northwestern Ontario, Canada

Canada

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For more than three decades, NRDC has helped protect some of the world’s most iconic ecosystems and support sound environmental decision making.
Four women in holding handfuls of harvested salt in the village of Kuda, Gujarat, India

India

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NRDC’s India program fights climate change with solutions that advance clean energy and public health.
Tecolote Beach in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, on January 23, 2025. On December 9, 2024, in an open letter to the CEO of Houston-based fossil fuel company Mexico Pacific Limited (Mexico Pacific), NRDC announced their opposition to the company’s proposed construction of a massive liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at Puerto Libertad in Sonora, Mexico, on the eastern shore of the Gulf of California. Called Saguaro Energia LNG (Saguaro), the project would be an industrial development anticip

Mexico

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We collaborate with partners in this region to move its nations toward clean energy while protecting wildlands, waters, and communities.