- Hong Kong Carbon Reduction Campaign
- Global forest carbon research
- Securing water supply in China's heartland
- Taking direct action
- Saving the Freshwater Gharial in the Ganges
- Cleaning up the Ganges
- Untangling our understanding of lianas and climate change
- The Panama Canal Watershed Experiment
- Protecting the Ganges: Interschool Recycling Workshop
- Cooking on natural gas in the Yangtze
- Tackling illegal deforestation
- Johannesburg's Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit Project
- Baicheng wind farm project
Cooking on natural gas in the Yangtze
China produces half the world's pigs, and their slurry is routinely dumped in waterways. This causes algae to grow, killing animal and plant life and making the water undrinkable.
Climate challenge
The Chinese government has recognised that the lack of clean water will affect future development, and is working with the HSBC Climate partnership and WWF to improve water management by turning demonstration projects into scalable solutions and long-term policy.
Insight and action
The HSBC Climate Partnership sponsored the design and trial of a cost-effective unit to capture pig slurry and turn it into methane gas which is then both used on the farm and piped to local villages to provide free gas for cooking and heating.
This simple but effective solution prevents pig slurry from polluting the water course. It also provides 'clean' energy and frees up money that might otherwise be spent on buying electricity generated by burning fossil fuel.
Outcomes
A new regulation is to be enacted in the Hubei region of central China, requiring all new pig farms to introduce this simple technology.
As a direct result of this and other work on the Yangtze by WWF and the HSBC Climate Partnership, the Chinese Ministry of Water has asked WWF to advise on how international best practice should be incorporated into China's next 25 year master plan for sustainable water management. This plan will require the managers of the seven biggest rivers in China to ensure proper functioning of the rivers and wetlands, benefiting hundreds of millions of people, as well and animal and plant species.
Now I don't have to pay for coal or wood, and then when I want to start cooking I just light the fl ame. There's no soot or ash to deal with either. This gas saves me precious money and time, so I can do other things.
Chen Xiunu
The HSBC Climate Partnership is a long-term environmental programme between HSBC, The Climate Group, Earthwatch Institute, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and WWF. It aims to reduce the impact of climate change on people, forests, freshwater and cities and accelerate the adoption of low-carbon policies.
