This new volume of Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment (formerly the China Environment Yearbook) includes selected articles from the 2013 annual environmental report compiled by Friends of Nature, a leading environmental protection NGO in China, with contributions from academics, environmental protection activists, public service activists, and the media. In this volume, readers are brought up to date on the main environmental issues and events of 2012, including environmental health, dams and cross-border water issues, a rise in environmental awareness and public action in China, sustainable consumption, and heavy metal pollution. Air pollution control has continued to attract attention from the public, media, academics, and government. This volume also discusses the controversy of the revision of the Environmental Protection Law. Like other volumes in the Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment series, this one aims to record, evaluate, and reflect on China’s current environmental conditions.

A special volume in the Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment series, this English-language volume is an edited collection of articles from the Chinese-language volume of The Annual Review of Low-Carbon Development in China (2011-2012). This is a pioneering volume on China's low-carbon development efforts, challenges, plans, trends, and policy recommendations, all based on research conducted by the Climate Policy Initiative at Tsinghua University, China. In this work, key results in China's 11th Five-Year Plan are explored by reviewing China's performance against targets, while the implementation of key policies and institutions are described with a focus on the effectiveness of low-carbon development policies in China during the period of 2005-2010. In addition, focus is placed on key indicators of low-carbon development such as energy consumption, CO2 emission, and low-carbon technologies. It discusses issues ranging from the low-carbon transformation of China’s economy to innovative low-carbon technologies, from low-carbon financing and incentive policies to changes in the business sector and consumer behaviors. The compilation offers not only insights on facts, but also introduces discussion on some of the more controversial issues China faces as it works to meet climate and energy challenges up through 2020.

This collection features articles that originally appeared in the first three volumes of the Chinese edition of China Environment and Development Review. Written by longtime students of China’s environmental challenges and experts working on the research and policy-making frontlines, these pieces provide an evolutionary perspective on both the intellectual understanding of and efforts to address the country’s growing environmental woes. As the environmental condition has continued to worsen in recent decades, Chinese researchers have made admirable efforts toward grappling with the immensity of the problems, including institutional factors that have either compounded or obstructed efforts to mitigate them. Case studies show what works or does not in what will no doubt be a long and difficult journey toward sustainable development and environmental restoration.

This volume of the Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment series is a translation of selections from the 2015 or the 10th edition of the Annual Report on Environment Development of China. Friends of Nature, which has been organizing the writing and compilation of the Annual Report, is the first and continues to be one of the most influential Chinese environmental NGO. Articles in the current volume, written by a group of academics, independent scholars, activists and journalists cover recent development in a host of environment-related issues in China, including air pollution control, plans and policies on coal consumption, recent developments in environmental criminal justice, China's role in Antarctic marine conservation, among other topics.

Environmental Security in China provides readers an overview of issues China faces in environmental security. Contributors examine what air, water, soil pollution, grassland degradation, GM food, climate change, and energy dependence mean for China’s national security.

This volume of the Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment series is a translation of selections from the 2014 or the 9th edition of the Annual Report on Environment Development of China. Friends of Nature, which has been organizing the writing and compilation of the Annual Report, is the first and continues to be one of the most influential Chinese environmental NGO. Articles in the current volume, written by a group of academics, independent scholars, activists and journalists cover recent development in a host of environment-related issues in China, including water and air pollution, the evolving role of NGO, pollution’s impact on human health, progress in environmental legislation and species protection, and the environmental consequences of poor urban planning.

Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment (formerly The China Environment Yearbook), Volume 1, was written and produced by China’s first environmental non-profit organization, Friends of Nature. This edition of the book combines two years of reports on China's environment from the view of civil society. With a special focus on natural and unnatural disasters, the book also covers the themes of pollution and ecological protection, urban environmental issues and livability, sustainable consumption, policy and governance, civil society and public participation, and China and the world in an environmental perspective. In this volume, readers are brought up to date on the main environmental issues and events of 2010 and 2011. Beginning in 2010, debris flows, landslides, and droughts brought about considerable debate on the human factors involved in “natural disasters” and on China’s urban growth mode. The concept of urban livability is discussed within the backdrop of the waste and water crises. Several environmental incidents, including the Bohai Bay oil spill and the chromium slag pollution incident in Qujing, are also explored within the book. Meanwhile, increased public participation and environmental information transparency give reason for hope. Other articles include research and analysis on China’s investments in Africa, its struggling environmental courts, public interest litigation, the controversial Xiaonanhai dam and others on the Mekong River, green supply chains, and the PM2.5 debate.

Chinese Research Perspectives on Educational Development, Volume 3 is an English translation of selected articles from the 2014 Annual Report on Educational Development in China, produced by the 21st Century Education Development Research Academy in China. In this volume, readers are brought up to date on the main educational issues and events of 2013. 2013, the third year since the Outline of China’s National Plan for Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development 2010-2020 was implemented, witnessed the deepening of education reform in terms of improving education quality. This volume starts with a general report by Yang Dongping that explains the new progress as well as barriers of education reform in 2013. Researchers and practitioners in this volume discuss the college graduates’ employment situation, trends in preschool education, China’s financial investment in education over the past two decades, reform of the national college entrance examination, rural schools, protection of children’s rights and interests, investigation into the nationwide suicide epidemic, among other important topics. Chinese Research Perspectives on Educational Development is a co-publication of Brill and Social Sciences Academic Press (China).

A special volume in the Chinese Research Perspectives on the Environment series, this English-language volume is an edited collection of articles selected from the Chinese-language Annual Report on Actions to Address Climate Change (2012): Climate Finance and Low Carbon Development. This volume provides information on how China views the challenge of climate change and seeks to rectify the extraordinary confusion found in the West on China’s green energy future and its larger perspectives on this extraordinarily crucial topic. Contributors in this volume provide a bigger picture of international negotiations on climate change; discuss China’s national actions on green energy and sustainability and how national policies are implemented at the local level; and examine challenges and potential of developing green energy resources in China.

All the articles featured in this volume first appeared in the Chinese-language edition of Blue Book of Chinese Society 2014. They present and analyze developments in 2012-2013 in income and consumption, industrial transformation, employment, social security, healthcare, education, quality of life and public sentiments. Most data come from several large-scale social surveys. There are a number of highlights. An entire chapter is devoted to capturing Chinese people’s outlook on their own future and that of the country. A special report takes the pulse of the Internet, whose social impact has grown rapidly in recent years. And for the first time in this series parenting strategies and styles of people with young children received special attention. Policy suggestions are provided.