Climate Watch

China is rolling out mandatory renewable energy consumption quotas for provinces and key industrial sectors. Is the country shifting its focus from expanding renewable energy capacity to making better use of it? Climate Watch host Zhao Ying spoke with Tonny Xie, chairman and director at Bluetech Clean Air Alliance.

Deadly wildfires have swept across large swathes of Europe in recent weeks, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes and leaving vast areas of land scorched. What's behind Europe's increasingly destructive wildfire seasons? Are these fires becoming the new normal in a warming climate? Climate Watch host Zhao Ying speaks with Víctor Resco de Dios, Professor of Forest Science and Global Change at the University of Lleida in Spain.

July 30 marked what the Global Footprint Network calls Earth Overshoot Day. It's the date when humanity has used up all the biological resources that the Earth can regenerate in a year. How deep is our ecological debt to the planet? How should we rethink our economic models, our lifestyles, and our relationship with nature?

Climate Watch host Zhao Ying speaks with Arvea Marieni, European Climate Pact Ambassador, and Paul Beckwith, a climate system analyst based in Ottawa.

China has released a "carbon peak" action plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The plan sets a 2030 target to cut carbon intensity by 17% from 2025 levels, and raise the non-fossil fuel share in total energy consumption to 25%. What does this roadmap tell us about China’s next phase of decarbonization? Climate Watch host Zhao Ying speaks with Teng Fei, Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy, Tsinghua University.

As heatwaves intensify and electricity demand continues to rise, power grids are facing unprecedented pressure. At the same time, the rapid expansion of renewable energy is making grid stability more complex than ever. Climate Watch host Zhao Ying is joined by reporter Zhu Tianlu, who recently traveled to Changzhou, and industrial city in eastern China, where new technologies are helping build a smarter, more resilient power system.

China has made major progress in its "Zhuiri" or "Sun Chasing" project, moving a step closer toward building a space solar power station. Why do we need to harvest solar power in space? What's the biggest challenge in turning that vision into reality? Climate Watch host Zhao Ying speaks with Zhang Fan, Associate Professor of Astronomy at Beijing Normal University.

Europe is experiencing an unprecedented early summer heatwave, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius on many parts of the continent. What is driving this extreme heat, and is this the new normal for Europe's summers? Climate Watch host Zhao Ying speaks with Bob Ward, the policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

The Yangtze River, China's longest waterway, once faced a severe biodiversity crisis after decades of overfishing. But five years into an unprecedented 10-year fishing ban, scientists are seeing surprising signs of ecological recovery.

Can one of the world's longest rivers truly heal? Climate Watch host Zhao Ying speaks with Chen Yushun, co-author of a new Science study on the Yangtze's recovery. Prof. Chen is from the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dean of the School of Life and Health Sciences, Hunan University of Science and Technology.

Meteorologists have confirmed that an El Nino has formed in the tropical Pacific, and forecasts suggest it could intensify in the coming months. What is El Nino? Could a "super" El Nino be on the way? How might it shape global weather patterns, and what could it mean for China? Climate Watch host Zhao Ying speaks with Wang Chunzai, a researcher at South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, and Director of the State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography.

China's Green Code: Rewriting the Rules of Growth is a four-part special series exploring how China is reshaping the way it produces energy, builds industries, grows food and lives day to day.

In this episode, we travel to Shenzhen, a city known for its low-carbon ambitions, to see how sustainable living is becoming part of everyday life.

Following a local resident’s journey across the city, we explore waste-sorting systems in action (1:35), a leading second-hand trading platform attracting thousands of daily visitors (9:00), a fully electrified bus and taxi network (12:55), and a net-zero building that uses significantly less energy than conventional designs (18:30). Together, these stories show how urban life is being quietly reshaped—one low-carbon choice at a time.