China plans another 100 panda solar power plants worldwide
Panda Green Energy Group is in talks with Canada, Australia, Germany and Italy to launch more panda-shaped power stations.
East Asia
East Asia spans countries including China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. This archive gathers reported milestones from the region — covering public health, environmental efforts, technology, and social progress. Each entry highlights specific, verifiable developments worth knowing about.
China to refuse foreign waste in a bid for cleaner air
China has for a long time been a key importer of foreign waste- last year it accounted for 56 percent of global imports.
Qinghai province in China ran on 100% renewable energy for 7 days
For seven continuous days, over 5 million citizens living in the Qinghai Province in northwest China survived on 100 percent renewable energy, according to the State-run Xinhua News Agency.
California and China have signed an agreement to develop clean energy technology
The two sides agreed to establish the California-China Clean Technology Partnership designed to drive innovation and commercialization in areas such as carbon capture and storage
World’s largest floating solar PV plant connected to grid in China
Chinese PV manufacturer announced that a 40MW aquaculture project had been grid connected in the flooded coal-mining region of Huainan, China.
China, India on course to surpass Paris Agreement climate pledges
Slowing coal use in China and India has put the two most populous countries on a trajectory to beat their carbon emissions goals under the Paris Agreement, making up for rollbacks in U.S. climate action under the Trump administration
Giant pandas are removed from the endangered species list
Giant pandas stepped back from the brink in 2016, when the IUCN downlisted them from Endangered to Vulnerable. China’s wild panda population had climbed to roughly 1,864, up from fewer than 1,100 in the 1980s, thanks to decades of reserves and reforestation. A rare, measurable recovery — and a reminder that decline isn’t destiny.
Renewables top all other new power sources for the first time
Renewable energy quietly crossed a threshold in 2015, when solar, wind, and other renewables made up roughly two-thirds of all new power capacity added worldwide, according to an IEA report released the following year. China led the wave, installing more solar and wind than any other country. It was the moment the energy transition stopped feeling hypothetical.
China unveils the world’s first maglev wind turbine in Beijing
In 2006, a Beijing engineering team unveiled a wind turbine whose rotor floated on magnetic levitation, spinning without touching any bearing. By eliminating friction, the design could reportedly start generating power in breezes as slow as 1.5 meters per second. It was an early, imperfect signal of the engineering ambition now reshaping wind energy worldwide.
Portugal transfers Macau to China, closing the final chapter of European colonization in Asia
Macau’s handover at midnight on December 20, 1999 closed 442 years of Portuguese presence in the city and, with it, the last European colony in Asia. The transfer came not through conflict but through twelve years of patient negotiation between Lisbon and Beijing. It was the quiet final chapter of an empire that began in 1415.