India and China are to collaborate in monitoring melting glaciers in the Himalayas, the Financial Times reported. Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister, said researchers would share information and that India is open to dialogue about water resources.

China faces increasing shortfalls in the water it needs to sustain economic growth, according to Jane’s Security News. Despite infrastructure projects to address the problem, consequences of the shortages already are being felt.

A herdsman’s dog is suspected to be the origin of an outbreak of pneumonic plague in Ziketan, in Qinghai province, that has killed three people and left the town of 10,000 under quarantine, Agence France-Presse reported, quoting state media.

China is winning the race to create “green-collar” jobs, six months after countries worldwide launched US$500-billion in spending plans to drive a low-carbon economy, a Reuters analysis found.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences announced completion of a survey examining global warming’s effects on ecologically fragile lakes at the source of the Yellow River, said Xinhua.

Water supplies in Pizhou, in Jiangsu province, have been heavily contaminated with arsenic for a second time this year, according to Hexun.

Environmental campaigners said China’s decision to shift the location of a planned oil refinery and petrochemical plant in Guangdong, after years of public outcry, is a sign that such concerns can shape policy, said Reuters.

Central planning authorities have approved the current wave of water-price rises being discussed or implemented in major cities across the country, according to SINA.

A chemical plant in Zhentou township, central Hunan province, was closed after residents protested against cadmium pollution. Two people have died and hundreds more have been poisoned, Reuters reported, citing Chinese media.

Shanghai has landed what the media say is the world’s largest carbon-capture project, ChinaCSR said. The captured carbon is to be put to industrial use, rather than stored.

China’s first voluntary domestic carbon emissions-reduction transaction has occurred, SINA reported. A Shanghai-based insurance company made the purchase.

Its large population is both China’s biggest challenge and its strength, since people themselves are the best custodian of environments, Khalid Malik, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in China, told the China Daily website.

Prepared in cooperation with PACE