20160425 China Daily_Chengdu's Silicon Valley dream powers rise of startups

A woman looks at a 3D bioprinter, developed by Revotek, at the launch of the product last October.[Provided to China Daily]

Holed up in a shiny glass building in the Chinese city of Chengdu, Y. James Kang spends his days researching ways to repair damaged hearts, livers and brains－with the help of stem cells and 3D printers.

The Chinese-born and US-trained biologist set up his healthcare startup, Revotek, in this southwestern city in 2014. At the time, he was attracted by the region's rich local supply of monkeys that were ideal for testing human treatments. In Chengdu, the company has drawn 215 million yuan ($33 million) in funding from a local real estate company seeking to diversify.

A few miles from Kang's lab, AllTech Medical Systems has developed and is selling MRI systems intended to compete with multinational giants such as General Electric Co, Royal Philips NV and Siemens AG, which have dominated the market. Its MIT-trained founder, Zou Xueming, chose Chengdu to start his second company after selling his Cleveland-based startup to GE in 2002. AllTech hopes to submit an application to go public by the end of next year, with Zou planning to raise $50 million to $100 million.

They are among a string of local businesses that stand to benefit from a push by the Chinese city to attract researchers and venture capital investors. Known for its spicy cuisine and leisurely lifestyle, Chengdu has in recent years attracted the likes of Intel Corp and IBM, which have set up research and manufacturing bases there. More recently, the flurry of investment activity is in response to Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's call for innovation and entrepreneurship.

China's leaders are seeking new engines of growth as the country's economic expansion hits its slowest pace in 25 years. That's encouraged provinces across the country to create special zones where new ventures can tap funding opportunities and other incentives. While technology startups have been some of the biggest beneficiaries, medical research firms are also getting a boost－giving new life to a Chinese industry that lagged the West for years.

Since it was launched in 2014, China's campaign to encourage entrepreneurship has helped create tens of thousands of small companies. In Chengdu, the local government has set up seven start-up focused funds backed by private capital totaling 700 million yuan to promote industries like telecommunications, health and biotech.

The science and technology bureau has a dedicated team to help banks assess startups based on the value of their technology and patents. It also has incubators that provide office space and training to new businesses. "There are strong driving forces," in Chengdu, said AllTech founder Zou. "Policies to attract talent, land and tax policies are very favorable."

Like Kang's firm, most of Chengdu's startups are many years away from making big profits from their businesses. That means Chengdu's government also has a long wait before it sees major benefits to the local economy.

Dozens of Chinese cities are launching similar programs, and these new ventures also offer a window into the rising ambitions of Chinese researchers, many of whom have trained overseas. Kang was among the first batch of Chinese to go back to college in 1977 after the Cultural Revolution, eventually earning his PhD at Iowa State University. His primary research focus now is 3D bioprinting, a new frontier of medicine aimed at creating replicas of human organs.

His team has been developing techniques to repair damaged skin, hearts, livers and brains in animals including pigs and monkeys through regeneration－a process that involves creating 3D printed structures that can replicate, for example, a layer of skin or a blood vessel. For organs like a damaged heart, a specialized catheter is used to deliver "bio-ink" or stem cells mixed with nutrients and other growth factors.

20160425 Standard_171 countries sign landmark climate pact

The UN says a record 171 countries are expected to sign the landmark climate change agreement.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon said at the start of a high-level UN ceremony that “history is in the making.''
He told global leaders and ministers the world is in “a race against time,'' citing record global temperatures, record ice loss and record carbon levels in the atmosphere.
“The era of consumption without consequences is over,'' Ban said. “We must intensify efforts to decarbonize our economies.''
Ban, who recalled that climate change has been his top priority since he became secretary-general over nine years ago, urged all countries to ratify the agreement so it can come into force as early as possible.
The agreement will enter into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions have formally joined it. 
US Secretary of State John Kerry is joining dozens of world leaders at the ceremony.
States that don't sign today have a year to do so.
Many expect the climate agreement to enter into force long before the original deadline of 2020. Some say it could happen this year.
After signing, countries must formally approve the agreement through their domestic procedures. The United Nations says at least 13 countries could take that step today by depositing their instruments of ratification.—AP

20150318 China Daily_Shanghai prepares for clean air

Authorities say PM2.5 remains a big problem as it outlines 100 billion yuan action plan

Woman wear face masks on the Bund in front of the Oriental Pearl TV Tower during a hazy day in downtown Shanghai January 26, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

Shanghai plans to invest 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) in its environmental protection drive for the coming three years, while reducing the concentration of PM2.5 by at least 20 percent from the level in 2013.

Those are part of the targets the municipal government outlined in an action plan for the period between 2015 and 2017.

One of the highlights of the plan, released on Tuesday, is the increase of capital invested to improve the environment from the average of 21.3 billion yuan in the past 15 years to an average of 33.3 billion yuan committed for the upcoming three years.

Improvements in air quality, water and the ecology will be the focus of the plan.

Measures to fight smog, for example, include shifting the coal-burning boilers and industrial furnaces to clean fuels, transforming power generators to reduce their emissions, phasing out high-polluting vehicles and putting in place further control on dust at construction sites.

Those efforts are expected to help reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide by 20,000 metric tons nitrogen oxide by 40,000 tons and volatile organic compounds by 100,000 tons.

Yang Xin, a professor at Fudan University's department of environmental science and engineering, called the action plan practical, saying that the government is moving in the right direction to address the biggest concerns of the public regarding the environment.

"In 2014, we saw a big drop in the concentration level of PM2.5 from the previous year," he said. "That makes the goal of a 20 percent reduction by 2017 not that difficult."

A man wears a face mask while walking on the Bund in front of the financial district of Pudong, during a hazy day in downtown Shanghai January 25, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

But the government needs to do more to make the public clearly see the improvement in the environment, he said.

"Lowering PM2.5 levels by 20 percent means a huge reduction of its harm on people's health. But it won't bring along great improvement in the visibility of the air, and visibility actually is the main benchmark for the public to judge air quality," he added.

Public perception

Most Shanghai residents questioned on Tuesday said air pollution worsened in 2014, though monitoring data suggested there was an improvement of air quality compared with 2013.

"I didn't feel an improvement at all. We often saw a gray sky caused by the smog," said 24-year-old Yu Canglong.

In the action plan, authorities admitted that PM2.5 and air pollution remain prominent problems, despite the overall improving environment in the city.

For the upcoming three years, the government also vowed to reduce the number of highly polluted water bodies, raise forestation coverage from 13.5 percent to 15.5 percent, and build a sewage disposal system for 90 percent of waste water in urban areas.

On the national level, the country is set to focus efforts this year on fully implementing the revised Environmental Protection Law, which took effect on Jan 1.

No one must use his power to meddle with law enforcement, Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday at a news conference following the closing of the annual session of the nation's top legislature.

"All acts of illegal production and emissions will be brought to account. We will make the cost for doing so too high to bear," he said.

20141112 BBC_Fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 says IPCC

The IPCC says fossil fuels without carbon capture should be "phased out" by 2100

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The unrestricted use of fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change, a UN-backed expert panel says.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says in a stark report that most of the world's electricity can - and must - be produced from low-carbon sources by 2050.

If not, the world faces "severe, pervasive and irreversible" damage.

The UN said inaction would cost "much more" than taking the necessary action.

The IPCC's Synthesis Report was published on Sunday in Copenhagen, after a week of intense debate between scientists and government officials.

It is intended to inform politicians engaged in attempts to deliver a new global treaty on climate by the end of 2015.

The report says that reducing emissions is crucial if global warming is to be limited to 2C - a target acknowledged in 2009 as the threshold of dangerous climate change.

The report suggests renewables will have to grow from their current 30% share to 80% of the power sector by 2050.

In the longer term, the report states that fossil fuel power generation without carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology would need to be "phased out almost entirely by 2100".

'Science has spoken'

The Synthesis Report summarises three previous reports from the IPCC, which outlined the causes, the impacts and the potential solutions to climate change.

It re-states many familiar positions:

• Warming is "unequivocal" and the human influence on climate is clear
• The period from 1983 to 2012, it says, was likely the warmest 30 year period of the last 1,400 years
• Warming impacts are already being seen around the globe, in the acidification of the oceans, the melting of arctic ice and poorer crop yields in many parts
• Without concerted action on carbon, temperatures will increase over the coming decades and could be almost 5C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century

"Science has spoken," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "There is no ambiguity in their message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side."

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Ban Ki-moon: Inaction on climate change "will cost heavily"

"There is a myth that climate action will cost heavily," said Mr Ban, "but inaction will cost much more."

The US Secretary of State, John Kerry, described the report as "another canary in the coal mine".

"Those who choose to ignore or dispute the science so clearly laid out in this report do so at great risk for all of us and for our kids and grandkids," Mr Kerry said in a statement.

The Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey described the report as the "most comprehensive, thorough and robust assessment of climate change ever produced".

"It sends a clear message that should be heard across the world - we must act on climate change now. It's now up to the politicians - we must safeguard the world for future generations by striking a new climate deal in Paris next year," he said.

"The UK has been leading the world and bringing the world with us. The historic agreement to cut carbon emissions in Europe by at least 40 per cent by 2030 effectively means our Climate Change Act is being replicated across Europe, just as it's being copied in countries across the world as they seek to cap and cut their own emissions."

Blunt language

Prof Myles Allen from Oxford University, a member of the IPCC core writing team, said: "We can't afford to burn all the fossil fuels we have without dealing with the waste product which is CO2 and without dumping it in the atmosphere."

"If we can't develop carbon capture we will have to stop using fossil fuels if we want to stop dangerous climate change."

Analysis: David Shukman, BBC science editor

The language in the UN's climate reports has been steadily ratcheted up over the years, but this publication lays out the options more bluntly than before.

The conclusion that fossil fuels cannot continue to be burned in the usual way - and must be phased out by the end of the century - presents governments with an unusually stark choice.

The IPCC has tried to make it more palatable by saying that fossil fuel use can continue if the carbon emissions are captured and stored.

But so far the world only has one commercially-operating plant of that type, in Canada, and progress developing the technology is far slower than many had hoped.

So this raises the difficult question of how key governments are likely to respond.

Events in Copenhagen back in 2009, when a disastrous and dysfunctional summit failed to agree anything substantial, showed how easily rhetoric crumbles in the face of economic pressures or domestic realities.

The report's clarity of language over the future of coal, oil, and gas was welcomed by campaigners.

"What they have said is that we must get to zero emissions, and that's new," said Samantha Smith from World Wildlife Fund.

"The second thing is they said that it is affordable, it is not going to cripple economies."

Fierce standoff

In the IPCC's discussions on fossil fuels, there was a fierce battle over a chart that showed how much the electricity sector needed to curb its carbon, the BBC's environment correspondent Matt McGrath reports from Copenhagen.

According to one observer, "the Saudis went ballistic" over the chart's inclusion.

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While arctic sea ice is melting at an alarming rate, Antarctic sea ice at record levels, Dr Helen Czerski reports

Another significant fight was over the inclusion of text about Article 2 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

It quickly became a standoff between those who want the focus to be on cutting emissions against those who think the right to develop economies must come first.

An unlikely alliance between Bolivia and Saudi Arabia ultimately saw the section dropped entirely from the underlying report.

Some of those attending the talks said that tackling climate change and sustainable development went hand in hand.

"Different countries come to different perspectives" said Prof Jim Skea from Imperial College and a review editor of the report.

"But from the science perspective, we need them both. We need to walk and chew gum at the same time."

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