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China to submit climate change goals

China will present its post-2020 goals for tackling climate change ahead of schedule, according to the nation's top climate official.

Xie Zhenhua, head of the Chinese delegation to the United Nations climate change talks in Lima, Peru, said China will announce its "intended nationally determined contribution" in the first quarter of next year, rather than in June.

The goals will include methods to reduce carbon intensity significantly and boost forest conservation.

At the South-South Cooperation on Climate Change Forum on Dec 8, Xie said China will strive to peak its emissions earlier.

"As a developing country, China will try its best to cooperate with other developing nations to actively tackle climate change."

China has said it will set up the South-South Cooperation Fund to help developing countries tackle climate change, and from next year will double its climate change financial support to developing countries.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, said, "It's a good initiative that we've very much welcomed."

Figueres said that "inspired by the leadership of China", the convention's secretariat will open up a South-South Fund that will focus on sharing technical information.

Farmers seek $22 m over 2011 oil spills

A lawsuit from 21 Chinese aquaculture farmers against two giant oil companies has begun in a Chinese maritime court.

In the Tianjin Maritime Court, the farmers said their farms were ravaged by two oil spills three and a half years ago at the offshore drilling operations of ConocoPhillips China and China National Offshore Oil Corp in northeastern China.

The spills occurred at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, a joint exploration project between both companies and China's largest oilfield.

An investigation team, comprising officials from government departments including the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Ministry of Agriculture, said the events were "major maritime oil spill liability accidents" that had caused major damage to the environment and fishery resources.

The farmers are demanding more than 141 million yuan ($22.7 million; 18.4 million euros) for their losses and suffering in the years since the spill.

Watchdog calls for anti-graft tipoffs

The top anti-graft watchdog is now accepting tipoffs on its website about corrupt officials who flee abroad and transfer illegally acquired assets overseas on their website.

"We welcome people at home and abroad reporting relevant corruption clues," the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on Dec 9. The statement said people providing tipoffs should first read and accept the rules on its website. They will then gain access to a page to provide relevant information.

Under the rules, disciplinary inspection and supervision agencies welcome reports provided without anonymity. Whistleblowers are encouraged to provide their real names and accurate contact details.

In recent years, a number of corrupt Chinese officials have fled to other countries, including the United States and Canada, transferring illegal funds abroad, said Huang Shuxian, deputy head of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Between 1984 and 2010 nearly 4,000 corrupt officials fled abroad, transferring more than $50 billion overseas, according to figures the commission issued in 2010.

Top court acts to clean up judicial system

The country's top court has issued a guideline aimed at tackling judicial corruption.

In the guideline, published on Dec 9, every court is required to strictly follow the letter of the law when hearing cases involving allegations of graft by government officials.

The Supreme People's Court is establishing a five-year plan to prevent judicial corruption, establish rules for hearing corruption cases and improve international cooperation to fight graft.

Under the guideline, all lower-level courts are required to try cases involving government officers accused of abusing their power, corruption or dereliction of duty. They must also focus on cases involving allegations of bribery by business people.

Each court is being called to implement the guideline as quickly as possible and advance their anti-corruption efforts, according to the statement.

Grassroots disciplinary departments should prevent judicial officers from accepting money or act as middlemen in lawsuits, the statement said.

Alumni witness signing of China-Ireland deal

A cooperation agreement between leading universities in China and Ireland was signed on Dec 9 in the presence of two notable alumni: the presidents of both countries.

President Xi Jinping, a graduate of Tsinghua University, and Irish President Michael Higgins, a graduate of National University of Ireland, Galway, witnessed the signing in Beijing of the memorandum of understanding on education and research collaboration.

Betty Liao, China promotion officer of the National University of Ireland, Galway, said the agreement will guide joint research in life sciences, industrial engineering, civil engineering and environmental studies.

It will also include student and teacher exchange programs, she says. The agreement was one of three sealed shortly after a meeting between the two presidents in which Xi told Higgins that China is encouraging its enterprises to invest in Ireland.

China has been Ireland's biggest trading partner in Asia for seven years. In the first 10 months of this year, Irish investment in China was worth more than $400 million.

CCTV suspends economic awards

China Central Television's Economic Person of the Year awards ceremony, which has been held annually for the past 14 years, will not take place this year.

The Chinese portal website NetEase quoted an anonymous source from CCTV as confirming the news and hinting that the cancellation was a direct result of the government fight against media corruption, highlighted by the investigation of Guo Zhenxi, the former director of CCTV's finance and economics channel. But another source at CCTV denied that the corruption case was the reason.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate announced on June 1 that Guo had been detained and was being investigated on suspicion of taking bribes.

Authorities also discovered that most of the clients of a public relations company that Rui Chenggang, a star business news anchor at CCTV, was running with his family were mostly former interviewees.

China and Brazil to develop satellites

China and Brazil have pledged to strengthen their cooperation in developing satellites, senior officials of both nations say.

"We hope we can improve our collaboration to jointly send more satellites into space and use these space assets to help nations in South America and Africa," said Clelio Campolina Diniz, Brazil's minister of science, technology and innovation, on Dec 9.

"We are discussing the technological feasibility of a new satellite that will be developed by the two nations."

Diniz was attending a bilateral meeting on strengthening space collaboration in Beijing. The first images taken by a satellite jointly developed by China and Brazil were published at the meeting.

The Ziyuan-1-04, or CBERS-4 as it is known in Brazil, was sent into orbit by a Long March 4B rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Shanxi province on Dec 7. The launch marked the 200th flight of the Long March rocket family.

The device is a remote sensing satellite intended for operation as part of the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite Program.

(China Daily European Weekly 12/12/2014 page2)