China accounts for more than 8 bn of the annual 30 bn tonnes of global man made CO2. I understand it will be easier for southern coastal cities in China to get coal from Australia than from Mongolia, hence Clive Palmer's 'China First' coal mine in Queensland.

In my opinion if China does not bring in serious carbon constraints (CO2 caps or taxes) then the rest of the world would be justified in carbon taxing their finished goods. Since precise assessment would be difficult the carbon tariff might have to be an arbitrary figure, say 20%. The tariff would be lifted when China falls into line with the rest of the world. Some will say Australians use more coal per capita but we don't have 1.3 bn people.

At some point during the last century man's desire for power overcame his assumption of sufficient water. It has now come to the point where worldwide, and not just in China, the search for sources of hydrocarbons are endangering our future water supply.
There seems to be a race on. There's the need for water, the desire for power, and global warming. Perhaps future historians will tell how mankind was saved from dying of thirst by radical climate change brought about by the overuse of hydrocarbons which resulted in sea-levels rising enough to drown the world's coastal cities.
When the water-energy nexus is considered rationally, any benefit of the doubt would go to water. But there are too many of us to turn out the lights, so a day of reckoning is starting to look inevitable.

Very relevant for this piece but left unmentioned by Christina is the 25 new nuclear plants being constructed on China’s eastern seaboard where the power is needed. http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf63.html.

The big advantage for nuclear is that it uses 1/20,000 of the ore volume that a coal plant does. No need for carting vast quantities of coal from the west. No air borne coal pollutants like soot, sulphur and heavy metals like mercury to poison the city atmosphere. No carbon dioxide to add to greenhouse gases.

These coastal nuclear plants can also use sea water for steam generation and cooling unlike the coal plants close to the coal mines.

I would be surprised if a well researched journalist like Christina was unaware of this. I suspect her environmental leanings has blinded her to discussing it for political rather than environmental reasons. Fortunately the energy mandarins in China are wiser than are own in Australia.

Martin N
Let's hope there are no earthquakes and tsunamis to put at risk the nuclear reactors along the eastern coast. Fukushima - lest we forget.

More generally, it seems China is running up against its resource limits. It would have hit them long ago had the population not been checked by its one-child policy.(Just wish it had been a coercion-free one-child policy). But energy and water are closely related and the article clearly pointed this out. Let's hope the Chinese do not suffer too much desertification from climate change and that they can one day get their population and environment in balance.

I don't see this conflict; given, they can always turn their quite massive human and other biological waste into energy, which in net terms is enough to provide their entire domestic needs.
One hopes they have learned from the disaster in Japan? And put their as yet un-built Nuclear plants far enough inland to avoid a tsunami and or inundation; and, use the new pebble reactors that quite literally avoid the possibility of a meltdown.
Small modest wind powered domestic dehumidifiers, are capable of providing up to 4,000 litres of pristine potable water every day.
With the by product of waste based energy production; being safe soil enriching high carbon organic soil improving fertilizer; and, quite massive Algae based bio-diesel production, which has never ever needed food producing arable land to underpin its production?
I think that China is able to do these things and get ahead of the carbon free energy game, because her politicians are not yet controlled by, or in the pocket of the fossil fuel energy barons?
Or prevented by opposing road block politicians, serving offshore or vested or self serving political interests?
China, almost more than any nation on earth, is at more risk and has the most to lose, from unattended un-addressed climate change! Rhrosty.

The water problem in China tells you why China will never let Tibet go.
China is presently busy stealing the water from India, Bangladesh and
Vietnam by damning the rivers of the Tibetan Himalayan mountains.

The scheme will cost millions on the Ganges plain their lives.