Projects supported by the Foundation in China in 2004 were: Sustainable farming The Foundation is supporting a project to develop sustainable farming techniques for farmers in erosion-prone areas of Gansu and Inner Mongolia. The work is being done by Resource Efficient Agriculture Production (REAP) of Canada, in partnership with the Ministry of Water Resources. The three-year programme, which has a grant of US$303,000, ends in 2005.
Rice straw gasification
Shell Foundation is sponsoring a project by the Institute of Thermal Power Engineering of Zhejiang University to produce electricity from biomass gas, derived from straw. Under the second and third phases the Shell Foundation will contribute US $300,000 to commercialise advanced biomass gasification technology.
Microfinance for poverty alleviation: expanding market opportunities for women producing handicrafts in rural North China
The Foundation is sponsoring the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation to provide micro financing for poor rural women in Shanxi Province so they can create small, sustainable handicraft businesses. A market study costing US $100,000 was completed in 2004. The second phase, which involves establishing small businesses, will start in 2005.
Shanghai sustainable transport programme
The Shell Foundation, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government created the Shanghai Sustainable Transport Partnership in November 2003.
The partnership, outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Shanghai Municipal People's Government Construction and Management Commission, is an agreement to create a set of sustainable transport indicators and to design an innovative mass transit system based on Bus Rapid Transport. The goal is to enhance the city's ability to alleviate traffic congestion and air pollution. During the year the partnership completed a concept plan for Bus Rapid Transport and decided where in Shanghai it was going to be introduced. A work plan was completed for a set of transport indicators covering emissions and air quality. This means Shanghai will be able to monitor emissions in various locations and project future emission levels. Further work was proceeding on indicators for congestion and accidents/safety. In 2004, Embarq, the Centre for Transport and the Environment spent US $ 650,000 on this project.
Shell Foundation also supported the following projects in China since its launch in 2000:
Transfer of cleaner coal technologies The Shell Foundation co-funded an 18-month project carried out by the University of Sussex (UK) and Beijing University to identify policy recommendations to the Chinese government and the UK Department of Trade and Industry on the transfer of cleaner coal technology to China. The project also involved discussions with the Ministry of Science and Technology, the State Environmental Protection Agency, and foreign trade ministries. Reforming China's energy systems The Shell Foundation provided a grant to the Climate Institute (USA) to carry out a three-month project investigating key obstacles and priorities for the reform of China's utility sector and to provide advice to key stakeholders in China. Sustainable energy research The Shell Foundation co-funded a three-year joint research programme with the China Council for International Cooperation and Development. The grants supported research for seven doctoral students at Tsinghua University and Renmin University of China. The research topics include greenhouse gas emissions control, coal gasification technology and power industry regulation. This will contribute to improvements both in environmental and energy-related technologies and in policy development. Energy Scenarios This two-year programme was designed to strengthen the country's medium term energy and environment planning capabilities, working with the Energy Research Institute (ERI) of National Development and Reform Commission to develop energy scenarios for China. It was also intended to improve the public availability of reliable data on China's energy production and consumption. Shell's Energy Scenario team worked with ERI with support from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory of the USA. Biogas for households in Yunnan Working in partnership with North-South Institute for Sustainable Development, Shell Foundation helped 52 rural families in the Baima nature reserve in Yunnan Province to convert animal waste to heat and fertilizer and so reduce their use of firewood and increase their income by using the fertiliser to help grow cash crops inside green houses attached to the farmers' dwellings.
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