Environmental Projects

Program: By-Product Synergy EcoPartnership Initiative

Partner: China Business Council for Sustainable Development

Date Established: May 2012

In June 2011, the China Business Council for Sustainable Development ("CBCSD") and the US Business Council for Sustainable Development ("USBCSD") established an EcoPartnership program, which is an effort organized under the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. This EcoPartnership, which strengthens an existing bi-national partnership between CBCSD and USBCSD, will focus on energy and environmental challenges facing both countries. One goal of the EcoPartnership is the development of By-product Synergy ("BPS").

BPS is the matching of wastes and under-valued resources at one facility with potential users at another – the results include reductions in operating costs, improved environmental performance, increases in energy efficiency, reductions in CO2 emissions, and job creation and retention. Successful implementation of BPS not only benefits the participating companies and organizations but also the communities in which the project located.

As a member of CBCSD, ConocoPhillips China is collaborating with CBCSD in a regional BPS project in the Bohai Bay area. ConocoPhillips China has donated USD 600,000 (RMB 3.78 million) toward a program to implement BPS projects in the Bohai Bay area.

By working with CBCSD on the BPS projects, ConocoPhillips China strives to support sustainable urban development by facilitating best practices for waste management, urban infrastructure design, water supply and conservation. The goals of the BPS projects are to help local businesses manage their resources utilization and disposal (which when successful provide major cost benefits), and to bring long-term environmental benefits to communities in Bohai Bay.

Through participation in BPS projects, ConocoPhillips China also hopes to strengthen the relationship and cooperative spirit between China and the US in promoting sustainable development. The synergy effort, organized under the EcoPartnership program, seeks to bring together groups of companies, and the resulting circular economy network produces results. This framework will allow companies in China to collaborate on new business and market opportunities, share resources and best practices, and develop joint projects. The USBCSD developed the framework and has a 15-year track record of successful BPS projects. Those projects demonstrate that collaborative projects can grow in value over years or even decades, generating economic returns while improving the environment and society.

CBCSD is a coalition of leading Chinese and foreign enterprises registered and operating in China as a national organization, established through the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. It provides a platform for exchange and cooperation among Chinese and foreign enterprises, government and social communities; sharing information, experiences and best practices in the field of sustainable development, to push forward the course of sustainable development in the world by common efforts.

For more information about the China Business Council on Sustainable Development, visit http://english.cbcsd.org.cn/.

Program: Conservation for the crane flyway from the Hulunbeier steppe to Bohai Sea

Partner: International Crane Foundation

Date Established: April 2012

Over the past decade, the International Crane Foundation ("ICF") has worked with local partners along the crane flyways across eastern China to conserve cranes and the wetland and grassland ecosystems on which they depend. Since April 2012, ConocoPhillips has invested RMB 3.7 million (approx. US $600,000) working with the ICF in two at-risk areas::

• Northeast Inner Mongolia and adjacent parts of Jilin Province where variable rainfall, water diversions and climate change has created recurring stress conditions on crane habitats;
• The coastal plain along Bohai where development puts strains on wetland ecosystems, to the detriment of water birds and local communities dependent on wetland resources.

The program will work with people dependent on the resources of wetlands and their watersheds to devise economic strategies that safeguard their resource base, while being simultaneously compatible with water fowl and ecosystem protection. At two pilot locations, one in Songnen Plain where cranes breed and the other on the coastal plain near Bohai, the project will implement demonstration activities for sustainable economic development that protect wetland resources.

Northeast China, with adjacent parts of far eastern Russia and Inner Mongolia, supports six species of cranes, the greatest diversity of cranes on earth. Four of these species are threatened with extinction, including the critically endangered Siberian Crane and the endangered Red-crowned Crane, a symbol of good fortune and long life across East Asia. Wetlands of this region provide a breeding habitat for most of the world’s Red-crowned, White-naped and Hooded Cranes, and an essential stopover habitat for almost all the world’s Siberian Cranes.

Since the 1980s, ICF has emphasized a flyway approach to crane and water fowl conservation, facilitating communication and coordinated activities involving wetland sites along the crane flyways in China, and also north into Mongolia and Russia. The coastal plain between the Bohai Sea and mountains to the west are a migration corridor with huge numbers of water fowl funneled across lowland areas heavily populated and developed. Over the past decade, ICF has sponsored research, education programs, and strengthening of wetland conservation and protected areas.

For more information about the International Crane Foundation, visit savingcranes.org.

Program: Bohai Bay Fishery Resources and Habitats

Partner: Ministry of Agriculture

Date Established: January 2012

As part of an agreement with the Ministry of Agriculture ("MOA"), RMB 618.5 million (approximately USD 97 million) to be used to improve fishery resources and the marine fishery environment. The Ministry of Agriculture is administering the funds and is responsible for developing appropriate programs.

Recent related projects funded under this initiative include:

MOA 2012 Fishery Release: On June 4, 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture, together with local authorities from Hebei, Liaoning, and Shandong provinces and the Tianjin municipal government, jointly launched the 2012 Bohai Bioresources Restoration and Release Campaign. The campaign was the first program undertaken as part of the environmental funds ConocoPhillips China provided to the MOA to benefit Bohai Bay fishery resources. Representatives from the MOA, the local government officials, CNOOC, and ConocoPhillips China attended a release event in Qinghuangdao, Hebei province. The campaign was the biggest of its kind in recent years and is part of a bid to restore the marine environment and sustain the fishing industry in the Bohai Bay. A total of 140 million Chinese shrimp, gazami crab, flounder, and redeye mullet were released at multiple locations around the Bohai Bay.

Program: Bohai Bay Marine Ecological Protection

Partner: State Oceanic Administration

Date Established: April 2012

As part of our agreement with the State Oceanic Administration we have designated RMB 113 million (approximately USD 18 million) to support environmental initiatives in Bohai Bay. Initial programs will focus on improving marine ecological protection, reducing pollutants, and studying long-term ecological influence in the Bay. The State Oceanic Administration is administering the funds and is responsible for developing appropriate programs.