A brominated flame retardant (BFR), hexabrominated heterocyclic tris-(2,3-dibromopropyl) isocyanurate (TBC), was identified, for the first time, in the natural environment. The chemical was found in river water (2.33-163 ng/L), surface sediments (85.0 ng/g-6.03 µg/g dry weight (dw)), soils (19.6-672 ng/g dw), earthworm (9.75-78.8 ng/g dw), and carp samples (12.0-646 ng/g dw) from a factory-polluted area in southern China. It was found that TBC can strongly adsorb to organic material in sediment, and a trend of decreasing concentration with distance from the source in soil and earthworm samples, combined with calculated K ow (octanol-water partition coefficient) and K oa (octanol-air partition coefficient), suggests its potential ability to undergo regional transportation through dust deposition. Calculated results showed high K ow (log K ow ) 7.37) and bioaccumulation factor (BAF) (log BAF ) 4.30) of this BFR and indicate that TBC has semivolatile properties and bioaccumulation characteristic in certain biological species. Quantitative structure property relationships (QSPRs) modeling revealed that TBC has K oa (log K oa ) 23.68) and K aw (air-water partition coefficient) (log K aw ) -16.31) values several orders higher than those of other BFRs. The identification of this chemical additive further reminds us that the production and usage of heterocyclic BFRs may cause potential contamination to the surrounding environment.
Understanding the underlying forces of China's climate governance, and assessing the effectiveness of China's climate institutions, are critical to the global climate governance architecture. This paper reviews the evolution of China's climate governance system over the past three decades, and examines how factors such as socioeconomic transitions, cognitive shifts associated with climate change, as well as international climate politics have influenced China's climate institutions. We argue that the evolution of climate governance is influenced by the varying dynamics between climate change and Chinese state's quest for performance legitimacy. The positive co-benefits between climate change, energy conservation and environment quality triggered the creation of a dedicated climate agency, which then become an anchor to China's Five-Year Plan and a centerpiece of climate policy communities. The announcement of a climate neutrality target marked a new moment for China as climate change become a new source of performance legitimacy.
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