A special way to speak up. Im melissa chan youre watching d. W. News asia thank you for joining us well it might be fridays for a future but its wednesdays for women on the program today our stories all feature women as a theme in some way we start with Climate Change in china how the country decides to tackle its environmental problems will determine the direction of the Global Climate crisis correspondent Mathias Bolinger tags along with one student there who understands the urgency. Whenever she can we know this its the flower market in the city of we need with her pocket money she buys 3 seedlings to plant in the surrounding area. Its head contribution to the wood whites writings. If you to protest how we joined the movement 4 months ago chinas 1st climate strife. Was on the trail of planting trees is something thats easy to do and something thats possible to promote in china will tell you also inspired by young people around the world how you started demonstrating in front of the nope the government offices she was soon as quoted away by the police to have serious trouble if she continued. Overkill how to keep killing but have taken a lot of courage so im hesitant about that i dont consider myself especially brave. Turning a back on activism was also out of the question now several times a week shes out ranting trees and posting about her activities on social media tools to convince more Young Chinese to join the movement. University student danis with her today for the 2nd time the Chinese Government has made improving the environment one of its key goals but it keeps a tight lid on discussion how we became concerned about the environment after reading an article about Plastic Waste in the ocean. Oh i know joe i started really worrying that such a big problem wasnt getting enough attention and nobody would take action. I was terrified every time i thought about it sometimes every 10 minutes i couldnt concentrate on anything anymore radiations all those associated chinas Rapid Development has taken a huge toll on the environment the country is now the worlds biggest emitter of Greenhouse Gases air quality is one of peoples top concerns but eco activism is rare in chinas repressive political system. The 16 year old student has now been striking for 4 months the parents are worried about her future but she has no intention to give in to their pleas to stop skipping classes you are showing you the Climate Crisis is the biggest crisis ever for the existence of mankind. Everybody should do everything they can to prevent it though youre going to show you what. How he has asked the relative to let a plant the trees on his property in chinas densely populated countryside it is not easy to find uncultivated land the only pharmacy as you understand and supports the young activists the usual movie used to start getting cold in september but now it summers a look over november look at how warm it still is. For that. How he says he has planted 200 trees in the past 6 weeks but even more important to to raise Awareness Among chinas youth. Today its the farmers son she explains what Climate Change is and he can join with the young people around the world to stop it. Joining us now is sam gale executive director of China Dialogue sam i suspect air pollution is one of them but give us the top 2 or 3 environmental problems that chinas facing today. Its certainly air pollution is a major problem not only the choking smoke in eastern seaboard cities but also in western and Northern Areas of china particularly heavily industrialized coproducing regions that any of us about Water Pollution from agricultural sources pesticide over use as well as industrial sources or what have pollution particularly in rural areas and related to that sort of the ocean theres Major Concerns about food safety in china if you think of some of the mass 2nd innings of children from contaminated products or the food brought it here to a clinton on the river in shanghai a few years ago Major Concerns about environment and health and that extends also to protests against for example the potential sites you know waste incineration plants patrick chemical plants Nuclear Facilities coal power plants in cities. I want to look at chinas international commit men sat particularly with a paris accord the International Agreement to reduce emissions how would you grade china on that and do you think its position has changed since the United States withdrew from that agreement. Well since the United States weve through china stayed the course it made quite a Significant International rhetorical commitment that its still in the Paris Agreement that it will stay on track to meet its commitments to paris and is very likely to come in on its commitments in paris to beat its missions by 2030 the problem is china could be a lot more ambitious than that. There are also concerns that partly because of the trade war and the lack of a strong relationship on planet with the United States theres been some kind of slackening of previously quite stringent regulations on air pollution for example so you know all countries really need to up their own mission in the coming years if were going to keep global temperature rise below 2 degrees and that spirit will have quite a lot of attention from china in its next 145 year plan which runs from 2021 and is going to be increasing scrutiny also chinas overseas investments along about some road and how those affect low temperature rises i want to go back to the video report and that young woman not working and putting in her fair share what is your sense of youth in china do they care about the environment are they talking about it on social media and what are they trying to do because they cant protest and participate in a fridays for future he cant do that in china. Theres been some recent polling about the. Concerns for young people in china today and what theres a widespread public understanding of the course of the planet change theres not a lot of skepticism about the fact that its human cause its not really the top priority for a lot of students and young people one recent survey shows that education employment Housing Health care Business Opportunities all round above environment not only you know the environment even broader than Climate Change there so it doesnt seem like its the same kind of privacy for young people compared to how it is if youre a United States having said that there are widespread concerns about more direct pollution affects of air pollution and an effects of Water Pollution on on health and so contamination so on and for better or worse climate is being addressed in a very top down way by which i mean spain and its a Major Political and economic concern as the government tries to move to a low carbon model back nomic growth sandel thank you. One of the best ways to empower women is to let them work and in delhi officials understand that means making sure they get to work and do so safely thats been a major concern since the deadly rape of a young woman on a city bus back in 2012 that killing sparks nationwide outrage and mass demonstrations demanding that the government do more to protect women now delhi has launched a new program to make its buses more assessable for the. Waiting for a bus in the indian capital delhi. For women commuters theres no need to reach for the small change any. Day no receive tickets for a free ride. Its part of the city governments plan to make Public Transportation safer for women. Authorities also hope it will boost womens participation in the economy. I meet a door ladies man to go to when hes down and march the free rides will be really helpful for them to get on says he itll say i spend about 2000 rupees a month on buses and im just the governments about it im saving this amount will leave me with a little extra spending money. And thats it the maybe i dont spend a lot on buses because i only take them occasionally but for those who commute to work daily it will make a positive difference. Between. Life and the rollout comes just months ahead of municipal elections in delhi some see it as a gimmick to win over voters for the governing party. Making this decision can be a blood down on glomming budget because the spirit is night knows more than 2015 of these being just spending did you know enough is that its gone beyond being being missoni can be any good were going to need to take this johns. Jolie has indias highest rate of reported crimes against women many women say theyre still reluctant to take buses at night. Basically public funds would be better spent more security not for you right. Now who runs the world girls who code is called code to inspire and is the 1st such school for women in afghanistan and a country where sometimes even going out as a woman can be difficult what better way to get around that limitation than a skill you can deploy anywhere including in the privacy of your home check out what they made. What looks like a standard run and jump game isnt that standard at all the main character driven tech is and hopping over goblins as afghan hero go its just one of the apps from this team of afghan women who want to smash down barriers in their patriarchal society. Or want to start off on her mum has all my main goal as again and app developer. Is to make as many educational games for the children of my country as possible. Turned out was so that they learn and become educated faster through genius. All 12 developers are students at a Technical College in Herat Province empowering women is top of their agenda while womens rights and education have made great progress since the fall of the taliban 2 decades ago many women and ghost still face perils at home and office. As mother and i can almost look at this through this game we want to show the girls may have problems but like the character in the game they can jump over or destroy the obstacles in their lives and eventually reach their goal that some. Afghan hero girl is the entry so out of 2 years of hard work the coaches say its worth the time and effort if their games can bring about a long lasting change. Thats our show for today you can find more on our web site d w dot com ford slash asia and on facebook and twitter as well please tell us what you think about what we cover and what you like to see we leave you with a lonely struggle for china climate activists thank you for watching see you next time and good bye. To. The people of the world known for information hard opinions they want to stress g. W. On facebook and twitter today and in touch. With whom the entire book travel now amazing tight ends. The food. Left high and dry to fight for their livelihood the 1st hydropower of data on the low of me called river opens in dallas the diligence downstream say its destroying at 1 oclock. Probably trumps that last deal so can the asian leaders come up with Something Better this time around the talks next week. And american lawmakers are again pressing boeings chief executive of the companys had to have safety concerns prior to 2 crashes to killed hundreds of people in asia and africa. And in facilities its a business is something in the water as we seek to harvest more energy from sustainable sources hydropower is growing in importance especially along major waterways like the mekong river in Southeast Asia there are already dozens of dams in its basin and plenty more planned a big plant has just gone online in laos but opponents say the ecological and social costs are too high. The 4500000000. 00 a year bery mega dam seen here under construction and 2016 is just one of many hydroelectric projects being planned along the mekong river in laos the landlocked asian country has set its sights on becoming the battery of asia