Forty-five people sign documents saying they are willing to donate their organs after death, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in May. LIN YUNLONG/FOR CHINA DAILY Fairness is central goal as humans are barred from distribution decisions All donated organs for transplantation must be distributed through a unified computer platform to ensure fair and transparent distribution and traceability, under a regulation released on Monday by the National Health Commission. The regulation, which takes effect on March 1, bans any organization or individual from distributing donated organs on their own. Hospitals where transplant surgeries are performed should enter the information of all patients waiting for transplants into the China Organ Transplant Response System and keep it updated, the regulation said. Organ procurement organizations should get in touch with hospitals promptly after the system has sent notifications of available organs to make sure the information was received. Hospitals that have received notices should log on to the system within 30 minutes to check information regarding the organs and their donors, and reply within an hour whether to accept the organs for transplant. The hospitals should notify the procurement organizations immediately if they cannot do the transplant surgery after having received the organs. In that case, the organs will be redistributed. The transplant response system, supervised by health authorities at the provincial level or above, can automatically match donated organs with potential recipients and distribute organs based on defined principles, including urgency. Human input is removed to ensure fairness and transparency, Wang Haibo, who is in charge of the system, said in an earlier statement. Like many other countries, China's shortage of donated organs is a severe problem in the organ transplantation field. Every year about 300,000 patients with terminal diseases need transplants, but only about 20,000 surgeries can be done, Huang Jiefu, former vice-minister of health, said in an earlier interview. Organ donations in China have increased rapidly since 2015, when the authorities banned the use of organs retrieved from executed prisoners. That made voluntary donations the only legitimate source of organs. China has now become the second-largest country in number of annual organ transplant surgeries, next to the United States, according to the National Health Commission. As of the end of last year, the number of people who donated organs after death exceeded 21,000 in China, with more than 58,000 organs donated, the commission said. Chen Xinguo, director of the organ transplant center at the Armed Police Force General Hospital, said that in practice all organs used for transplant surgeries at the hospital are acquired through the electronic transplant response system. Although the system ensures fair and transparent distribution of donated organs, some problems remain, such as uneven quality of organs procured from different geographical areas, and the system's slow response time, which can hamper the process, he said. Previously major transplant centers would communicate with organ procurement organizations before the arrival of organs to ensure the organs are of high quality and can be used, he said. We hope all organs distributed are up to standard. Otherwise, substandard organs will cost lives and no doctor will use them. Now that distribution of organs through the China organ transplant response system is mandatory, it is necessary to constantly improve the system so it responds faster and hospitals can get the donated organs as soon as possible to prevent waste, Chen said. custom bar braceletcustom sports braceletscustom logo wristbandsde securite pour personne ageeembossed wristbandscolorfilled wristbandsembossed printed wristbandsdual layer wristbands
China registered a higher rate of decarbonization than any of the world's major economies for the second year running, according to a new report published by London-based consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (known as PwC).China reduced its carbon intensity by 5.2 percent in 2017, PwC found in its annual Low Carbon Economy Index of the G20 members. Carbon intensity rates are measured by comparing greenhouse gas emissions with a nation's energy demand and gross domestic product, also known as GDP.While emissions levels in China actually rose by 1.4 percent last year, this increase was low in comparison to a high GDP growth rate of 6.9 percent and an increase in energy demand.The United Kingdom also performed well in the index, registering an average drop in carbon intensity of 3.7 percent over the least 10 years, the best of all nations studied. In 2017, UK carbon intensity dropped by 4.7 percent, the fourth best in the G20 behind China, Mexico and Argentina.Overall, PwC found that global emissions are now on the rise again - by 1.1 percent - having plateaued for the past three years. Global energy demand rose by 2.1 percent last year, more than twice the rate in 2016, and most of the increased energy demand was met with fossil fuels, according to the report."The gap between the current decarbonization rate and that needed to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius is widening," the report said. "There seems to be almost zero chance of limiting warming to well below 2 degrees, the main goal of the Paris Agreement."The PwC study coincided with the release of a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (known as IPCC), which said the world has only 12 years to limit a climate change catastrophe.Also this week, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences - commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in economics - to United States economists William Nordhaus and Paul Romer for their work integrating climate change into macroeconomic analysis.When asked about the new IPCC report, Romer urged governments and the public not to succumb to pessimism."Once we start to try to reduce carbon emissions, we'll be surprised that it wasn't as hard as we anticipated," Romer told press. "The danger with very alarming forecasts is that it will make people feel apathetic and hopeless."In China last year, PwC found that renewable power generation rose by 25 million metric tons of oil equivalent, which is an energy usage measurement, also known as MTOE. This was driven by a 71 percent increase in solar energy, and a 20 percent increase in wind energy.Coal use in China increased by 1 percent last year, following several years of reductions in consumption. PwC attributed the rise of coal consumption to the opening of coal-fired power generation plants."Despite this growth, political signals do not suggest that coal consumption will grow long term in China again as pollution control is at the top of the political agenda," the report stated.China also saw the highest percentage increase in use of natural gas, at 15 percent. This is largely associated with residential heating and small industrial boilers switching from coal to gas."Despite growth of fossil fuels, China has positioned itself as a global engine for renewable deployment," the report said. "It has made significant strides toward meeting its pledge under the Paris Agreement to generate 20 percent of its energy in 2030 from low-carbon sources."
