China's environmental year in review – in pictures

As air pollution crept back up to hazardous levels in the Chinese capital, smog was probably the most talked about environmental story of the year. The government promised to upgrade its air pollution index with the addition of ozone, nitrogen oxide and - most importantly - tiny particulate matter known as PM2.5 that can damage the respiratory system. Until now, official figures have been as murky, which is why Beijingers have come to rely on tweeted data from the @BeijingAir monitoring station set up by the US embassy Photograph: PETER PARKS/AFP

Dead fish trapped in the cracks of the dried-up Poyang lake bed, which has lost 95% of its surface area. Water shortages remained the biggest of China's environmental problems as over-exploitation of rivers and aquifers was compounded by pollution and climate change. At the start of the year, the North China plain – the main centre of wheat production – suffered its worst drought in 60 years. Protracted dry spells and overuse of supplies for industry and irrigation also caused serious problems in traditionally water abundant southern provinces. The basin of the Yangtze - China's biggest river - was badly affected, as this report by WWF spelled out Photograph: Zhou Ke/Corbis

Coal trucks set out from the giant open-cast pit of Tavan Tolgoi in Mongolia on their journey to the steel mills of China. The growing demand for fuel, ore and other materials in China is creating an economic boom in many resource-rich nations, but it is also adding to environmental stress and social conflict. This was evident from the Gobi desert to Burma's river systems. It has also added to ethnic tensions within China's borders where Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians are seeing their homelands increasingly exploited for hydropower and minerals. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Inner Mongolia in May when a Mongolian nomad was killed by a Han coal truck driver Photograph: Kieran Doherty/Corbis

China tripled its solar-energy generating capacity last year and notched up major increases in wind and hydropower in 2012. It also unveiled plans for a surge in 'green jobs' in renewable energy and other green businesses The flagship project is the Tianjin Eco-city, where solar-paneled buildings - such as the one shown here - are rising up on the edge of the Bohai sea Photograph: How Hwee Young/EPA

In the wake of the meltdown of three reactors in Fukushima, Japan, fears of radiation spread even wider than the contaminated plume across east Asia. As part of the efforts to allay concerns, this paramilitary officer gives a lesson about nuclear hazards at a school in Anhui province. Elsewhere in China, however, a widespread rumour that salt might reduce the risks prompted panic buying. Hoarders emptied supermarket shelves and drove the price of salt up more than fivefold Photograph: AFP/AFP

China's panda export programme cranked up a gear in 2012 as the country expanded its captive breeding programme and loaned pairs of bears to Edinburgh and St Aignan in France. In this picture, a keeper sits with a four-month-old cub at the Panda Research Base in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Researchers said they were also upgrading programmes to prepare captive-bred pandas for release into the wild, though the new facilities appeared to be little more than concrete zoos. The best panda news of the year, however, was the start of a new census of the wild population that researchers expected to show a gain in numbers of the endangered animal Photograph: ED JONES/AFP

A masked factory worker stands in front of the Apple logo. Pollution and labour scandals have plagued Apple's supply chain. Environmental campaigners said Apple was one of the least transparent companies operating in China, but the year ended with hopes for progress as the US firm finally published a list of firms that produce and assemble its products Photograph: ChinaFotoPress/ChinaFotoPress

An oil slick half the area of London seeped out of the seabed below a drilling platform in Bohai bay, but was not made public for more than a month by the government or operators. The murky disclosure of problems in the Penglai Oil Field, which is operated by China National Offshore Oil Corporation and ConocoPhillips, prompted anger and suspicion among environmentalists, fishing communities and the domestic media Photograph: Xing Guangli/XinHua

Students in graduation robes cross a submerged bridge across a flooded Lake in Wuhan, Hubei province, in June. Torrential rains across southern and eastern China killed more than 100 and triggered the evacuation of millions. Swaths of the south are deluged every year, by Chinese climate scientists predict the downpours will become more intense and the floods harder to manage. The worst floods in Asia, however, were in Thailand were the suburbs of Bangkok were under water for months Photograph: Darley Wong/Reuters

Workers repair the damage caused by a landslide near the reservoir of the Three Gorges Dam. In May, the government acknowledged that the dam - the flagship of China's massive hydroengineering ambitions - faces 'urgent problems', including geological stress. The report also acknowledged for the first time the negative impact the dam has had on downstream river transport and water supplies. But its managers also stressed that it provided many benefits including flood control and drought alleviation Photograph: PETER PARKS/AFP

Environmental concern and social instability continued to go hand in hand in 2011, where the biggest protest of the year was a rally by more than 10,000 people against a PX chemical plant in Dalian. To placate the largely middle-class crowd. The leaders of the city - which claims to be one of the greenest in China - promised to halt production and relocate the Fujia facility. However, there were later concerns that the authorities may have back-tracked by allowing a resumption of operations at the plant Photograph: STR/AFP

Shark butchers slice dorsal fins off dead fish in Puqi town, Zhejiang Province to provide a key ingredient for a popular Chinese delicacy. The growing momentum to remove shark fin soup from hotel menus in Hong Kong and mainland China picked up pace, but there was continued gloom about the prospects for several other endangered or abused animals used in Chinese traditional medicine. Bears continued to be farmed for their bile, and two rhino species were wiped out Photograph: ChinaFotoPress/Getty Images

China has become a central player in international negotiations to halt the deterioration of the world's climate and environment and wants to position itself as a leader in the move towards a green economy. In this image, the environment minster, Zhou Shengxian. addresses a press conference at the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi. They unveiled a report on renewable energy that developing nations such as China have overtaken wealthier nations in their investments in renewable energy, which rose worldwide by 32% from 2010 levels. There was also progress of sorts at climate talks in Durban, but not nearly enough to achieve the globally agreed target to keep temperature rises below 2C by 2050 Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP

Efforts to clean up China's environment still have a long way to go as this rubbish-strewn beach in Anquan, Hainan, shows. Waste recycling and incineration should be improved in the future as the government's latest five-year plan aims to nudge the country off the path of dirty economic growth. But the air, soil, coasts and rivers remain in an appalling state. The government claimed progress in some areas in 2011, but said 'the overall environmental situation is still very grave' in its annual report Photograph: STR/AFP

Poisoning and soil contamination by hazardous waste and heavy metals remained a pressing - but still unquantified - concern in many areas of China. The most disturbing case of the year was the dumping of more than 5,000 tonnes of toxic chromium by Luliang Chemical company in Yunnan province. In this picture, residents of nearby Qujing city stand by a reservoir sign that warns: 'This water contains toxins. People and livestock are forbidden from drinking' Photograph: Duan yuliang/Imaginechina/Corbis

On the day before they are relocated for the massive south-north water diversion project, Zhao Jianguo and his family have a final dinner outside their old home in Xichuan County, Henan province. They are among 345,000 people being moved for the world's biggest hydroengineering project, which is a desperate bid to ease northern China's drought crisis with a transfusion of water from the Yangtze basin, 1,277km to the south. The resettlement, which peaked in 2011, was hailed as a success by state planners, but concerns remain that the project may divert droughts to the south as well as water to the north Photograph: Zhaopeng/Corbis

Environmental protests sometimes led to violent clashes such as in Haimen, Guangdong province, where six people were injured in fighting with police during a demonstration against a coal-fired power plant. But pollution concerns were not the only cause of tension. Civil society suffered many setbacks in China in 2011 as the authorities cracked down hard Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP

The 'exploding melons of Danyang' hit the headlines in May, when fields of the fruit split their shells after agricultural workers in Jiangsu province mistakenly applied forchlorfenuron, a growth accelerator. The incident, which was reported on Chinese TV news, drew attention to the lax farming practices, shortcuts and excessive use of fertiliser behind a rash of food safety scandals. It came after discoveries of the heavy metal cadmium in rice, toxic melamine in milk, arsenic in soy sauce, bleach in mushrooms, and the detergent borax in pork, added to make it resemble beef Photograph: AP

As China celebrates the spring festival, millions will hope for clearer skies in the year of the dragon. Public expectations are rising along with an understanding of the health risks posed by pollution. The government says it will tighten controls, but academics warn it will be at least 20 years before urban dwellers can breathe easy Photograph: STR/Reuters