Case timeline: key events

1968 Ma Jun born in Qingdao

1978 Deng Xiaoping rises to power

1984 Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India

1986 Toxic Release Inventory, the world’s first Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR), created in US

1989 Tiananmen Square massacre

Environmental Protection Law enacted

1991 China ratifies the Montreal Protocol on protecting the ozone layer and the Basel Convention on the movement of hazardous wastes

1998 Worst flooding in China in 40 years

State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) created

1999 Ma Jun publishes China’s Water Crisis (English translation released in 2004)

2000 Ma Jun leaves South China Morning Post , where he has worked since 1993

2002 China ratifies the Kyoto Protocol on climate change

2004 Ma attends Yale World Fellows program

2006 Ma founds IPE in Beijing

Ma named “one of the world’s most influential people” by Time magazine

IPE launches its first product, the China Water Pollution Map

2007 World Bank and SEPA report concludes that 350,000-400,000 people die prematurely each year due to outdoor air pollutionin China

Central government announces Open Government Information (OGI) regulations, to go into effect May 2008

SEPA announces Measures on Open Environmental Information rules

IPE launches its China Air Pollution Map

2008 SEPA upgraded to ministerial level (MEP)

US Embassy in Beijing starts tweeting hourly air quality readings

Earthquake hits Sichuan

Melamine milk scandal breaks

Beijing hosts Summer Olympics

Green Choice Alliance, led by IPE, launches its supply-chain initiative aimed at MNCs and their Chinese suppliers

2009 China’s Foreign Ministry asks US Embassy in Beijing to stop tweeting air quality readings

Public learns of heavy metal mass poisoning incidents

Ma Jun wins Ramon Magsaysay Award

2010 China becomes second largest economy in the world, after US, by total GDP

Employees at an Apple supplier in Suzhou stage a protest, after being sickened by n -hexane

IPE releases its first industry-specific pollution transparency rankings, focusing on   IT sector

IPE and NRDC release the first Pollution Information Transparency Index (PITI) report and ranking

2011 IPE publishes The Other Side of Apple

IPE and the Law School at People’s University release an assessment of air quality monitoring transparency in 20 Chinese cities, compared to 10 international cities

12 ^th Five Year Plan (2011-2015) is adopted, addressing climate change and emphasizing sustainable growth

IPE publishes a second report on Apple

Apple agrees to work with IPE and its partners

IPE publishes A Roadmap to Blue Skies: China’s Atmospheric Pollution Source Positioning Report

2012 IPE delivers a petition to the central government, demanding that point-of-source emissions data be released to the public in real time

The MEP introduces revisions to China’s Ambient Air Quality Standards, to take into account PM2.5 and ground-level ozone

Ma wins Goldman Environmental Prize and is named by Foreign Policy magazine one of the “100 top global thinkers”

US consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou begin tweeting hourly air quality readings

2013 IPE launches Green Stocks initiative; its first report focuses on the cement industry

The MEP announces a Clean Air Action Plan to reduce PM2.5 concentrations 25 percent over five years

The MEP announces real-time data monitoring rules, to go into effect January 2014

2014 IPE’s Blue Sky Roadmap II: Real-Time Disclosure Begins report is scheduled for release in early January