Armstrong gets IFC $20 mln, funds first SE Asia solar project

May 16, 2013
Armstrong Asset Management and IFC funding Thai solar plant
Singapore-based Armstrong Asset Management has received a fourth commitment of a USD20 million investment for its Armstrong South East Asia Clean Energy Fund from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to add to its first close of USD65 million. The fund, a newly established, independent private-equity vehicle providing development capital to small-scale renewable energy and resource efficiency projects in Southeast Asia, is targeting a final close of USD150 million by August 2013.

Retailers sign up to finance safety in Bangladesh factories

May 15, 2013
Bangladesh factory safety
In the wake of last month’s Rana Plaza disaster some of the world's top clothing retailers – including PVH, Tchibo, H&M, Inditex (which owns the Zara chain), Marks & Spencer, Primark and Tesco – have signed up to a legally binding agreement to help finance fire safety and building improvements in the factories they use in Bangladesh. The official death toll from the collapse of the factory build now stands at 1,127, with 2,438 people injured – many seriously - and another 98 still listed as missing. This makes it the world's worst industrial accident since the Bhopal disaster in India in 1984.

Fiji’s airline outed for role in shark fin trade

May 15, 2013
Air Pacific's shark scandal
Air Pacific, Fiji’s international airline, has been accused of hypocrisy for backing shark conservation for public relations while flying shark fins to HK. Last year the airline sponsored “Happy Hearts Love Sharks”, a contest run by the Hong Kong Shark Foundation, which was aimed at encouraging newlyweds to set an example by not serving dishes containing shark fin during wedding banquets. The international trade in shark fin, centered in Hong Kong, is blamed for decimating shark populations.

Airlines like idea of offsetting carbon emissions but not caps

May 14, 2013
Aircraft emissions look pretty sometimes
According to reports emanating from Montreal, ahead of a three-day symposium on Aviation and Climate Change being held by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the civil aviation industry is edging toward embracing a mandatory scheme for offsetting its greenhouse gas emissions. ICAO, a United Nations body, has been tasked with developing a global plan to manage aviation emissions in time for its triennial assembly in September.

How to solve a problem like plastic?

May 10, 2013
Plasticity HK 2013
This multi-layered environmental question keeps on being asked, seemingly with few answers that translate into action. With the Center for Biological Diversity estimating that 40 per cent of the world’s ocean surface is now littered with plastic waste, this issue must be addressed and urgently. We need to focus on the issue in a new way, and in doing so create new opportunities. Plastic waste creates large, expensive and unnecessary impact on society because of its ecological impact. Ecosystems give us everything we need to live – air, water, energy and food.
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Opinion & Analysis

How to solve a problem like plastic?
May 10, 2013
Plastic, one of the 20th Century’s dream materials, has become something of a 21st nightmare due to longevity and a lack of care in allowing it to pollute many of the world’s ecosystems. Anna Beech of Civic Exchange says there’s ample opportunity to transform this negative into a positive by turning plastic waste into a valuable resource.
The Hong Kong connection in illicit wildlife trade
April 30, 2013
Hong Kong is no small fry in the world of illegal wildlife trade. It stands as both a consumption destination for wildlife goods, and also a major transit hub to feed the lucrative and growing Chinese mainland market. While the Government is making strides is combating the trade Civic Excahnge’s Wilson Lau argues that greater international collaboration is needed.

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Shenzhen CO2 market progress and Hong Kong opportunities
Speaking on a panel at the CleanBiz.Asia forum on China's emerging carbon market Ge Xing'an, vice president of the China Shenzhen Emissions Exchange, gave an overview of developments across the border from Hong Kong and his view of how the two cities can collaborate on market-based climate change mitigation.
February 04, 2013

Featured News

Protestors outside Primak
Capital disaster – don’t do Dhaka unless you really have to
May 09, 2013
With the death toll from last month’s collapse of Rana Plaza now past 900, the fall-out from Bangladesh's worst industrial disaster will be felt well beyond Dhaka’s slums and tenements. Karl Borgschulze of Consulting Services International, who has been working on CSR issues within the Bangladeshi garment and textile industry since 2005, shared his views with CleanBiz.Asia.
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An Indian solar farm
India closing thin-film loophole in solar local content rules
May 08, 2013
India intends to level the playing field between solar photovoltaic (PV) power modules made from crystalline silicon and those using various thin-film technologies during the country’s next grid-connected solar PV power capacity auction due to start at the end of this month. During the first phase of the country’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) – under which solar PV and solar thermal were each allocated 500-MW of capacity – there was a mandate that 60 per cent of equipment by value was to be locally sourced for solar PV projects and 30 percent for solar thermal projects.
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Solar panels installed on a bicycle
Game on in Burma’s nascent solar power market
May 08, 2013
Burma's first solar power plant - a 210-MW project which its developer claims will be the world’s third largest – is to be built within the next 21-months to provide a much-needed boost to the country’s electricity generating capacity. The developer, Thailand’s Green Earth Power (GEP), has signed a memorandum of understanding with Myanmar's Ministry of Electric Power for what will be the country's first solar power plant, with a total project cost of USD275 million. GEP president and chairman Paul Bernard Yang said the company would sign the power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Ministry of Electric Power within the next 90 days.
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Apple store at Hysan Place
Activists call for lights-out at Apple’s Hong Kong stores
May 06, 2013
Apple's latest store in the shopping metropolis of Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay has come under fire from green activists, who have been pressing hard to fight for tougher control over light pollution. The US tech giant opened its latest Hong Kong store in the new state-of-the-art Hysan Place shopping mall, which has been awarded the prestigious LEED Platinum Green Building Certification. It seems, however, that Apple, which likes to talk about its comprehensive approach to environmental responsibility, is not stepping up to the plate.
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Trash bin littered with polystyrene lunch boxes
After 14 year ban, polystyrene gets a pass in China
May 03, 2013
Using disposable polystyrene tableware is now okay in China after the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) overturned a 14-year ban earlier this week, much to the dismay of environmentalists and community groups. The ban was imposed by the now defunct State Economic and Trade Commission in 1999 due to environmental damage from its production and use. The NDRC now says disposable polystyrene tableware not only conforms to national food wrapping standards, but also can be recycled to make construction materials, paints and stationery.
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FGIFCC HK
$20-tln coalition convenes 1st global climate investor forum
May 03, 2013
The Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), together with its peers from the Global Investor Coalition on Climate Change, is hosting the first global summit to address climate change risks and low carbon investing next month. The two day event – to be held at Hong Kong’s Four Seasons Hotel on 13-14 June – is being billed as “historic” for the international financial community as investors and financial institutions from both developed and emerging markets gather for the first time to discuss the challenges presented by a changing climate.
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APAC carbon disclosure landscape
Most big business gets carbon reporting wrong, Asia still trails
May 02, 2013
A majority of the world’s largest companies are either failing to report their greenhouse gas emissions or doing so incorrectly according to a new study from the Environmental Investment Organisation (EIO), a UK-based climate change and finance think tank. Looking at carbon emission reports covering 2011 – the most recent year where a full set of data is available – the EIO found that only 37 percent of the world’s largest 800 companies are reporting complete data and correctly adopting the basic principles of greenhouse gas emissions reporting. Just 21 percent had their data externally verified.
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Mekong river forest
Forest loss highlight need for green growth along the Mekong
May 02, 2013
Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong sub-region – a biodiversity hot spot – risks losing more than a third of its remaining forest cover within the next two decades if governments fail to boost protection, value and restore natural capital, and embrace green growth, warns a new WWF report. WWF’s analysis reveals the Greater Mekong has retained about 98 million hectares of natural forest, just over half of the region’s land area, but further rapid loss is expected if current deforestation rates persist. Between 1973 and 2009, the five countries of the Greater Mekong lost just under one-third of their remaining forest cover.
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Hong Kong ivory seizure
The Hong Kong connection in illicit wildlife trade
April 30, 2013
Hong Kong customs have had some success of late in tackling the underground trade of illegal wildlife products, with large shipments of smuggled wildlife goods been intercepted through its ports. Between October 2012 and January 2013, three shipments of ivory tusks were seized by Hong Kong customs. The biggest consignment included 1,209 ivory tusks seized in two containers, arriving from Tanzania and Kenya, worth an estimated USD3.5 million. The line between legal and illegal wildlife products can be blurred and rather confusing in Hong Kong. Firstly, the sale of animal parts is ubiquitous. Crocodile skin, earthworms, seahorses and countless others, are synonymous with their use in traditional medicine.
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China climate actions
Australia calls China global leader in climate change fight
April 29, 2013
A new report by Australia’s Climate Commission says that China is one of the world’s bright spots in global action to curb the effects of climate change. Though China remains the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, the report, The Critical Decade: global action building on climate change,  found that in 2012 China reduced the carbon intensity of its economy more than expected and almost halved the rate of growth for electricity demand.
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