The Vietnamese city of Da Nang was selected at last week’s 44th APEC energy meeting in Washington DC as the site of Low-Carbon Model Town Project, according to Pham Thanh Tung, the head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's International Co-operation Department.
An environmental and health crisis may be brewing in China as a massive 2008 government drive to encourage the purchase of energy-efficient light bulbs via subsidies is now beginning to have unintended consequences, according to a report by the Global Times.
Hong Kong’s new government recently averted another political firestorm when it shot down its own trial balloon proposing last-minute changes to development plans for the former Kai Tak Airport. The waterfront site in the heart of densely built-up East Kowloon has lain largely dormant since the old airport closed in 1998.
In July, the new Chief Executive CY Leung came to office promising to tackle Hong Kong’s soaring home prices, and his administration indicated that Kai Tak’s plans would be reviewed with an eye to boosting the housing supply.
The area in Shanghai covered by forests, rivers, wetlands, farms, parks and other green space shrank 1.5 percent on average each year from 2005 to 2009, falling closer to the minimum threshold set by the local government, local media reported this week.
Ernst & Young's second Cleantech Matters on Global Competitiveness shows an industry dominated by Asia, in financial turmoil, but with a positive outlook. The report looked both at what it describes pure-play cleantech companies and cleantech use by 100 global companies with revenues of USD1 billion or more.
While the global companies had a positive attitude to the future of renewable energy and cleantech innovations, financing projects and government policies remained a concern. For the cleantech companies revenues might be on the increase but debt levels have risen and the churn of those in the Ernst & Young index reflect a turbulent and competitive sector.
India’s state of Assam says it is on the path to becoming one of the country’s greenest and cleanest states by using cold mix technology in which natural rubber latex is blended with bitumen emulsion for construction of green roads and other paved areas.
Hilton Worldwide has launched a carbon offset program across Southeast Asia which will measure carbon generated at all events at 11 of its properties in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand at no additional cost to customers.
From the second half of next year all building owners in Singapore will have to comply with the city state’s Green Mark standards, following an amendment to the Building Control Act. The city state has also launched a new dedicated green building rating system for data centers.
Build Eco Xpo (BEX) Asia, an exhibition for green building and construction industry, opened Wednesday at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre. The three-day regional event 282 companies exhibiting from over 29 countries, more than double since its inception five years ago.
It is being claimed that new software developed in the US is capable of accurately measuring greenhouse gas emissions down to individual buildings and streets.
New research says that green IT and sustainability are emerging as key concerns for businesses, investors and policymakers in India and should be valued at USD70 billion by 2015.
Beijing has found using hi-tech bricks has environmental benefits and has increased their use. The Beijing Water Authority plans to lay 150,000 square meters of water-absorbing bricks later this year, adding to the one million square meters already laid.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing USD600 million for a package of green projects that will transform waste into clean energy, reduce CO2 emissions, expand eco-friendly transport, and protect fragile wetland areas in fast-growing second-tier cities in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Toshiba have developed an advanced cooling technology that will enable data centers to be more energy efficient, cutting energy bills by one-third, according to a report by ScienceDaily.
Singapore’s first public housing blocks built to be environmentally sustainable have become the testing ground for future projects according to a CNN report yesterday.
The Shanghai Municipal Government announced last week that it will subsidize green property development projects to minimize pollution and boost energy efficiency across the city
This report by the World Bank spells out what the world would be like if it warmed by 4 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists are nearly unanimously predicting by the end of the century, without serious policy changes.
Companies in Asia reveal expectations that regulations that could lead to rising costs for reporting and reducing GHG emissions will also be the main sources of climate-related business opportunities.
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