Norway-based Aqualyng has secured an investment of USD12 million from the International Finance Corp (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to construct seawater desalination projects in China to meet the growing demand for fresh water in the country.
India's efforts to get rid of the toxic heritage from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal have been hit by another delay. GIZ, Germany’s international development agency, which had undertaken to ship 350 tonnes of contaminated waste to Europe for safe disposal, has withdrawn its offer.
In a bid to tap India’s potential in the renewable energy sector, a group of Finnish cleantech companies are looking for stronger partnerships in the country, especially in the field of energy efficiency, water treatment and bio-energy.
The companies, which form Cleantech Finland, claim that their technological innovations have made them global leaders in energy efficiency, water management and bio-energy.
Singapore-based CLSA Capital Partners is leading a USD15 million investment in New Delhi-based water and wastewater management company Earth Water Group.
Coca-Cola has gone on the public relations offensive hailing its efforts on water conservation in the fourth edition of the Coca-Cola China System Sustainability Report, 2010-2011.
China's provincial, municipal and country environmental protection agencies have been ordered to publish environmental impact assessment reports on their websites from September 1 to make the evaluations available to the public, according to the state-run China Daily.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said it issued the order to better regulate environmental impact assessments, after recent incidents in which environmental issues triggered widespread objections.
The Standing Committee of China’s National People's Congress (NPC) Monday began reading a draft law aimed at putting more emphasis on the role of the central and local governments in environmental protection.
The first revision since 1989 when China introduced its fundamental legal code on environmental protection — the Environmental Protection Law — the draft amendment was created after a four-year research project.
A Shanghai official has mounted a robust defense against claims made in new research, A flood vulnerability index for coastal cities and its use in assessing climate change impacts, published in the journal Natural Hazards, which ranked the Chinese city as being most at risk.
China’s tax department has proposed a pollution levy to the state cabinet, a move that may increase raw- material prices, the Economic Information Daily reported today, citing an unidentified government official.
A new study, using a broad range of criteria and data, suggests Shanghai is the world's most vulnerable major city to flooding. In spite of gleaming skyscrapers and state-of-the-art mass transit systems, China's most flamboyant city surpasses other Asian coastal conurbations as being the most at risk from the rising sea levels driven by changing climate.
The new research, A flood vulnerability index for coastal cities and its use in assessing climate change impacts, published in the journal, Natural Hazards, looks not just at cities’ physical characteristics but also at their socio-economic and institutional systems, to assess the impact of flooding.
Peruvian multinational Aje Group, which manufactures and distributes Big Cola in Thailand, has pledged to improve its wastewater treatment capability following accusations of illegal wastewater disposal.
Recent official statements from Vietnam indicate the country is becoming increasingly aware of the environmental dangers facing it, but is unsure of the best way to tackle the problems.Prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung has publicly called on the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) to improve the legal framework and efficiency of state management when it comes to exploiting environmental resources.
A pollutant discharge quota exchange platform is to be established in Shanghai next year to control emissions and trade in surplus quotas, the city’s environmental protection authority has said.
Next year, the Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau will issue new permits to industrial plants to regulate the type of pollutant, the maximum amount allowed and how it is discharged.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment is urging the city of Bandung to cancel plans to build a waste-to-energy power plant because of what it calls serious health and environmental hazards, according to a report in the Jakarta Globe yesterday.
Terming water pollution as a "national crisis", an Indian parliamentary committee is summoning officials of at least six central ministries to seek their views to find ways to check the problem.
Authorities in the Chinese city of Qidong have cancelled plans for a waste water pipeline following violent demonstrations over pollution worries. A paper-making company had planned to build it for waste water but the protesters warned it would damage coastal waters.
The Government of India is planning to open a Bureau of Water Efficiency with a mission to study industrial water usage, issue guidelines and encourage conservation.
Laos is to allow a foreign delegation to inspect Xayaburi hydropower dam on the Mekong River.Reported in Thailand's The Nation, the USD3.5 billion project is to come under scrutiny from technicians and representatives from donors including the Asian Development Bank,World Bank and members of the Mekong River Commission – officials from Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam.
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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